History of Sika

Kaspar Winkler was driven by his entrepreneurial spirit when he laid the cornerstone of our company in 1910. He was born into a modest cobbler family and emigrated quite early from Austria to Switzerland. There he invented Sika-1, a quick-setting waterproofing admixture for mortar, which was used to waterproof the Gotthard Tunnel, enabling the Swiss railway company to electrify this important connection between Northern and Southern Europe.

Innovation met demand! Kaspar Winkler recognized an upcoming global need for his “trailblazing” admixtures and launched subsidiaries around the world. Already in the 1930s, 15 Sika subsidiaries in Europe, USA, Argentina, Brazil and Japan established new construction chemicals markets.

Kaspar Winkler founded his business in 1910. His first inventions were agents to protect and clean granite (Conservado, Purigo) and a mortar waterproofing agent called Sika. In 1911 he entered his firm, Kaspar Winkler & Co., into the Commercial Register. Together with a chemist as his limited partner, he tried marketing his construction chemicals. For the first few years the work was very difficult. Winkler was in the red, especially during World War I. Things did not begin to pick up until 1917.

His breakthrough came in 1918 when the Swiss Federal Railways ran successful trials using Sika to waterproof the tunnels of the Gotthard section. This became necessary so that electric trains could also be used. The Swiss National Railways waterproofed 67 tunnels with Sika during the following years.

After this success the Kaspar Winkler & Co. building construction chemicals tried its potential abroad. Going beyond casual exports, however, was a difficult undertaking. A first attempt to sell licenses worldwide failed. A second attempt did succeed: in 1921 a subsidiary with its own, small-scale manufacturing facility was founded in Southern Germany.

But leadership capacity and connections were insufficient for determined expansion. This was remedied by hiring a Director for Foreign Operations, who founded subsidiaries in England, Italy and France between 1926 and 1928, and took part in their operations. Through clever agreements the director made it impossible that he be fired. In 1928 Winkler’s son-in-law, Fritz Schenker, joined the firm’s executive board.

During World War II, Sika companies continued production in every country where they were present. Thus the admixtures for bunkers built in Switzerland and in the German-occupied areas were delivered by Sika. But also the concrete ships used by the Allies to transport war materiel and to land at Normandy were built with Sika admixtures.

During the boom of the 50s and 60s, new subsidiaries were founded from Sweden to Cuba. A second generational change was heralded in Switzerland by Romuald Burkard’s entry into the firm. Between the time of his entry into the firm in 1953 and the death of his father-in-law Fritz Schenker in 1971, Burkard gradually took over the leadership of the group of companies which by 1968 had become a single integral corporate structure with Sika Finanz AG. Subsequently, Sika was listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange.

In no other decade did Sika set up new companies in more countries: between 1990 and 1995 alone, 16 new subsidiaries were founded. Especially in Asia, Eastern Europe and in Latin America, Sika strengthened its presence. Despite this effort, the 1990s were not an easy decade. Sika combated recessionary phases as well as weak profitability, attributed to tight competition and increasing raw materials prices.

The solution was achieved by withdrawing from less lucrative, non-core businesses, such as the building of robots used to rehabilitate sewer lines. Sika also abandoned the manufacture of road building products. And Sika almost sold its sealing membranes business to Sarna.

The very same Sarna became a member of the Sika Group ten years later. In 2005 that Swiss company, a specialist in membranes, became a Sika acquisition. Sika experienced its decade of most rapid growth. Turnover increased from 2 billion to more than 4.6 billion francs, a significant portion of which was contributed by the 36 firms acquired between 2000 and 2008. During that same period, the workforce increased from 8,000 to 13,000.

Since the year 2000, Sika summarizes its core competencies as follows: sealing, bonding, damping, reinforcing and protecting. From basement to roof, Sika intended to become the market leader in these technological disciplines. Sika ViscoCrete, the concrete admixture brought to market in 2000, became a significant sales mainstay.

Sika also experienced a boom in other business units — in the peak year of 2006, turnover increased by over one third. Sika AG, the holding company since 2002, invested considerably in personnel and production capacities, and restructured the overall management organization.

Since 2006, all marketing and sales activities have been consistently channeled via new centralized Business Units, targeted at the four most important customer groups, “Distribution”, “Contractors”, “Concrete” and “Industry”. Towards the end of the decade, the tug of the international recessionary maelstrom triggered by the financial crisis was also felt at Sika. Despite the recession, Sika has nonetheless been increasing its market share virtually everywhere. On the threshold of its 100-year anniversary in 2010, Sika stands well equipped to face the future.

In 2010, Sika celebrates its 100-year anniversary. Developing innovative products and solutions and being consistent towards all stakeholders have made it possible for Sika to grow throughout its first century. We are now present in over 80 countries, with over 15,200 employees.

Principles of sustainable development play a decisive role at Sika because these principles answer to today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. The challenges are driven by megatrends such as water management, energy conservation or climate protection, all of which will shape future economic conditions and growth. Entrepreneurial success depends on intelligent solutions matched to these megatrends.

Organic growth stands at the center of the Sika strategy.In 2013 new subsidiaries were established in Belarus and Oman. Sika furthermore has invested in 2013 considerable funds in the expansion of capacity, for example in Angola, China, Colombia, Iraq, Laos, Romania, Russia South-Africa, Ukraine and Vietnam. The emerging markets saw double-digit sales growth in 2013 and are already generating 38% of Sika's consolidated net sales.

Alone in the years 2010 to 2013 21 acquired companies were integrated into the Sika Group. In 2013 Sika has acquired five companies: LCS Optiroc Singapore, Malaysia, Building Adhesives Business of AkzoNobel, Netherlands, Radmix Resources Pty Ltd and ASF Pty Ltd., Australia, JMTexsa, S.A. de C.V. and Texsa India Ltd., Mexico and India, Everbuild Building Products Ltd., United Kingdom.

In 2012 Sika was included in the Swiss Leader Index (SLI), containing the 30 largest Swiss companies.

Sika addresses environmental concerns throughout the value chain and adopts the widely used GRI (Global Reporting Index). Furthermore, the company adopts the principles of the UN Global Compact and continues activities like the expansion of product sustainability databases in line with international life cycle assessment (LCA) practices.

The collaboration with non-profit organizations and top-notch scientific institutions like the ETH Zurich has been intensified. The appeals procedure for the professorship, endowed by Sika on the occasion of the 100-year anniversary, is successfully completed. Professor Dr. Jan Vermant was appointed Professor of Soft Materials at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) by the Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology on 25/26 September 2013. Sika continues to engage in sustainable and humanitarian development projects. In this context, since 2005 the Romuald Burkard Foundation provides financial support to social and community projects in countries where Sika maintains subsidiaries.

Since January 2013 Sika's business is aligned in seven target markets, concrete, waterproofing, roofing, flooring, sealing & bonding, refurbishment and industry. Research & development  units are established for all target markets.

The fully integrated concepts offered by Sika address the entire life cycle of a facility, from initial construction up to the point in time when repair, refurbishment or extension become necessary.