Global – how Martina Hörbiger turned HOERBIGER into a global Group
HOERBIGER has been a global player from its very beginnings. Industry leaders around the globe quickly recognized the groundbreaking benefits of Hanns Hörbiger’s steel plate valve, and the company’s founder granted international licenses for the use of this key technology as early as the beginning of the last century.
The founding of the trading company HOERBIGER & Co. in Vienna in 1925, soon followed by the start of in-house production by his second son Alfred in 1931, gave a further boost to the worldwide recognition of the HOERBIGER name in the industrial environment. Even before the Second World War, sales subsidiaries were established in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
After the destruction of the Vienna production plant in the last year of the war and the unexpected death of Alfred Hörbiger, his wife Martina steered the fortunes of HOERBIGER. With her strong entrepreneurial personality, she succeeded not only in rebuilding the plant but also in resuming international relations. In the next two decades, Martina Hörbiger diversified the product portfolio, entered completely new business fields, and ventured into Africa and America. In 1970, she founded HOERBIGER Nippon K.K. in Japan and established first contacts with China and South Korea. One year later, she decided to systematically build up a worldwide network of service companies. From then on, HOERBIGER has stood for customer proximity and high performance on all continents – from Canada to Argentina, from Sweden to South Africa, from China to Australia.
With the establishment of the HOERBIGER Foundation in 1982, Martina Hörbiger ensured the long-term continuity of the company, thereby providing a stable framework right up to the present day. As a result, even now the Group continues to benefit from her forward thinking.