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History

BAUMANN Group has been a symbol of Swiss precision and quality for more than 130 years.

We invite you to benefit from our experience as one of the world's leading manufacturers of springs and stampings. We are a family-run business, now in the hands of the fifth generation. The group has ten production sites around the globe, where more than 1,500 people design and produce technically sophisticated products for selected industries, including the automotive, electrical engineering and medical technology sectors.

Learn more about BAUMANN and click through our timeline an exciting family history stretching across five generations and more than 130 years.

2022

Today

10 locations on 3 continents

230 Mio. USD turnover within the BAUMANN Group

Worldwide 1'500 employees

2012

India

BAUMANN has had a sales office in India since early 2012.


Location India

2011

125 years anniversary

In June 2011 BAUMANN celebrated the 125-years anniversary. On those days BAUMANN presented itself to the public and celebrated afterwards with all employees from BAUMANN Switzerland and several guests from the other locations.

2010

Fifth generation

„Development from generalist to global specialist"


Thomas H. Rüegg

2007

Czech Republic

In 2006 the ground for the new production plant in Karvina, Czech Republic is broken for the new production plant in the presence of many local notables. The market considerations and customer requirements have persuaded BAUMANN to expand the Group into Czech Republic. In 2007 is the official production start and from then on the employees have gained a lot of know-how in manufacturing springs. With the closure of the plant in England BAUMANN Czech Republic took over  a large part of its procution portfolio and delivers now succesfully into the automotive and medical industry.


Location Czech Republic

2006

BAUMANN Schlegel

Friedrich Schlegel GmbH, founded in 1978, became a member of the BAUMANN Group in 2006.
The company is specialised in the production of tension and compression springs in small and medium series, and stands out through a high level of flexibility.

Mexico

In Mexico, in the city of Léon in Guanajuato State is 2006 as well the ground broken for the new prodcution. The building work for the new plant of BAUMANN MEXICO is advancing rapidly and so the production can be started in 2007. With the closure of the location in the USA, Charlotte NC in 2008 BAUMANN Mexico receives right from the beginning a certain product portfolio. Furthermore, there are big automotive manufacturer located in Leon and thanks to the rapid growth of the automotive industry in the Bajio region, BAUMANN Mexico could steadily grow. Nowadays the location has specialized knowledge in the manufacturing of rings and wire forms for the automotive industry.


Location Mexico

2000

China

On 12 April 2000 production starts at BAUMANN China in Shanghai. This move to China is also taken in order to ensure production near to existing major customers which have set up in this region.


Location China

1997

France

BAUMANN expands into France in 1997. The purchase of the well established RENAD spring factory in Cranves-Sales, near Annemasse, not far from the Swiss border, opens up new sales opportunities for the BAUMANN Group, including in the electronics industry. BAUMANN RENAD was named into BAUMANN RESSORT and still has huge competences in producing copper coils and parts for the electrical industry.


Location France

BAMATEC AG

In 1997 the BAUMANN Group acquires also another subsidiary, BAMATEC AG. The reason for forming this new company is the business failure of Schenker Maschinen AG. The BAUMANN Group owns 130 "Schenker machines" at this time and, as the Schenker company has no viable future, BAUMANN Springs buys the assets from the Schenker bankruptcy and combines them with its own existing machine-building department to create BAMATEC AG. This combination delivers some key advantages for the BAUMANN Group. Specialists with know-how from spring fabrication now collaborate with experts to build special machines for the construction of spring machines, which give the BAUMANN Group some major advantages in the market.

1994

Spain

In 1994 the BAUMANN group expands into Spain. Spain has become an important region for the manufacturers of plastic wheel trims. And entirely in line with the company motto of developing and producing "in close proximity to the major customers", BAUMANN MUELLES S.A., Legutiano, is created. Following a brief construction period, production starts on 2 May 1995.


Location Spain

1983

Fourth generation

"The worldwide expansion of the company's plants"
Hans R. Rüegg has expanded the company in its fourth generation, establishing new production plants around the world. The factories in England, France, Spain and the Czech Republic have been added in Europe, and under his leadership BAUMANN also established the subsidiaries in the USA, Singapore, Malaysia, China and Mexico. As an engineer he has promoted new, electronically controlled production processes, and with a major boost to investment brought all the plants of the BAUMANN Group up to a high technological status. The in-house develepment department, and subsequently BAMATEC AG, provide the BAUMANN group with the decisive technological lead over its global competitors.


Hans R. Rüegg

1979

USA

The Asian and American market is becoming increasingly important. Hans R. Rüegg is given the job by the Administrative Board of setting up new BAUMANN factories in Singapore and America. After some detailed clarification, Charlotte NC is chosen as the location in the USA. America initially as a sales support base only and from 1990 as production location. In 2001 they established a new plant in Texas, Dallas and could greatly expand its own production. 2008 the whole production from the location Charlotte NC is shifted to Texas and Mexico.


Location USA

Singapore

BAUMANN Singapore is also set up in 1979 through Hans R. Rüegg and acts from the beginning as production facility. This marks the start of a new era for BAUMANN. And a new strategy is formulated: "Internationally active customers are to be supplied as close as possible to their locations worldwide." A principle that still applies today. Singapore specialized itself like BAUMANN Germany in the manufacturing of stamping and bending parts to fulfill the requirements of the asian market.


Location Singapore

1964

Germany

It is primarily the shortage of qualified staff that leads to the acquisition by BAUMANN of a small spring manufacturing facility in the German town of Lichtenstein. Along with the parent plant, this factory supplies millions of tension springs to the manufacturers of electro-mechanical typewriters in subsequent years. The German company quickly establishes new strengths in the manufacture of stamped and bent components, which are still key to the production programme to this day.


Location Germany

1960

Third generation

"The modernisation phase and the arrival of electronics"
The third generation provides a stable basis for the company. The company expands its sales to the international markets. The sales organisation is internationalized accordingly. Relationships with major and globally active cutomers are increasingly intensively cultivated. New technologies are developed and employed in production. The company goes for markets with large production runs, such as the typewriter industry, and is capable of manufacturing these in the required quality with a high level of automation.

      
Hans Rüegg-Dressel        Theodor Rüegg-Kietz

1947

Italy

In 1947 BAUMANN + CIE AG expands abroad. PRODOTTI BAUMANN S.p.A. starts up in Brescia. The company is set up and managed by local co-founder Dottore Silvio Benedetti. Thanks to the proximity of the local automotive industry, this factory rapidly becomes one of the leading spring-making facilities in Italy.


Location Italy

1930

Second generation

"First steps abroad"
The second generation hast the severe depression of the thirties to deal with, and also manages the company during the difficult years of Second World War. The company grows to 250 employees before war and in the post-war years the workforce is actually expanded more than 700 people. The establishment of PRODOTTI BAUMANN  - the first move outside Switzerland in fact - marks the start of a crucial expansaion phase.
 

      
Henri Rüegg-Pfenninger   Ernst Baumann

1886

First generation

"From the production of wooden items to the manufacture of springs"
The first generation continues the trade of the father but has the business foresight to switch materials from wood to metal and to relocate the company to a location where water power can be utilised. It also takes confidence to focus on the product "spring", a technology that was at that time still in its infancy. By quickly building up a respectable workforce of 25 employees, this generation also assumes social responsibility, a characteristic which the company still displays to this day. In 1921, following the First World War, it establishes the "Employer's Pension Fund" and invests an endowment sum of 60,000 Swiss Francs for that purpose.

      
Heinrich Baumann          Caspar Baumann

Switzerland

In 1886 Heinrich Baumann establishes with his brother Caspar the company Gebrüder Baumann. Weaving utensils and wooden items are produced. From around 1897 the Baumann brothers start to manufacturing springs, initially for the textile machinery industry in Switzerland and shortly after that for the booming automotive industry in Italy. That marks the start of the actual development of the BAUMANN company into one of the world's biggest and most important spring manufacturers.


Location Switzerland