SIG Group AG is a Swiss multinational corporation and one of the biggest manufacturers in the packaging industry. Originally founded 1853 as a railway car producer named Schweizerische Waggonfabrik ("Swiss Wagon Factory"), it was renamed SIG (Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft, German for Swiss Industrial Company; in French, as Société Industrielle Suisse; and, in Italian, as Società Industriale Svizzera) a decade later, after it had won a contract for the production of firearms by the Swiss government. The SIG Group shares are listed on SIX Swiss Exchange and are a component of the SMI MID index. The industrial site at the headquarters in Neuhausen am Rheinfall is located directly on the Rhine Falls. Built at this location in 1853 for the use of hydroelectric power, the site was transferred to the SIG Charitable Foundation in 2011.
History
Packaging (1906–today)
1906–1950 In order to address the volatility of the railway vehicle and firearms businesses, SIG started to produce packaging machinery starting from 1906 as a third main business area. The machines were produced at SIG in Neuhausen on behalf of the patentee of a "folding box" die-fold system, a co-founder of SAPAL (Société Anonyme des Plieuses Automatiques). Most of SIG's earlier packaging equipment efforts were focused on small dry food items such as chocolates and candy. The first packaging machines were delivered to Swiss chocolate manufacturers. In 1921, SIG started to construct its own packaging machines.
1950–2000 1956 SIG launched its first continuous flow wrapping machine. 1964 the business unit moved to Beringen where it had built a new factory. By 1981, it was producing 60 models of packaging machines. In 1989, through the acquisition of PKL from Linnich, Germany, SIG entered the field of aseptic carton liquid packaging, later known as SIG Combibloc.
2000–today In 2000, SIG started to focus on food and beverage packaging technology. At that time, SIG already ranked as the second-largest manufacturer in the world, after Tetra Pak, of cardboard composites for fluids packaging. Motion control specialist SIG Positec, which was mostly successful on the German, Swiss and Italian markets, was sold to Schneider Electric in the same year for €195 million. With this, SIG divested its automation division. Management directed revenues from the sales of SIG Sauer and Rocktools to acquire global businesses, including Krupp Kunstofftechnik (Corpoplast, Blowtec, and Kautex brands) and HAMBA in Germany; Ryka Blow Molds in Canada; and a substantial portion of the Italian conglomerate SASIB. The food-related (dry) businesses were organized under the SIG Pack division, while the beverage-related (wet) businesses formed SIG Beverages. Aseptic liquid packaging remained separate under SIG Combibloc. The former SASIB wet businesses Simonazzi, Alfa and Meyer/Mojonnier were sold to Tetra Laval in 2005, while HAMBA, Kautex and Blowtec were sold separately to private investor groups. The food packaging businesses were sold to Robert Bosch Verpackungstechnik in 2004. The former SASIB dry unit Stewart Systems (bakery products) was sold to UCA Group in 2004. Laser-guided vehicle manufacturer Elettric 80, part of the 1999 SASIB acquisition, was sold back to its original Italian owners in 2004. By 2006, Sigpack Systems had an export ratio of 97% of its products. The slimmed-down SIG Beverages unit, manufacturer of PET bottle blow-molding machinery, was sold off to the German company Salzgitter AG in March 2008. This sale encompassed the subsidiaries Corpoplast, Asbofill, Plasmax and Moldtec. In 2007, SIG Holding AG was acquired by Rank Group Limited, the private investment company of New Zealand businessman Graeme Hart, and operated under its subsidiary, Reynolds Group Holdings Ltd., which, in March 2015, announced completion of its sale of SIG to ONEX Corporation. In the early 2010s, SIG started to promote as a world first extra-slim small-format carton packs starting from 80ml tailored for children especially in fast-growing regions as Asia and Middle East. Today, SIG Group focuses on aseptic packaging. In 2016, the company introduced Combibloc RS Composite, a composite structural inner layer which increases system stability and reduces the carbon footprint of carton packs. In 2017, SIG introduced the first individual QR codes with digital sourcing transparency, tailored for dairy product consumers. In 2018 the company was relisted to the SIX Swiss Exchange. In 2020 SIG Group fully integrated its Joint Venture SIG Combibloc Obeikan into SIG. The Joint Venture with a manufacturing plant in Riyadh and customers in the Middle East and Africa region had been established in 2001. In April 2022, the company was renamed from SIG Combibloc Group AG to SIG Group AG. In the same year, SIG finalised the acquisition of Scholle IPN, an American producer of flexible food and beverages packaging including spouted pouches and bag-in-box solutions originally developed by William R. Scholle. Also in 2022, SIG acquired the Asia business of US competitor Pactiv Evergreen with its production facilities for fresh products, especially fresh milk in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and South Korea.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
