Shortcuts _____________________ BOBST GROUP - Folding Carton - Corrugated Board - Flexible Packaging _____________________ BOBST MARTIN ASITRADE SCHIAVI _____________________ Pre-owned Machinery BOBST e-parts BOBST Training courses >>  Bobst Group Milestones 1890 1915 1918 1938 1952 1977 1985 1989 1993 2000     1908 1917 1936 1940 1965 1978 1987 1990 1998 2001   1890 The beginning: Joseph Bobst opens a printing supplies shop in Lausanne. 1908 Facilities now include a workshop for customer service. 1915 The company first produces its own first equipment. 1917 Bobst is registered as a trade name. 1918 A joint-stock company is formed under the name J. Bobst & Fils SA. 1936 The company opens its first branch abroad: a sales office in Paris. 1938 Bobst scales up to industrial production with the inauguration of the Prilly works near Lausanne. 1940 The first Autoplaten diecutter is unveiled. 1952 Sales reach ten million Swiss francs. 1965 Bobst acquires the Champlain company in Roseland, New Jersey. Renamed Bobst Group Inc., this American company today focusses mainly on the distribution of all Bobst Group products in the United States. 1977 Bobst begins its expansion into the new industrial zone of Mex near Lausanne. 1978 The company is renamed Bobst SA and is listed on the Lausanne Stock Exchange for the first time. 1985 Bobst SA acquires Martin, Lyon-Villeurbanne, France, and Peters Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Hamburg Germany. Both subsidiaries manufacture equipment for the corrugated industry. 1987 Bobst SA acquires a participation in Schiavi SpA, an Italian company specializing in equipment for the printing and laminating of flexible materials, with production plants in Piacenza and Modena. 1989 Group sales top one billion Swiss francs for the first time. 1990 Bobst celebrates its centenary under the motto “OF KNOWLEDGE AND PEOPLE”. 1993 Acquisition of Asitrade AG, Grenchen, Switzerland, supplier of microflute equipment and laminating machines. 1998 Acquisition of Corrugating Roll Corporation (CRC), Rutledge, Tennessee, a company which manufactures and reconditions fluting cylinders. 2000 Takeover of Fairfield Enterprises Ltd, Redditch, U.K. This group comprises notably Oscar Friedheim Ltd, the Bobst agent for sales and services in the United Kingdom and Eire, and Lasercomb Dies Ltd, a manufacturer of cutting dies. It also has a training and demonstration centre. In order to beef up its industrial capability to better meet the needs of the expanding corrugated market, Bobst signs a strategic partnership agreement with the world-famous corrugator manufacturer BHS Corrugated Maschinen- und Anlagenbau GmbH, Weiherhammer, Bavaria. This move involves the gradual transfer of some of Peters' activities to the new partner as well as the cession of CRC, a U.S. manufacturer of corrugating rolls, which was acquired by Bobst in 1998. The investment in Schiavi becomes a majority shareholding; the company's management is integrated into that of the Group. 2001 The Group adopts a new legal structure. Bobst SA, which until now combined industrial activities with the management of shareholdings, will henceforth focus solely on the development, production and marketing of its products and services. Shareholding management is spun off to a newly created entity, Bobst Group SA, which becomes the holding company for all Bobst Group companies. Following a share exchange operation, the former shareholders of Bobst SA now hold shares of Bobst Group SA. In response to rapidly changing and highly specific market requirements, the Group remodels its operational organization to give even more prominence to the three branches of the packaging industry it serves, namely solid board, corrugated board and flexible materials.