7/22/2010

Five minutes with… Gerhard Pfeifer, managing owner of Pfeifer Seil- und Hebetechnik

As the billions of fans watching the matches of the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup in South Africa will agree, the stadiums in Durban and Cape Town have breathtakingly high-flying roofs.

The ultra-delicate and complicated job of putting up and securing these roofs (built-in cable structure technology) was given to Pfeifer Seil- und Hebetechnik. The roots of the company date back to 1579. The company is now run by the 12th generation of the family. Headquartered in the western Bavarian city of Memmingen, the company is one of the leading European companies for rope, anchoring and lifting systems. It is especially well-known for cable structure manufacturing and assembly services (in terms of projects handled: over 1000!).

Your USP (unique selling point)?

Shown by all eight of our areas of business, the depth and breadth of our expertise join with the high quality of our products and services in enabling us to meet our clients’ oft-challenging needs.

Your greatest breakthroughs?

There have been quite a few during our long history of innovation. They include a system of lifting anchors to transport concrete elements. That was invented in the 1960s. In the mid 80s, we applied a new technology for large-scale casting to the construction of Chicago’s Mc Cormick Place Exhibition Center.

Your most productive source of personnel?

Most of the qualified personnel at our headquarters in Memmingen are graduates from the institutions of higher education located in the Allgäu, our beautifully green and attractive home region. This expresses our policy of recruiting locally, although we do hire specialists from elsewhere on an as-needed basis.

Your main source of financing?

Our policy is to reinvest our earnings in our business. Banks provide the requisite financing for large-scale projects and investments.

Source: Invest in Bavaria

For more information about establishing a location in the State of Bavaria, please contact Jan Danisman, phone: 212-317-0588 or email: info(AT)bavaria.org.