Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
for Swiss Industry Company), or SIG, is the former name of SIG Holding AG, a Swiss company that has been active in various businesses during its more than 150 years of operation. Since the year 2000 the Society has undergone strategic refocus, concentrating on its core compentence in packaging technology. Today SIG comprises one division: SIG Combibloc, specializing in aseptic carton.
Since 5 November 2007, SIG Holding AG is a part of Reynolds Group Holdings Ltd., the private investment company of businessman Graeme Hart
Graeme Hart
Graeme Hart is a New Zealand businessman reported to be the richest person in Australasia with a personal fortune of NZ$8.8 billion according to the 2009 Forbes rich list. The 2007 September 22–28 issue of the New Zealand Listener listed Hart as being the 29th most powerful New Zealander...
.
Railways
In 1853, SIG was founded in Neuhausen am RheinfallNeuhausen am Rheinfall
Neuhausen am Rheinfall is a municipality in the canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland.The little town is well known for the Rhine Falls, a tourist attraction and mainland Europe's largest waterfall....
(Canton of Schaffhausen
Canton of Schaffhausen
The Canton of is a canton of Switzerland. The principal city and capital of the canton is Schaffhausen.- History:Schaffhausen was a city-state in the Middle Ages, documented to have struck its own coins starting in 1045. It was then known as Villa Scafhusun. Around 1049 Count Eberhard von...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
), as a manufacturer of railway cars. In the late 1970s, SIG was one of two builders of Toronto's
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
latest tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
, the CLRV
Canadian Light Rail Vehicle
The Canadian Light Rail Vehicle ' is a type of streetcar that is used by the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Canada.-Background:...
L1. Only the first five CLRV cars were made by SIG, the rest by UTDC
Urban Transportation Development Corporation
The Urban Transportation Development Corporation, or UTDC as it was commonly known, was an Ontario, Canada, Crown corporation created in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a burgeoning market in advanced light rail mass transit systems...
. The tilting system of the SBB RABDe 500
SBB RABDe 500
The RABDe 500 , is a Swiss passenger train which debuted in 2000, in time for Expo.02 held in western Switzerland in 2002...
was developed by SIG. The railway branch of SIG was sold in 1995 to FIAT
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...
and in 2000 to Alstom
Alstom
Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...
, today only components are manufactured in the Neuhausen works.
Firearms
From 1860 to 2000, SIG produced firearms. The products were imported into the USA under the name SIG Arms.Due to Swiss restrictions on the export of military weapons, SIG entered into a relationship with the German company J.P. Sauer & Sohn in order to allow SIG access to the world firearms market.
The SIG P210
SIG P210
The SIG P210 is a locked breech semi-automatic pistol designed and manufactured in Neuhausen am Rheinfall by Swiss Arms AG, formerly SIG Arms AG .It is of all steel construction chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum and 7.65x21mm Parabellum...
pistol was developed between 1938 and 1945, and was adopted by the Swiss military in 1949 as the "Pistole 49". The single-action semi-automatic P210 brought SIG much acclaim, due to the precision manufacturing processes employed in its manufacture and its resultant accuracy and reliability. The P210 frame design incorporates external rails that fit closely with the slide, thus eliminating "play" in the mechanism during firing.
The P210 was replaced by the Swiss military in 1975 with the P220
SIG P220
The SIG P220 is a semi-automatic pistol designed in Switzerland by Swiss Arms AG . It is manufactured in Eckernförde, Germany, by J.P. Sauer und Sohn GmbH. It uses the Browning linkless cam short recoil action of self-loading with a double action trigger mechanism...
, dubbed the "Pistole 75". In a 1984 bidding contest to provide more than 300,000 sidearms to the US military, the SIG-Sauer P226
SIG P226
The SIG P226 is a full-sized, service-type pistol made by SIG Sauer. It is chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum, .40 S&W, .357 SIG, and .22 Long Rifle. It is essentially the same basic design of the SIG P220, but developed to use higher capacity, staggered-column magazines in place of the...
was narrowly defeated by the Beretta
Beretta
Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta is an Italian firearms manufacturer. Their firearms are used worldwide for a variety of civilian, law enforcement, and military purposes. It is also known for manufacturing shooting clothes and accessories. Beretta is the oldest active firearms manufacturer in the...
92FS.
The SIG SG 510/(Stgw.57) Battle Rifles were produced by SIG from 1957 to 1983. Its appearance was similar to the German MG34 and used roller-delayed blowback used on the CETME
CETME
CETME is an acronym for Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales , a Spanish government design and development establishment. While being involved in many projects CETME was mostly known for its small arms research and development...
/HK
Heckler & Koch
Heckler & Koch GmbH is a German defense manufacturing company that produces various small arms. Some of their products include the SA80, MP5 submachine gun, G3 automatic rifle, the G36 assault rifle, the HK 416, the MP7 personal defense weapon, the USP series of handguns, and the high-precision...
rifles.
The only general purpose machine gun
General purpose machine gun
A general-purpose machine gun is a multi-purpose weapon: it is a machine gun firing a full-power rifle cartridge and which can be used in a variety of roles, from a bipod- or tripod-mounted infantry support weapon to a helicopter door gun or a vehicle-mounted support weapon...
produced by SIG was the SIG 710-3.
In 2000, the new company Swiss Arms
Swiss Arms
SAN Swiss Arms AG is a Swiss manufacturer of small arms. It was known as SIG Arms AG before 2000 when it was acquired by the German investors Michael Lüke and Thomas Ortmeier from parent company Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft .-Products:...
took over the firearms branch of SIG.
Packaging
Ryka Molds Inc. owned by Rick Hanke and Alfie Stein laid off the last remaining employee's October 3, 2011 after only a few years under their ownership. Bad decisions by the two owners led to Ryka losing customers and marketshare. Inexperience on Rick Hanke's behalf on how to run a manufacturing company led to the demise of Ryka Molds Inc.The first packaging machines were produced in 1906 on behalf of the Lausanne based SAPAL
SAPAL
SAPAL was a Swiss company founded in August 1906 by Jean-Jaques Kohler...
company (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. With the acquisition of Doboy Packaging in the U.S. on Jun 28, 1983, SIG grew its international presence. In 1989, through the acquisition of PKL in Linnich
Linnich
Linnich is a town in the district of Düren in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the river Rur, approx. 10 km north-west of Jülich.-Economy:Linnich is the home of SIG Combibloc the specialist for aseptic carton packaging....
, Germany, SIG entered the field of aseptic liquid packaging. This business grows significantly and is later known as SIG Combibloc.
In 2000 SIG concentrated its group focus solely on technology for packaging of food and beverages. By this time many of their traditional businesses such as Arms and Rocktools had been divested. Management used the resulting cash to procure global businesses including Krupp Kunstofftechnik (Corpoplast/Blowtec/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.
This strategy, while intended to provide common customer bases with turnkey solutions for entire bottling or packaging lines, never gained enough momentum to be of any durable competitive advantage. Difficulties integrating vastly different businesses and employee cultures resulted in operational execution issues. In particular, high-profile commissioning and installation failures at SIG Beverages in 2003 and 2004 ultimately resulted in erosion of goodwill serious enough to be recorded on financial statements. A refocusing towards primarily aseptics and PET blow-molding resulted in a high number of divestitures and plant closures. The former SASIB wet businesses Simonazzi, Alfa and Meyer/Mojonnier were sold to Tetra Laval in 2005, while HAMBA and Kautex/Blowtec went into the hands of separate private investor groups. The food packaging businesses were sold to Robert Bosch Verpackungstechnik in 2004. The former SASIB dry unit Stewart Systems (bread and bun bakery production lines) was sold to UCA Group in 2004 and subsequently merged with AMF Bakery Systems in 2008. Laser guided vehicle manufacturer Elettric 80, part of the 1999 SASIB acquisition, was sold back to its original Italian owners in 2004.
The considerably slimmed-down SIG Beverages unit, focused on machines for PET bottle blow-molding machinery, was sold off to the German concern Salzgitter
Salzgitter
Salzgitter is an independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitter is one of the seven Oberzentren of Lower Saxony...
AG in March 2008. This sale encompassed the subsidiaries Corpoplast, Asbofill, Plasmax and Moldtec.
Today Combibloc is the last remaining business unit of SIG, its sole focus being machinery/materials for aseptic carton packaging.