Description
Valuable Through Innovation
Technik
.
Business Advisors
.
Beratung + Bauplanung
.
IT Solutions
Aarau
.
Bern
.
Wi l SG
.
Zuri ch
.
Düssel dorf
.
Muni ch
.
St ut t gart
.
Cambri dge MA
.
Shanghai
Company Portrait and Business Year 2012
www.helbling.ch
Valuable
through Innovation
22
Architecture
Business Administration
Business Data Processing
Business Engineering
Chemistry
Construction Engineering
Construction Physics
Ecology
Economics
Electronic Engineering
Food Engineering
Industrial Engineering
Information and
Software Technology
Law
Materials Engineering
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Micro Technology Engineering
Physics
Process Engineering
Software Engineering
458 Employees from 21 Disciplines
A Leader in Technological Innovation
and Business Consulting
Consulting
Helbling Group
Revenues (in m CHF)
110.9
Employees
458
Helbling
Technik
Revenues (in million CHF)
68.9
Employees
305
Locations
Aarau, Bern, Cambridge MA,
Munich, Shanghai,
Wil, Zurich
Helbling
Business Advisors
Revenues (in million CHF)
26.7
Employees
86
Locations
Zurich, Düsseldorf,
Munich, Stuttgart
Helbling
Beratung + Bauplanung
Revenues (in million CHF)
9.2
Employees
32
Location
Zurich
Helbling
IT Solutions
Location
Zurich
Revenues (in million CHF)
6.1
Employees
14
Engineering
33
Helbling – a Leader in Technological Innovation
and Business Consulting
Dear Readers
The Helbling Group celebrates its 50
th
anniversary in 2013. Established in 1963 by Max J. Helbling as a typical
start-up providing engineering services, the independent Helbling Group has over 450 staff today and is managed
by a team of executive partners in locations in Switzerland, Germany, the USA and China.
Our international Helbling Group positions itself as an interdisciplinary network of companies offering a broad
spectrum of engineering and consulting skills. Our services range from innovation and product development,
via management consulting, restructuring and turnaround, mergers and acquisitions, ?nancial advisory, through
to IT, real estate, energy and infrastructure. The Helbling Group is owned by its 25 managing partners, who realize
their entrepreneurial vision successfully in four business divisions.
We support mid-sized ?rms from a wide range of industries as well as the divisions of multinational corporations.
We help our clients to innovate their product range and to break into new markets, as well as to reduce costs to
internationally competitive levels and to ensure their survival in times of distress. Our unique combination of techno-
logical know-how and business consulting capabilities makes us one of the few consulting companies who can
tackle the projects with which we are mandated from both a specialist and an overall entrepreneurial view.
Irrespective of whether the solution requires our involvement in tasks of a strategic or operational nature, our activities
are always driven by the same objective: to strengthen our clients’ innovative power and competitive edge and by
doing so allow them to become the corporate mission we have adopted ourselves: Valuable through Innovation.
Sincerely yours
Dr. Reto Müller
Chairman Dr. Christian Péclat
of the Board of Directors CEO
Helbling Group Helbling Group
44
Successful Development in Fiscal 2012
Reto Müller, Partner
Dr. oec. HSG
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Helbling Group
Marcel Fäh, Partner
lic. oec. publ.
CFO Helbling Group
Member of the Board of Directors
Christian Péclat, Partner
Dr. sc. tech. EPFL
CEO Helbling Group
Member of the Board of Directors
The Helbling Group can look back on a
good year in 2012. Consolidated revenues
rose by 3.9 % to CHF 110.9m (previous
year: CHF 106.7m), a new record level.
The biggest driver of growth was our inno-
vation and engineering business, while our
business consulting services also generat-
ed solid growth. Based on a rising volume
of mandates and our positive assessment
of future prospects, we increased our
headcount to 458 (previous year: 435).
Broadening and deepening
of our client base
Thanks to the high quality of our services,
last year we again succeeded in expand-
ing our activities on behalf of existing cli-
ents while gaining new clients. We assist-
ed a large number of ?rms in executing
innovation projects or in gradually exploit-
ing opportunities in global markets. All of
them shared the common strategic objec-
tive of expanding their leading market po-
sitions in selected segments through or-
ganic growth. Other clients enlisted our
assistance in accelerating their innovation
and associated processes, in substantially
lowering the manufacturing costs of new
product generations or in enhancing the
ef?ciency of their operating processes. We
carried out ?nancial restructuring pro-
grams to ensure the survival of ?rms that
were in ?nancial distress, devising for
them viable strategies and accompanying
their rapid execution.
We once again assisted the divisions of
many well-known large corporations in
2012 as well as numerous renowned mid-
sized businesses. In the year under re-
view, we received major mandates from
Nestlé (Nespresso and other Nestlé divi-
sions), Gedore, Siegenia-Aubi, SBB, MAN,
Truck, Tecan, the Würth Group, Securitas,
LogoMotive, Arbonia Forster Group, Goog-
le, Roche, the City of Zurich, Generali,
Meyer-Burger, ABB, V-ZUG and many
others. Our clients also included start-up
?rms that were still in the pioneer stage,
such as Cephalogics, Elenza, Preci?ex and
Airlight Energy Manufacturing.
These clients chose to collaborate with us
not just on account of our broad technical
expertise and deep industry knowledge
but also due to the experience we have
gained from countless reference projects.
The enthusiasm of our professionals and
their ability to approach projects with an
entrepreneurial mindset and apply an in-
terdisciplinary view to the task at hand
also played a major role in our clients’ de-
cisions.
International presence
Our locations abroad in Düsseldorf,
Munich, Stuttgart, Cambridge MA and
Shanghai also enjoyed sustained demand
in the year under review and thereby
contributed to further strengthening our
international competitiveness. Helbling
Technik generated particularly strong
growth with its innovation and product
development projects. The share in Group
revenues generated outside Switzerland
reached 34 %.
We are aware that the internationality of
many of our projects is an important rea-
son for talented graduates and experi-
enced professionals to opt for a career
with us. Another factor makes us special:
the fact that at Helbling they become part
of a team that is unique in the variety of
the disciplines it offers. In order to offer
them attractive career development oppor-
tunities while broadening our own exper-
tise, we continued to invest in the further
development and education of our em-
ployees in 2012. We also once again took
on numerous apprentices and interns last
year in awareness of our social responsi-
bility.
100
80
60
40
20
0
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
Number of Employees in the Group
Group Revenues in million CHF
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
55
Strong ?nancial position
Due to the good trend of business, we
succeeded in maintaining our high equity
ratio of around 60 %, while reporting very
healthy earnings. This is evidenced in
operating cash ?ow of CHF 11.4m in 2012
(previous year: CHF 12.4m). Our consid-
erable net ?nancial assets enable us to
consistently pursue our strategic objective
of stable growth while retaining our un-
compromised independence. The banks
have been assigning us their best rating
for privately owned mid-sized ?rms for
years. In order to be able to realize our
future growth objectives, we invested in
expanding our locations and in the further
development of our infrastructure in 2012.
We were once again able to ?nance these
investments as well as the creation and
further development of our services entire-
ly from the Group’s own funds.
The strategic importance of services
The breadth of our expertise as an engi-
neering and consulting ?rm opens up op-
portunities for us in another ?eld on the
global markets: assisting companies from
high-cost countries in retaining their jobs
and earnings power by means of superior
innovative achievements. This applies to
?rms in Germany, and speci?cally to ?rms
in Switzerland, that ?nd themselves con-
fronted by the additional challenge of the
strong Swiss franc. Companies that are
market leaders and are increasing their
R&D spend in the interests of securing
their competitive ability and of strengthen-
ing their market position also offer us ma-
jor potential. They can draw on our know-
how in their product innovation and
development efforts from the process of
idea generation through to market launch.
Firms that are in ?nancial distress and are
in need of restructuring also constitute an
important business area. We can help
them return to pro?table revenue growth.
On behalf of all our staff, we would like to
offer our clients and business partners our
thanks for the trust they have placed in us
and look forward to continuing our suc-
cessful and interesting collaboration.
Our Vision
People
generate markets
We create scope for
interdisciplinary teams and
creative entrepreneurship.
Our clients’ success
is our success
We are a trusted professional partner
delivering results that help our clients
move ahead.
We are independent and
shape our own future
The Helbling Group is owned by
its managing partners and employees,
who share the same entrepreneurial
mindset.
Walter Huber, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Member of the Group
Executive Committee
Stefan Huber, Partner
lic. oec. HSG
Member of the Group
Executive Committee
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
Capital Expenditure in million CHF
Cash Flow in million CHF
66
5
7
6
9
3
4
2
1
8
Our Focus
A nexus of technological and
business know-how
Entrepreneurial innovation management
from strategy to product development,
marketing and resource planning
Mid-sized companies / organizations
and divisions of large corporations
Industry know-how
Implementation and achievement
of results
Independence (no con?icts
of interest) thanks to sound
?nances and an enviable
track record of business
success
Helbling – Spectrum of Experience
in the Global Economy
Apparatus
Automation and Robotics
Automotive
Automotive Supply
Aviation
Banking and Insurance
Biotechnology
Building Systems
Care Homes
Chemicals
Construction
Consumer Electronics
Electrical Engineering
Energy
Engineering
Environmental Technologies
Financial Services
Food Industry
Healthcare
Hospitals
Household Appliances
Industrial Electronics
Information Technology
Instruments Manufacturing
Mechanical Engineering
Medtech
Micro Technology
National and International Trade
Paper Production
Pharma
Plastics
Precision Instruments
Printing
Public Companies
Public Sector
Research and Education
Retail
Security Technology
Senior Residential Facilities
Software
Space
Telecommunications
Textiles and Clothing
Tool and Mold Making
Transportation and Logistics
Vehicle Construction
Watch Industry
Wholesale
Our clients include leading players in the following sectors:
The Helbling Group has its headquarters and several
subsidiaries in Switzerland and is represented through
companies in Germany, the USA and China.
Its project experience spans every continent.
1 Aarau
2 Bern
3 Wil SG
4 Zurich
5 Düsseldorf
6 Munich
7 Stuttgart
8 Cambridge MA
9 Shanghai
Switzerland
Germany
77
Helbling Technik
Helbling Technik Switzerland
269 employees
CHF 63.7m in revenues
Helbling Technik Switzerland continued its
successful growth in 2012. As in previous
years, this success was attributable to our
longstanding partnership relationships
with our clients, the continuous deepening
of which is at the very heart of our strategy.
We have positioned ourselves as an inde-
pendent R&D contractor developing inno-
vative solutions for clients that provide
them with competitive advantages in the
global markets. We also assist them in
their evaluation of production partners
and parts suppliers, thereby helping them
generate the best value and quality for
price from product development through
to series production.
One critical component of our partner-
ships based on mutual trust is providing
our clients with access to complete inno-
vation networks. These comprise research
institutes, universities and colleges, indus-
trial designers, prototyping specialists and
manufacturing partners. Compared with
more centralized and closed structures,
these seasoned networks have a much
stronger innovative momentum. As a result,
our clients are not only able to develop
innovative products faster but in particular
with a higher quality.
Your Partner for Innovative
Product Design through Collaboration
Specialist Areas
Technology and Product Innovation
Development, Concepts, Design
Software Engineering
Calculation and Simulation
Mechanics
Plastics Technology
Electronics and Firmware
Micro Technology
Mechatronics
Automation and Robotics
Measurement Technology
Sensors
Optics
Signal and Image Processing
Eco Design
Industries
Household and Of?ce Appliances
Transportation
Power Generation
Clean Technology (CleanTech)
Medtech
Diagnostics and Lab Systems
Automation and Machinery
Service Industry
Instruments and Tools
Locations in Switzerland
Aarau, Bern, Wil SG, Zurich
The ?rst refurbished double-decker train DPZ+ of the S-Bahn Zurich on a trial run in June 2012
(Source: SBB, Y. Marclay)
Peter Jermann, Partner
dipl. Ing. EPFL
Senior Vice President
Aarau
Tom Russi, Partner
Dr. dipl. Ing. ETH
Senior Vice President
Aarau
Walter Huber, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
President and CEO
Helbling Technik
88
Development of “U”, the new coffee machine from Nestlé Nespresso S.A. (Copyright Nestlé Nespresso S.A.)
Innovation, together we do it
Urban Schnell, Partner
dipl. Ing. EPFL, Dr. ès. sc. tech.
Senior Vice President
Bern
Béat Stulz, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Senior Vice President
Bern
Franz von Niederhäusern, Partner
dipl. Ing. ETH
Senior Vice President
Zurich
Hans Tischhauser, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Senior Vice President
Wil SG
99
With a staff of 38, the innovation center
Transportation and Simulation in Aarau
continued to operate pro?tably in the year
under review and provided development,
construction and numerical simulation
services to international clients, mainly
from Switzerland, Germany and China.
The projects ranged from structural
analyses and dynamic simulations,
computational ?uid dynamics analyses,
thermal analyses, drop test and multi-
body simulations right through to crash
analyses. As in previous years, one
central focus was on design projects for
companies in the transportation sector,
mainly the operators and manufacturers
of rolling stock and related components.
Our second center in Aarau for Software
Engineering & IT, with a staff of 26,
reported a pro?table increase in both busi-
ness volume and in the number of hours
worked in 2012. We developed numerous
speci?c software applications not only
for clients from various sectors of the
manufacturing industry, but also from the
security, medtech and ?nancial services
industries and the public sector. In each
case, the basis for the success of our
projects lay in our ?exible and professional
attention to our clients’ speci?c needs and
our use of state-of-the-art technologies
and methods. These included mobile
applications and distributed technologies
(network of things), cloud computing, rich
internet applications and agile develop-
ment methods. To enable us to continue
to deliver such added value in the future,
we again made continuous investments
in the further development and education
of our professionals as well as in software
tools, methods and IT infrastructures.
Access to important data anytime, anywhere
Transport of a ship unloader (RTA Alesa, Big Lift)
Benno Steiner
dipl. Ing. FH, MAS BA
Head of Development
Aarau
Harald Zurheide, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Business Unit
Aarau
Friedhelm Altpeter
dipl. Ing. EPFL, Dr. sc. tech.
Head of Development
Aarau
Andreas Schneider
dipl. Ing. HTL
Head of Development
Aarau
Daniel Jutzi
dipl. Ing. FH, MBA FH
Head of Development
Aarau
Andreas Suter, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Business Unit
Aarau
BORDLINE M80 auxiliary converter for
double-decker trains (ABB Switzerland)
10 10
The two innovation centers at our Bern
location, with a staff of 70, also reported
pro?table growth in the year under review
and succeeded in further deepening their
long-term R&D partnerships with global
market leaders and start-ups from Switzer-
land, Germany, the USA, and Australia. A
large number of these ?rms are active with
high production volumes in the household
appliances/consumer goods industry as
well as in the medtech sector. Our clients
were once again able to bene?t from our
expertise in many strategically signi?cant
innovation projects in plastics technology,
complete device construction (including
mechanics, electronics, and software),
micro technology (e.g. for microactuators),
optics and sensors. We were once again
commissioned by clients in the medtech
sector to develop a number of highly inno-
vative technologies and products. These
included, for example, hearing aid implants,
measuring technology for diagnostics, and
solutions in the ?eld of ophthalmology
based on the interplay of interdisciplinary
contributions from optics, micro technology,
electronics, ?rmware/software, image
processing and process development.
In 2012, we again made investments in
the infrastructure of our center, in modern
workplaces, laboratories and test equip-
ment for the testing and optimization of
laboratory installations and prototypes.
Such investments enable us to solve
complex tasks in technology and product
development, from the idea stage, through
to market maturity – ef?ciently and in the
highest quality. We also successfully
started to build up a new service in the
material science area.
Niklaus Schneeberger
dipl. Phys. ETH, Dr. sc. nat.
Head of Development
Bern
Rainer Maisch
lic. oec. publ.
Head of Development
Bern
Emmanuel Gremion, Partner
dipl. Ing. HTL
Head of Business Unit
Bern
Jean-Noël Fehr
dipl. Ing. EPFL
Head of Development
Bern
Julian Yeandel
Msc. El. & SW, PhD
Head of Development
Bern
Stefan Troller
dipl. Ing. EPFL
Head of Development
Bern
Vibro-tactile stimulator for the application of
Coordinated Reset
®
Therapy for patients suffering
from pain
Optical in-line quality check in the production
of an implant
The ?rst hydro-mechanical hybrid watch
11 11
The innovation center in Wil, canton
St. Gallen, with a staff of 84, continued
its successful growth in the year under
review. We attribute this positive develop-
ment to numerous development projects,
in particular for clients with whom we
maintain long-term innovation partner-
ships. The majority of them come from the
household appliances, laboratory equip-
ment, power tools, electrical appliances,
medtech, diagnostics, and precision
instruments industries. In a large number
of projects, we assembled interdisciplinary
teams comprised of a mix of mechanics,
electronics, and software experts to solve
the development tasks. Meeting the high
expectations of our clients with regard
to the innovative nature of our solutions
necessitated an integrated approach,
which, besides the systematic generation
of ideas, also involved the validation of
concepts, feasibility studies and prototype
testing.
The Helbling Representative Of?ce in
Shanghai, which is under the management
of Helbling Technik Wil, can also look back
on a successful year. In addition to the
industrialization of products for western
clients at production facilities in China, it
also carries out development projects for
various clients.
Michael Weibel
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Development
Wil SG
Ralph Kugler
dipl. Ing. ETH
Head of Business Unit
Wil SG
Markus Zbinden
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of
Development
Wil SG
Martin Federer
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Business Unit
Wil SG
Jean-Daniel Sieber, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Business Unit
Wil SG
Christian Gärtner
dipl. Ing. TU
Head of Development
Wil SG
Melody 3 coffee machine from Nestlé
Testing equipment for surveying tools
Spinner for a lab machine
B 780 sewing and embroidery machine
from Bernina
12 12
Mechatronic storage module of a cash recycler for banknotes
Concrete casting machine for the
support structures of CSP solar systems
Hold-open device for doors (?re protection)
High-speed measurement and sorting system
for cereal grains
The innovation center in Zurich, with a
staff of 52, reported a pro?table growth
year in 2012 characterized by innovation
and development projects for ?rms in
various segments of the devices, machin-
ery and equipment industries, the energy
sector and in the food, pharmaceuticals
and diagnostics industries. Depending
on the requirements of the mandate,
specialist teams were assembled for these
projects who specialized in mechanics,
electronics, mechatronics, automation
and testing systems. Furthermore, we
assisted our clients in rapid prototyping,
the production of functional models,
fabrication and mounting of prototypes,
as well as testing. In addition to generating
new ideas, the mandates of our innova-
tion management team aimed at lowering
product costs and product structuring,
where we could bring to bear our exten-
sive know-how in the machinery, equip-
ment and devices construction industries.
Guido Brunecker, Partner
dipl. Ing. ETH
Head of Development
Zurich
Ueli Schläpfer
dipl. Ing. EPFL
Head of Development
Zurich
Andreas Portmann
dipl. Tech. HF
Head of Development
Zurich
Thomas Hodel
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of
Development
Zurich
Christian Lobeto
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Development
Zurich
13 13
Helbling Technik Germany
28 employees
CHF 3.7m in revenues
Helbling Technik Germany succeeded in
further developing longstanding client
relationships in 2012, and were once again
awarded a number of challenging develop-
ment projects by various ?rms from our
key industries. They all shared the objec-
tive of stepping up their innovation efforts
with the aim of strengthening their market
positions while reducing manufacturing
costs. We registered a rise in demand for
our services by ?rms operating in safety-
related industries such as automotive and
medtech, as well as the ?eld of household
appliances. In all projects, our teams for
embedded systems, power electronics
and consumer electronics were support-
ed by a state-of-the-art infrastructure and
high-performance tools, in which we also
invested in the year under review. This
enables us to continue to develop and
industrialize rapid solutions for our clients
that are impressive with regard to func-
tion and performance as well as cost and
quality.
Helbling Precision Engineering Inc. USA
8 employees
CHF 1.5m in revenues
Helbling Precision Engineering Inc., based
in Cambridge Massachusetts, continued to
develop positively in 2012, not only in
terms of business volume but also in the
range of services provided in the ?eld
of medtech, in particular in the area of
complex electromechanical and optical
systems. In addition to deepening existing
client relationships, we succeeded in
winning new clients in the delivery devices
and laboratory instruments sectors and in
executing highly challenging projects in
close collaboration with Helbling Technik
Bern. The size of the US medtech and
pharmaceuticals market offers vast poten-
tial for our engineering services. Against
this backdrop, it is our aim to win the most
challenging innovation mandates both
for the R&D departments of leading
US corporations as well as start-ups with
solid ?nancing.
Ballast for lighting applications
Specialist Areas
Development, Concepts, Design
Usability Engineering
Mechanics, Electronics and Software
Design Veri?cation
Plastics Technology
Micro Technology
Industries
Medtech
Diagnostics and Lab Systems
Pharma Industry
Location in the USA
Cambridge MA
Specialist Areas
Embedded Software
Electronics and Power Electronics
Development of Concepts
Product Innovation
Eco Design
Industries
Household and Of?ce Appliances
Medtech
Automotive Industry
Location in Germany
Munich
Martin Eisenmann
dipl. Ing. TU
Managing Director
Germany
Stefan Fiedler
dipl. Ing. Dr. tech.
Head of
Development
Munich
Michel Brühwiler
dipl. Ing. FH, MBA
Managing Director
USA
Michael Isermann
dipl. Ing.
Head of Development
Munich
Lutz Beckmann
dipl. Ing.
Head of Development
Munich
14 14
Helbling IT Solutions
14 employees
CHF 6.1m in revenues
Helbling IT Solutions is one of the leading
providers of product lifecycle management
(PLM) services. This enables us to adopt
a cross-functional approach to product
development. In the year under review,
we supported numerous corporations and
mid-sized businesses in the development
and execution of solutions for their product
development needs.
The management of product-speci?c data,
corporate internal know-how and the
documenting of intellectual property also
continued to gain in importance. The
ability to access all information at any time
and from anywhere is becoming a decisive
factor for success for a lot of companies.
We gained well-known clients for projects
involving the new ENOVIA V6 software
product generation developed by our
partner Dassault Systèmes. Helbling
IT Solutions has thus assumed a leading
role in the implementation of this
state-of-the-art CAx/PLM solution in
German-speaking countries.
Helbling IT Solutions
Enabling Innovation with Information Technology
Landis+Gyr – Smart Meters for energy
suppliers in Europe and worldwide
New Geberit AquaClean shower toilet in combination with a Geberit Monolith sanitary module
(glass color Umbra)
Your Partner for Integrated IT Solutions
in the Field of Innovation
Conceptual Design and Implementation
of Information Technology Solutions
to Support Innovation Processes
Consulting
IT Solution Concepts, Process
Optimization, Ef?ciency Enhancement
and Cost Reduction for Innovation
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
Project Management
General Management and Coaching
of IT Concepts and Implementation
Implementation and
Operational Support
Product Data Management
Systems (PDM, VPM)
CAx Systems (CAD, CAE, CAM)
Solution Implementation (CATIA,
SmarTeam, ENOVIA, SIMULIA,
DELMIA, 3DVIA)
Basic and Customized Training
Support (Hotline, On-Site)
Location
Zurich
Janos Barko, Partner
dipl. Ing. TS
President and CEO
Helbling IT Solutions
Karlheinz Ribar
Senior
Vice President
Michael List
dipl. Ing. ETH
Senior Consultant PLM
Member of Management
Dieter Böhm, Partner
Mathematician
Managing Director
Helbling Management Consulting
Germany
Geberit prewall installation with GIS
15 15
Helbling Business Advisors
Helbling Business Advisors
86 employees
CHF 26.7m in revenues
Firms are faced with an ever-increasing
number of challenges not only of a
national but also of an international nature.
These include rising pressure to innovate
and reduce costs in the global competitive
environment, the necessity to continuously
optimize their value creation and portfolio
structures, while exploiting the potential
offered in the emerging countries.
On top of this, they have to contend
with an increasingly difficult project and
corporate finance environment. Given
these challenges, which are best met with
the adoption of an interdisciplinary ap-
proach, we decided to merge the services
of Helbling Management Consulting and
Helbling Corporate Finance into a new
division: “Helbling Business Advisors.”
The year under review brought this newly
created Helbling division numerous
challenging projects across all its fields
of activity both in Switzerland and in
Germany.
We developed corporate strategies aimed
at improving the market position of a large
number of mid-sized enterprises, corpora-
tions and their divisions, while assisting
Audi: consulting by Helbling Business Advisors
Michael R. Weindl
lic. oec. HSG
Senior Vice President
Switzerland
Stefan Huber, Partner
lic. oec. HSG
President and CEO
Helbling Business Advisors
Ralph M. Bush, Partner
lic. oec. HSG
Chairman of the Partner Assembly
Senior Vice President
Switzerland
numerous clients in tapping into new
market segments. A series of firms from
different industries also entrusted us with
innovation consulting mandates aimed
at assisting them step up organic growth
while closing any future revenue gaps
and enhancing their earnings power.
The emphasis of many operational projects
was on the optimization of the global foot-
print of their engineering, manufacturing
and logistics locations, which was comple-
mented by cost-reduction programs de-
signed to preserve their competitiveness.
These took the form of projects designed
to build up and expand group-wide pro-
curement organizations as well as compet-
itive sourcing projects to reduce materials
costs. We continued to successfully devel-
op our Risk Management service, for
example, by assisting major corporations
in improving their management of supplier
risks. We also further developed our
financial advisory expertise in the debt
restructuring of mid-sized and large
companies.
Assisting distressed companies was once
again a central business segment of
Helbling Business Advisors in the year
under review. The successful execution
of complex turnaround projects requires
in-depth expertise in a variety of specialist
technical and business fields. This know-
how also includes familiarity with different
international debt restructuring and bank-
ruptcy legislation landscapes. It enables
us to assist firms with our expertise during
Thomas Bertschinger, Partner
lic. oec. HSG
President and CEO
Switzerland
16 16
Markus Mühlenbruch, Partner
Business Economist
Managing Director
Germany
Together we realize value
Harry Leonhardt
lic. phil. I. MBA
Senior Vice President
Switzerland
Frank Stubbe, Partner
dipl. Kfm.
Managing Director
Germany
court proceedings and, depending on the
mandate in question, enables our teams to
capitalize on the broad field of know-how
available throughout the entire Helbling
Group. In addition to developing viable
strategic and financial concepts, our capa-
Georg Oberdick
lic. oec. HSG
Senior Vice President
Switzerland
Range of Services offered by
Helbling Business Advisors
Strategy Development
Strategy Development
Organizational Development
Sales and Marketing
Owner Strategy
Commercial Due Diligence
Performance Management
Shared Services
Operational Excellence
Supply Chain Management
Material and Product Costs
Production
Earnings Improvement
Business Processes
After-Sales-Service
Change Management
Restructuring
Strategic and Operational Analyses
Turnaround Concepts
Validation of Financial Restructuring
Feasibility
Pro?t-oriented Restructuring
Liquidity Optimization
Optimization of Capital Employed
Balance Sheet Restructuring
Turnaround Management
Action Plan Implementation and
Controlling
bility of carrying out their systematic im-
plementation is, in our view, a key success
factor, especially during periods of crisis.
We once again successfully executed
numerous M&A transactions in 2012, the
majority of which were cross-border in
nature. The markets in which we and
our partner CFI (Corporate Finance Inter-
national) worked account for a large share
of global industrial production. In addition
to our own locations in Germany and
Switzerland, we are also represented with
offices in France, UK, the Netherlands,
Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the Baltic
States, USA, Canada, Brazil and India.
At the beginning of 2012, we enlarged CFI
further with the addition of a partner in
Poland.
Awards
Helbling Business Advisors received two
awards in 2012, which we view as being
confirmation of our position as a leading
consulting company in the German-speak-
ing countries. Out of more than 100 pro-
jects submitted, WirtschaftsWoche placed
Helbling Business Advisors second in the
“Competitive Strategy” and “Project Excel-
lence” classes in its “Best of Consulting
2012” awards. In Switzerland, Helbling
Business Advisors and the Baloise Group
received the “Excellent Business Transfor-
mation 2012” award from ASCO, the As-
sociation of Management Consultants
Switzerland.
17 17
Helbling Corporate Finance
acted as lead advisor to the seller
Completed M&A Transactions (extract)
Christian Kießling
Lawyer
Senior Vice President
Germany
Range of Services offered by
Helbling Business Advisors
Financial Advisory & Risk Mgmt.
Business Planning & Financial
Modelling
MIS & Optimization of Financial
Processes
Debt Advisory & Financial Consulting
Mergers & Acquisitions
Divestitures
Acquisitions
Mergers
Post-Merger Integration
Succession Planning and Solutions
Company Valuations
Fairness / Second Opinions
Management Buyouts/Buyins
Innovation Management
Innovation Structures
Innovation Strategies
Innovation Processes
Innovation Culture
Innovation Opportunities
Innovation and Product Portfolio
Innovation Projects
Locations
Zurich, Düsseldorf, Munich, Stuttgart
Jan-Erik Gürtner
dipl. Kfm.
Managing Director
Germany
Christian Hackethal
dipl. Kfm.
Senior Vice President
Germany
Arne Przybilla
dipl. Kfm.
Senior Vice President
Germany
Members
Of?ces
International Network: some 200 M&A Professionals Worldwide
Helbling is a founding partner of Corporate Finance International (CFI), an association
of investment banks and M&A companies in Europe, North America, Brazil and India
(www.c?-network.com).
With some 200 M&A professionals and 29 of?ces in 20 countries, we support mid-size
companies and the divisions of international corporations in the preparation and realiza-
tion of cross-border transactions, providing them with our local industry and transaction
know-how.
18 18
Deutsche SiSi-Werke Betriebs GmbH (Capri-Sonne): construction owner support during the expansi-
on of the production and logistics facilities in Eppelheim, Germany
Construction of a radioactive waste storage facility at Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant: construction
owner project manager
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung
32 employees
CHF 9.2m in revenues
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung was
successful in further expanding its leading
position as a provider of total real estate
and infrastructure solutions in 2012.
Energy, Process and Building Technology
Energy ef?ciency and the deployment of
renewable energies in industrial processes
and of?ce buildings have become the
primary objectives of many investment
projects, with the marked rise in demand
for these speci?c services in foreign
markets meriting particular mention. We
widened our skills in the area of process
technology, which we put to use in a
major project for the food industry in
Hungary. We also successfully executed
a project for Google Switzerland that was
both challenging in terms of its technology
and timetable and involved the expansion
of their engineering center in Zurich.
Infrastructure and Transportation
Last year, our Infrastructure and Trans-
portation division assisted various federal
government construction agencies (SBB,
Swiss Federal Roads Of?ce FEDRO),
cantons and the city of Zurich, as well
as providing power generation support.
Our core competencies in project man-
agement and in the evaluation of service
providers for large planning projects and
for political studies played a particularly
key role.
Philipp Stoffel, Partner
dipl. Ing. ETH, Dr. sc. tech.
President and CEO
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung
Rainer Bendel, Partner
dipl. Ing. ETH
Senior Vice President
19 19
Laboratory extension on ZHAW Campus
Reidbach: building technology planning
and coordination
Spray dryer at Nutritec AG: energy savings thanks to comprehensive analysis using Pinch technology
Development and Project Management
Our Development and Project Manage-
ment unit was once again commissioned
by renowned industrial corporations and
real estate portfolio owners to deliver
proposals for site development concepts
in 2012. The management of investment
projects on behalf of construction owners
constituted another focus of our activities
and included the project for the western
expansion of the WILD production site in
Heidelberg and the construction of an
elderly people’s and nursing home in the
canton of Schwyz. As a general planner
specializing in conversions and redevelop-
ments, we were able to start work on
several new mandates such as the
construction of a laboratory for the
Eawag aquatic research institute and
the complete renewal of Zurich Public
Transport’s central workshop.
Your Partner for Real Estate,
Energy and Infrastructure
Construction Owner Civil Engineering
Services
Construction Owner Consulting /
Construction Owner Support
Construction Owner Project
Management / Construction Owner
Representation
Senior Construction Management
Construction Owner Building
Construction Services
Strategy and Development
Project Management
Technical Due Diligence
Energy / Sustainability
Energy and Production Cost
Optimization in Industry
(Pinch Technology)
Plant Engineering
Eco Improvement Master Plan
Consulting / Coaching / Training /
Expert Reports
Building Technology
Construction Owner Consulting
for Building Technology
Energy Concepts for Sites / Buildings
General Planning
Location
Zurich
Marc Petitjean
dipl. Arch. ETH
Head of Development
Construction Owner Building
Construction Services
Martin Gähwiler
dipl. Ing. ETH
Head of Development
Construction Owner
Civil Engineering Services
Bruno Hofer
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Development
Building Technology
Raymond Morand
dipl. Ing. ETH
Head of Development
Energy and Sustainability
Your Partner for Real Estate and Infrastructure
20 20
The Helbling Group was founded in 1963 and is owned by its 25 managing partners.
The internationally active engineering and consulting ?rm Helbling employs some
450 professionals in four business divisions focused on innovation / product develop-
ment, management consulting, mergers & acquisitions, turnaround and ?nancial
performance management, information technology, real estate, energy and infrastructure.
Helbling Holding AG
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 438 17 11
Fax +41 44 438 17 10
Helbling Holding Deutschland GmbH
Leonrodstrasse 52
DE-80636 Munich, Germany
Phone +49 89 459 29 250
Fax +49 89 459 29 251
Helbling Technik AG
Schachenallee 29
CH-5000 Aarau, Switzerland
Phone +41 62 836 45 45
Fax +41 62 836 45 44
Helbling Technik Bern AG
Stationsstrasse 12
P.O. Box 171
CH-3097 Liebefeld-Bern, Switzerland
Phone +41 31 979 16 11
Fax +41 31 979 16 10
Helbling Technik GmbH
Leonrodstrasse 52
DE-80636 Munich, Germany
Phone +49 89 459 29 250
Fax +49 89 459 29 251
Helbling Technik AG
Hubstrasse 24
P.O. Box
CH-9500 Wil SG, Switzerland
Phone +41 71 913 82 11
Fax +41 71 913 82 10
Helbling Technik AG
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 438 17 11
Fax +41 44 438 17 65
Helbling Precision Engineering Inc.
One Broadway, 14
th
Floor
Cambridge MA, 02142
USA
Phone +1 617 475 1560
Fax +1 617 758 4101
Helbling Business Advisors AG
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 743 84 44
Fax +41 44 743 84 10
Helbling Business Advisors GmbH
Neuer Zollhof 3
P.O. Box
DE-40221 Düsseldorf, Germany
Phone +49 211 137 07 0
Fax +49 211 137 07 77
Helbling Business Advisors GmbH
Leonrodstrasse 52
DE-80636 Munich, Germany
Phone +49 89 459 29 100
Fax +49 89 459 29 200
Helbling Business Advisors GmbH
Bolzstrasse 3
DE-70173 Stuttgart, Germany
Phone +49 711 120 46 80
Fax +49 711 120 46 812
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung AG
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 438 18 11
Fax +41 44 438 18 10
Helbling IT Solutions
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 986 39 39
Fax +41 44 986 39 19
Helbling Management Consulting GmbH
Neuer Zollhof 3
P.O. Box
DE-40221 Düsseldorf, Germany
Phone +49 211 137 07 0
Fax +49 211 137 07 77
Helbling Shanghai Representative Of?ce
Room 9G, 1777 Century Avenue
East Hope Plaza
Pudong, Shanghai 200122
P.R. China
Phone +86 21 508 179 29
Fax +86 21 508 179 39
www.helbling.ch
www.helbling.de
www.helbling.eu
www.helbling-group.com
www.helbling-inc.com
www.helbling.cn
doc_242675452.pdf
Valuable Through Innovation
Technik
.
Business Advisors
.
Beratung + Bauplanung
.
IT Solutions
Aarau
.
Bern
.
Wi l SG
.
Zuri ch
.
Düssel dorf
.
Muni ch
.
St ut t gart
.
Cambri dge MA
.
Shanghai
Company Portrait and Business Year 2012
www.helbling.ch
Valuable
through Innovation
22
Architecture
Business Administration
Business Data Processing
Business Engineering
Chemistry
Construction Engineering
Construction Physics
Ecology
Economics
Electronic Engineering
Food Engineering
Industrial Engineering
Information and
Software Technology
Law
Materials Engineering
Mathematics
Mechanical Engineering
Micro Technology Engineering
Physics
Process Engineering
Software Engineering
458 Employees from 21 Disciplines
A Leader in Technological Innovation
and Business Consulting
Consulting
Helbling Group
Revenues (in m CHF)
110.9
Employees
458
Helbling
Technik
Revenues (in million CHF)
68.9
Employees
305
Locations
Aarau, Bern, Cambridge MA,
Munich, Shanghai,
Wil, Zurich
Helbling
Business Advisors
Revenues (in million CHF)
26.7
Employees
86
Locations
Zurich, Düsseldorf,
Munich, Stuttgart
Helbling
Beratung + Bauplanung
Revenues (in million CHF)
9.2
Employees
32
Location
Zurich
Helbling
IT Solutions
Location
Zurich
Revenues (in million CHF)
6.1
Employees
14
Engineering
33
Helbling – a Leader in Technological Innovation
and Business Consulting
Dear Readers
The Helbling Group celebrates its 50
th
anniversary in 2013. Established in 1963 by Max J. Helbling as a typical
start-up providing engineering services, the independent Helbling Group has over 450 staff today and is managed
by a team of executive partners in locations in Switzerland, Germany, the USA and China.
Our international Helbling Group positions itself as an interdisciplinary network of companies offering a broad
spectrum of engineering and consulting skills. Our services range from innovation and product development,
via management consulting, restructuring and turnaround, mergers and acquisitions, ?nancial advisory, through
to IT, real estate, energy and infrastructure. The Helbling Group is owned by its 25 managing partners, who realize
their entrepreneurial vision successfully in four business divisions.
We support mid-sized ?rms from a wide range of industries as well as the divisions of multinational corporations.
We help our clients to innovate their product range and to break into new markets, as well as to reduce costs to
internationally competitive levels and to ensure their survival in times of distress. Our unique combination of techno-
logical know-how and business consulting capabilities makes us one of the few consulting companies who can
tackle the projects with which we are mandated from both a specialist and an overall entrepreneurial view.
Irrespective of whether the solution requires our involvement in tasks of a strategic or operational nature, our activities
are always driven by the same objective: to strengthen our clients’ innovative power and competitive edge and by
doing so allow them to become the corporate mission we have adopted ourselves: Valuable through Innovation.
Sincerely yours
Dr. Reto Müller
Chairman Dr. Christian Péclat
of the Board of Directors CEO
Helbling Group Helbling Group
44
Successful Development in Fiscal 2012
Reto Müller, Partner
Dr. oec. HSG
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Helbling Group
Marcel Fäh, Partner
lic. oec. publ.
CFO Helbling Group
Member of the Board of Directors
Christian Péclat, Partner
Dr. sc. tech. EPFL
CEO Helbling Group
Member of the Board of Directors
The Helbling Group can look back on a
good year in 2012. Consolidated revenues
rose by 3.9 % to CHF 110.9m (previous
year: CHF 106.7m), a new record level.
The biggest driver of growth was our inno-
vation and engineering business, while our
business consulting services also generat-
ed solid growth. Based on a rising volume
of mandates and our positive assessment
of future prospects, we increased our
headcount to 458 (previous year: 435).
Broadening and deepening
of our client base
Thanks to the high quality of our services,
last year we again succeeded in expand-
ing our activities on behalf of existing cli-
ents while gaining new clients. We assist-
ed a large number of ?rms in executing
innovation projects or in gradually exploit-
ing opportunities in global markets. All of
them shared the common strategic objec-
tive of expanding their leading market po-
sitions in selected segments through or-
ganic growth. Other clients enlisted our
assistance in accelerating their innovation
and associated processes, in substantially
lowering the manufacturing costs of new
product generations or in enhancing the
ef?ciency of their operating processes. We
carried out ?nancial restructuring pro-
grams to ensure the survival of ?rms that
were in ?nancial distress, devising for
them viable strategies and accompanying
their rapid execution.
We once again assisted the divisions of
many well-known large corporations in
2012 as well as numerous renowned mid-
sized businesses. In the year under re-
view, we received major mandates from
Nestlé (Nespresso and other Nestlé divi-
sions), Gedore, Siegenia-Aubi, SBB, MAN,
Truck, Tecan, the Würth Group, Securitas,
LogoMotive, Arbonia Forster Group, Goog-
le, Roche, the City of Zurich, Generali,
Meyer-Burger, ABB, V-ZUG and many
others. Our clients also included start-up
?rms that were still in the pioneer stage,
such as Cephalogics, Elenza, Preci?ex and
Airlight Energy Manufacturing.
These clients chose to collaborate with us
not just on account of our broad technical
expertise and deep industry knowledge
but also due to the experience we have
gained from countless reference projects.
The enthusiasm of our professionals and
their ability to approach projects with an
entrepreneurial mindset and apply an in-
terdisciplinary view to the task at hand
also played a major role in our clients’ de-
cisions.
International presence
Our locations abroad in Düsseldorf,
Munich, Stuttgart, Cambridge MA and
Shanghai also enjoyed sustained demand
in the year under review and thereby
contributed to further strengthening our
international competitiveness. Helbling
Technik generated particularly strong
growth with its innovation and product
development projects. The share in Group
revenues generated outside Switzerland
reached 34 %.
We are aware that the internationality of
many of our projects is an important rea-
son for talented graduates and experi-
enced professionals to opt for a career
with us. Another factor makes us special:
the fact that at Helbling they become part
of a team that is unique in the variety of
the disciplines it offers. In order to offer
them attractive career development oppor-
tunities while broadening our own exper-
tise, we continued to invest in the further
development and education of our em-
ployees in 2012. We also once again took
on numerous apprentices and interns last
year in awareness of our social responsi-
bility.
100
80
60
40
20
0
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
Number of Employees in the Group
Group Revenues in million CHF
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
55
Strong ?nancial position
Due to the good trend of business, we
succeeded in maintaining our high equity
ratio of around 60 %, while reporting very
healthy earnings. This is evidenced in
operating cash ?ow of CHF 11.4m in 2012
(previous year: CHF 12.4m). Our consid-
erable net ?nancial assets enable us to
consistently pursue our strategic objective
of stable growth while retaining our un-
compromised independence. The banks
have been assigning us their best rating
for privately owned mid-sized ?rms for
years. In order to be able to realize our
future growth objectives, we invested in
expanding our locations and in the further
development of our infrastructure in 2012.
We were once again able to ?nance these
investments as well as the creation and
further development of our services entire-
ly from the Group’s own funds.
The strategic importance of services
The breadth of our expertise as an engi-
neering and consulting ?rm opens up op-
portunities for us in another ?eld on the
global markets: assisting companies from
high-cost countries in retaining their jobs
and earnings power by means of superior
innovative achievements. This applies to
?rms in Germany, and speci?cally to ?rms
in Switzerland, that ?nd themselves con-
fronted by the additional challenge of the
strong Swiss franc. Companies that are
market leaders and are increasing their
R&D spend in the interests of securing
their competitive ability and of strengthen-
ing their market position also offer us ma-
jor potential. They can draw on our know-
how in their product innovation and
development efforts from the process of
idea generation through to market launch.
Firms that are in ?nancial distress and are
in need of restructuring also constitute an
important business area. We can help
them return to pro?table revenue growth.
On behalf of all our staff, we would like to
offer our clients and business partners our
thanks for the trust they have placed in us
and look forward to continuing our suc-
cessful and interesting collaboration.
Our Vision
People
generate markets
We create scope for
interdisciplinary teams and
creative entrepreneurship.
Our clients’ success
is our success
We are a trusted professional partner
delivering results that help our clients
move ahead.
We are independent and
shape our own future
The Helbling Group is owned by
its managing partners and employees,
who share the same entrepreneurial
mindset.
Walter Huber, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Member of the Group
Executive Committee
Stefan Huber, Partner
lic. oec. HSG
Member of the Group
Executive Committee
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
Capital Expenditure in million CHF
Cash Flow in million CHF
66
5
7
6
9
3
4
2
1
8
Our Focus
A nexus of technological and
business know-how
Entrepreneurial innovation management
from strategy to product development,
marketing and resource planning
Mid-sized companies / organizations
and divisions of large corporations
Industry know-how
Implementation and achievement
of results
Independence (no con?icts
of interest) thanks to sound
?nances and an enviable
track record of business
success
Helbling – Spectrum of Experience
in the Global Economy
Apparatus
Automation and Robotics
Automotive
Automotive Supply
Aviation
Banking and Insurance
Biotechnology
Building Systems
Care Homes
Chemicals
Construction
Consumer Electronics
Electrical Engineering
Energy
Engineering
Environmental Technologies
Financial Services
Food Industry
Healthcare
Hospitals
Household Appliances
Industrial Electronics
Information Technology
Instruments Manufacturing
Mechanical Engineering
Medtech
Micro Technology
National and International Trade
Paper Production
Pharma
Plastics
Precision Instruments
Printing
Public Companies
Public Sector
Research and Education
Retail
Security Technology
Senior Residential Facilities
Software
Space
Telecommunications
Textiles and Clothing
Tool and Mold Making
Transportation and Logistics
Vehicle Construction
Watch Industry
Wholesale
Our clients include leading players in the following sectors:
The Helbling Group has its headquarters and several
subsidiaries in Switzerland and is represented through
companies in Germany, the USA and China.
Its project experience spans every continent.
1 Aarau
2 Bern
3 Wil SG
4 Zurich
5 Düsseldorf
6 Munich
7 Stuttgart
8 Cambridge MA
9 Shanghai
Switzerland
Germany
77
Helbling Technik
Helbling Technik Switzerland
269 employees
CHF 63.7m in revenues
Helbling Technik Switzerland continued its
successful growth in 2012. As in previous
years, this success was attributable to our
longstanding partnership relationships
with our clients, the continuous deepening
of which is at the very heart of our strategy.
We have positioned ourselves as an inde-
pendent R&D contractor developing inno-
vative solutions for clients that provide
them with competitive advantages in the
global markets. We also assist them in
their evaluation of production partners
and parts suppliers, thereby helping them
generate the best value and quality for
price from product development through
to series production.
One critical component of our partner-
ships based on mutual trust is providing
our clients with access to complete inno-
vation networks. These comprise research
institutes, universities and colleges, indus-
trial designers, prototyping specialists and
manufacturing partners. Compared with
more centralized and closed structures,
these seasoned networks have a much
stronger innovative momentum. As a result,
our clients are not only able to develop
innovative products faster but in particular
with a higher quality.
Your Partner for Innovative
Product Design through Collaboration
Specialist Areas
Technology and Product Innovation
Development, Concepts, Design
Software Engineering
Calculation and Simulation
Mechanics
Plastics Technology
Electronics and Firmware
Micro Technology
Mechatronics
Automation and Robotics
Measurement Technology
Sensors
Optics
Signal and Image Processing
Eco Design
Industries
Household and Of?ce Appliances
Transportation
Power Generation
Clean Technology (CleanTech)
Medtech
Diagnostics and Lab Systems
Automation and Machinery
Service Industry
Instruments and Tools
Locations in Switzerland
Aarau, Bern, Wil SG, Zurich
The ?rst refurbished double-decker train DPZ+ of the S-Bahn Zurich on a trial run in June 2012
(Source: SBB, Y. Marclay)
Peter Jermann, Partner
dipl. Ing. EPFL
Senior Vice President
Aarau
Tom Russi, Partner
Dr. dipl. Ing. ETH
Senior Vice President
Aarau
Walter Huber, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
President and CEO
Helbling Technik
88
Development of “U”, the new coffee machine from Nestlé Nespresso S.A. (Copyright Nestlé Nespresso S.A.)
Innovation, together we do it
Urban Schnell, Partner
dipl. Ing. EPFL, Dr. ès. sc. tech.
Senior Vice President
Bern
Béat Stulz, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Senior Vice President
Bern
Franz von Niederhäusern, Partner
dipl. Ing. ETH
Senior Vice President
Zurich
Hans Tischhauser, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Senior Vice President
Wil SG
99
With a staff of 38, the innovation center
Transportation and Simulation in Aarau
continued to operate pro?tably in the year
under review and provided development,
construction and numerical simulation
services to international clients, mainly
from Switzerland, Germany and China.
The projects ranged from structural
analyses and dynamic simulations,
computational ?uid dynamics analyses,
thermal analyses, drop test and multi-
body simulations right through to crash
analyses. As in previous years, one
central focus was on design projects for
companies in the transportation sector,
mainly the operators and manufacturers
of rolling stock and related components.
Our second center in Aarau for Software
Engineering & IT, with a staff of 26,
reported a pro?table increase in both busi-
ness volume and in the number of hours
worked in 2012. We developed numerous
speci?c software applications not only
for clients from various sectors of the
manufacturing industry, but also from the
security, medtech and ?nancial services
industries and the public sector. In each
case, the basis for the success of our
projects lay in our ?exible and professional
attention to our clients’ speci?c needs and
our use of state-of-the-art technologies
and methods. These included mobile
applications and distributed technologies
(network of things), cloud computing, rich
internet applications and agile develop-
ment methods. To enable us to continue
to deliver such added value in the future,
we again made continuous investments
in the further development and education
of our professionals as well as in software
tools, methods and IT infrastructures.
Access to important data anytime, anywhere
Transport of a ship unloader (RTA Alesa, Big Lift)
Benno Steiner
dipl. Ing. FH, MAS BA
Head of Development
Aarau
Harald Zurheide, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Business Unit
Aarau
Friedhelm Altpeter
dipl. Ing. EPFL, Dr. sc. tech.
Head of Development
Aarau
Andreas Schneider
dipl. Ing. HTL
Head of Development
Aarau
Daniel Jutzi
dipl. Ing. FH, MBA FH
Head of Development
Aarau
Andreas Suter, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Business Unit
Aarau
BORDLINE M80 auxiliary converter for
double-decker trains (ABB Switzerland)
10 10
The two innovation centers at our Bern
location, with a staff of 70, also reported
pro?table growth in the year under review
and succeeded in further deepening their
long-term R&D partnerships with global
market leaders and start-ups from Switzer-
land, Germany, the USA, and Australia. A
large number of these ?rms are active with
high production volumes in the household
appliances/consumer goods industry as
well as in the medtech sector. Our clients
were once again able to bene?t from our
expertise in many strategically signi?cant
innovation projects in plastics technology,
complete device construction (including
mechanics, electronics, and software),
micro technology (e.g. for microactuators),
optics and sensors. We were once again
commissioned by clients in the medtech
sector to develop a number of highly inno-
vative technologies and products. These
included, for example, hearing aid implants,
measuring technology for diagnostics, and
solutions in the ?eld of ophthalmology
based on the interplay of interdisciplinary
contributions from optics, micro technology,
electronics, ?rmware/software, image
processing and process development.
In 2012, we again made investments in
the infrastructure of our center, in modern
workplaces, laboratories and test equip-
ment for the testing and optimization of
laboratory installations and prototypes.
Such investments enable us to solve
complex tasks in technology and product
development, from the idea stage, through
to market maturity – ef?ciently and in the
highest quality. We also successfully
started to build up a new service in the
material science area.
Niklaus Schneeberger
dipl. Phys. ETH, Dr. sc. nat.
Head of Development
Bern
Rainer Maisch
lic. oec. publ.
Head of Development
Bern
Emmanuel Gremion, Partner
dipl. Ing. HTL
Head of Business Unit
Bern
Jean-Noël Fehr
dipl. Ing. EPFL
Head of Development
Bern
Julian Yeandel
Msc. El. & SW, PhD
Head of Development
Bern
Stefan Troller
dipl. Ing. EPFL
Head of Development
Bern
Vibro-tactile stimulator for the application of
Coordinated Reset
®
Therapy for patients suffering
from pain
Optical in-line quality check in the production
of an implant
The ?rst hydro-mechanical hybrid watch
11 11
The innovation center in Wil, canton
St. Gallen, with a staff of 84, continued
its successful growth in the year under
review. We attribute this positive develop-
ment to numerous development projects,
in particular for clients with whom we
maintain long-term innovation partner-
ships. The majority of them come from the
household appliances, laboratory equip-
ment, power tools, electrical appliances,
medtech, diagnostics, and precision
instruments industries. In a large number
of projects, we assembled interdisciplinary
teams comprised of a mix of mechanics,
electronics, and software experts to solve
the development tasks. Meeting the high
expectations of our clients with regard
to the innovative nature of our solutions
necessitated an integrated approach,
which, besides the systematic generation
of ideas, also involved the validation of
concepts, feasibility studies and prototype
testing.
The Helbling Representative Of?ce in
Shanghai, which is under the management
of Helbling Technik Wil, can also look back
on a successful year. In addition to the
industrialization of products for western
clients at production facilities in China, it
also carries out development projects for
various clients.
Michael Weibel
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Development
Wil SG
Ralph Kugler
dipl. Ing. ETH
Head of Business Unit
Wil SG
Markus Zbinden
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of
Development
Wil SG
Martin Federer
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Business Unit
Wil SG
Jean-Daniel Sieber, Partner
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Business Unit
Wil SG
Christian Gärtner
dipl. Ing. TU
Head of Development
Wil SG
Melody 3 coffee machine from Nestlé
Testing equipment for surveying tools
Spinner for a lab machine
B 780 sewing and embroidery machine
from Bernina
12 12
Mechatronic storage module of a cash recycler for banknotes
Concrete casting machine for the
support structures of CSP solar systems
Hold-open device for doors (?re protection)
High-speed measurement and sorting system
for cereal grains
The innovation center in Zurich, with a
staff of 52, reported a pro?table growth
year in 2012 characterized by innovation
and development projects for ?rms in
various segments of the devices, machin-
ery and equipment industries, the energy
sector and in the food, pharmaceuticals
and diagnostics industries. Depending
on the requirements of the mandate,
specialist teams were assembled for these
projects who specialized in mechanics,
electronics, mechatronics, automation
and testing systems. Furthermore, we
assisted our clients in rapid prototyping,
the production of functional models,
fabrication and mounting of prototypes,
as well as testing. In addition to generating
new ideas, the mandates of our innova-
tion management team aimed at lowering
product costs and product structuring,
where we could bring to bear our exten-
sive know-how in the machinery, equip-
ment and devices construction industries.
Guido Brunecker, Partner
dipl. Ing. ETH
Head of Development
Zurich
Ueli Schläpfer
dipl. Ing. EPFL
Head of Development
Zurich
Andreas Portmann
dipl. Tech. HF
Head of Development
Zurich
Thomas Hodel
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of
Development
Zurich
Christian Lobeto
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Development
Zurich
13 13
Helbling Technik Germany
28 employees
CHF 3.7m in revenues
Helbling Technik Germany succeeded in
further developing longstanding client
relationships in 2012, and were once again
awarded a number of challenging develop-
ment projects by various ?rms from our
key industries. They all shared the objec-
tive of stepping up their innovation efforts
with the aim of strengthening their market
positions while reducing manufacturing
costs. We registered a rise in demand for
our services by ?rms operating in safety-
related industries such as automotive and
medtech, as well as the ?eld of household
appliances. In all projects, our teams for
embedded systems, power electronics
and consumer electronics were support-
ed by a state-of-the-art infrastructure and
high-performance tools, in which we also
invested in the year under review. This
enables us to continue to develop and
industrialize rapid solutions for our clients
that are impressive with regard to func-
tion and performance as well as cost and
quality.
Helbling Precision Engineering Inc. USA
8 employees
CHF 1.5m in revenues
Helbling Precision Engineering Inc., based
in Cambridge Massachusetts, continued to
develop positively in 2012, not only in
terms of business volume but also in the
range of services provided in the ?eld
of medtech, in particular in the area of
complex electromechanical and optical
systems. In addition to deepening existing
client relationships, we succeeded in
winning new clients in the delivery devices
and laboratory instruments sectors and in
executing highly challenging projects in
close collaboration with Helbling Technik
Bern. The size of the US medtech and
pharmaceuticals market offers vast poten-
tial for our engineering services. Against
this backdrop, it is our aim to win the most
challenging innovation mandates both
for the R&D departments of leading
US corporations as well as start-ups with
solid ?nancing.
Ballast for lighting applications
Specialist Areas
Development, Concepts, Design
Usability Engineering
Mechanics, Electronics and Software
Design Veri?cation
Plastics Technology
Micro Technology
Industries
Medtech
Diagnostics and Lab Systems
Pharma Industry
Location in the USA
Cambridge MA
Specialist Areas
Embedded Software
Electronics and Power Electronics
Development of Concepts
Product Innovation
Eco Design
Industries
Household and Of?ce Appliances
Medtech
Automotive Industry
Location in Germany
Munich
Martin Eisenmann
dipl. Ing. TU
Managing Director
Germany
Stefan Fiedler
dipl. Ing. Dr. tech.
Head of
Development
Munich
Michel Brühwiler
dipl. Ing. FH, MBA
Managing Director
USA
Michael Isermann
dipl. Ing.
Head of Development
Munich
Lutz Beckmann
dipl. Ing.
Head of Development
Munich
14 14
Helbling IT Solutions
14 employees
CHF 6.1m in revenues
Helbling IT Solutions is one of the leading
providers of product lifecycle management
(PLM) services. This enables us to adopt
a cross-functional approach to product
development. In the year under review,
we supported numerous corporations and
mid-sized businesses in the development
and execution of solutions for their product
development needs.
The management of product-speci?c data,
corporate internal know-how and the
documenting of intellectual property also
continued to gain in importance. The
ability to access all information at any time
and from anywhere is becoming a decisive
factor for success for a lot of companies.
We gained well-known clients for projects
involving the new ENOVIA V6 software
product generation developed by our
partner Dassault Systèmes. Helbling
IT Solutions has thus assumed a leading
role in the implementation of this
state-of-the-art CAx/PLM solution in
German-speaking countries.
Helbling IT Solutions
Enabling Innovation with Information Technology
Landis+Gyr – Smart Meters for energy
suppliers in Europe and worldwide
New Geberit AquaClean shower toilet in combination with a Geberit Monolith sanitary module
(glass color Umbra)
Your Partner for Integrated IT Solutions
in the Field of Innovation
Conceptual Design and Implementation
of Information Technology Solutions
to Support Innovation Processes
Consulting
IT Solution Concepts, Process
Optimization, Ef?ciency Enhancement
and Cost Reduction for Innovation
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
Project Management
General Management and Coaching
of IT Concepts and Implementation
Implementation and
Operational Support
Product Data Management
Systems (PDM, VPM)
CAx Systems (CAD, CAE, CAM)
Solution Implementation (CATIA,
SmarTeam, ENOVIA, SIMULIA,
DELMIA, 3DVIA)
Basic and Customized Training
Support (Hotline, On-Site)
Location
Zurich
Janos Barko, Partner
dipl. Ing. TS
President and CEO
Helbling IT Solutions
Karlheinz Ribar
Senior
Vice President
Michael List
dipl. Ing. ETH
Senior Consultant PLM
Member of Management
Dieter Böhm, Partner
Mathematician
Managing Director
Helbling Management Consulting
Germany
Geberit prewall installation with GIS
15 15
Helbling Business Advisors
Helbling Business Advisors
86 employees
CHF 26.7m in revenues
Firms are faced with an ever-increasing
number of challenges not only of a
national but also of an international nature.
These include rising pressure to innovate
and reduce costs in the global competitive
environment, the necessity to continuously
optimize their value creation and portfolio
structures, while exploiting the potential
offered in the emerging countries.
On top of this, they have to contend
with an increasingly difficult project and
corporate finance environment. Given
these challenges, which are best met with
the adoption of an interdisciplinary ap-
proach, we decided to merge the services
of Helbling Management Consulting and
Helbling Corporate Finance into a new
division: “Helbling Business Advisors.”
The year under review brought this newly
created Helbling division numerous
challenging projects across all its fields
of activity both in Switzerland and in
Germany.
We developed corporate strategies aimed
at improving the market position of a large
number of mid-sized enterprises, corpora-
tions and their divisions, while assisting
Audi: consulting by Helbling Business Advisors
Michael R. Weindl
lic. oec. HSG
Senior Vice President
Switzerland
Stefan Huber, Partner
lic. oec. HSG
President and CEO
Helbling Business Advisors
Ralph M. Bush, Partner
lic. oec. HSG
Chairman of the Partner Assembly
Senior Vice President
Switzerland
numerous clients in tapping into new
market segments. A series of firms from
different industries also entrusted us with
innovation consulting mandates aimed
at assisting them step up organic growth
while closing any future revenue gaps
and enhancing their earnings power.
The emphasis of many operational projects
was on the optimization of the global foot-
print of their engineering, manufacturing
and logistics locations, which was comple-
mented by cost-reduction programs de-
signed to preserve their competitiveness.
These took the form of projects designed
to build up and expand group-wide pro-
curement organizations as well as compet-
itive sourcing projects to reduce materials
costs. We continued to successfully devel-
op our Risk Management service, for
example, by assisting major corporations
in improving their management of supplier
risks. We also further developed our
financial advisory expertise in the debt
restructuring of mid-sized and large
companies.
Assisting distressed companies was once
again a central business segment of
Helbling Business Advisors in the year
under review. The successful execution
of complex turnaround projects requires
in-depth expertise in a variety of specialist
technical and business fields. This know-
how also includes familiarity with different
international debt restructuring and bank-
ruptcy legislation landscapes. It enables
us to assist firms with our expertise during
Thomas Bertschinger, Partner
lic. oec. HSG
President and CEO
Switzerland
16 16
Markus Mühlenbruch, Partner
Business Economist
Managing Director
Germany
Together we realize value
Harry Leonhardt
lic. phil. I. MBA
Senior Vice President
Switzerland
Frank Stubbe, Partner
dipl. Kfm.
Managing Director
Germany
court proceedings and, depending on the
mandate in question, enables our teams to
capitalize on the broad field of know-how
available throughout the entire Helbling
Group. In addition to developing viable
strategic and financial concepts, our capa-
Georg Oberdick
lic. oec. HSG
Senior Vice President
Switzerland
Range of Services offered by
Helbling Business Advisors
Strategy Development
Strategy Development
Organizational Development
Sales and Marketing
Owner Strategy
Commercial Due Diligence
Performance Management
Shared Services
Operational Excellence
Supply Chain Management
Material and Product Costs
Production
Earnings Improvement
Business Processes
After-Sales-Service
Change Management
Restructuring
Strategic and Operational Analyses
Turnaround Concepts
Validation of Financial Restructuring
Feasibility
Pro?t-oriented Restructuring
Liquidity Optimization
Optimization of Capital Employed
Balance Sheet Restructuring
Turnaround Management
Action Plan Implementation and
Controlling
bility of carrying out their systematic im-
plementation is, in our view, a key success
factor, especially during periods of crisis.
We once again successfully executed
numerous M&A transactions in 2012, the
majority of which were cross-border in
nature. The markets in which we and
our partner CFI (Corporate Finance Inter-
national) worked account for a large share
of global industrial production. In addition
to our own locations in Germany and
Switzerland, we are also represented with
offices in France, UK, the Netherlands,
Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the Baltic
States, USA, Canada, Brazil and India.
At the beginning of 2012, we enlarged CFI
further with the addition of a partner in
Poland.
Awards
Helbling Business Advisors received two
awards in 2012, which we view as being
confirmation of our position as a leading
consulting company in the German-speak-
ing countries. Out of more than 100 pro-
jects submitted, WirtschaftsWoche placed
Helbling Business Advisors second in the
“Competitive Strategy” and “Project Excel-
lence” classes in its “Best of Consulting
2012” awards. In Switzerland, Helbling
Business Advisors and the Baloise Group
received the “Excellent Business Transfor-
mation 2012” award from ASCO, the As-
sociation of Management Consultants
Switzerland.
17 17
Helbling Corporate Finance
acted as lead advisor to the seller
Completed M&A Transactions (extract)
Christian Kießling
Lawyer
Senior Vice President
Germany
Range of Services offered by
Helbling Business Advisors
Financial Advisory & Risk Mgmt.
Business Planning & Financial
Modelling
MIS & Optimization of Financial
Processes
Debt Advisory & Financial Consulting
Mergers & Acquisitions
Divestitures
Acquisitions
Mergers
Post-Merger Integration
Succession Planning and Solutions
Company Valuations
Fairness / Second Opinions
Management Buyouts/Buyins
Innovation Management
Innovation Structures
Innovation Strategies
Innovation Processes
Innovation Culture
Innovation Opportunities
Innovation and Product Portfolio
Innovation Projects
Locations
Zurich, Düsseldorf, Munich, Stuttgart
Jan-Erik Gürtner
dipl. Kfm.
Managing Director
Germany
Christian Hackethal
dipl. Kfm.
Senior Vice President
Germany
Arne Przybilla
dipl. Kfm.
Senior Vice President
Germany
Members
Of?ces
International Network: some 200 M&A Professionals Worldwide
Helbling is a founding partner of Corporate Finance International (CFI), an association
of investment banks and M&A companies in Europe, North America, Brazil and India
(www.c?-network.com).
With some 200 M&A professionals and 29 of?ces in 20 countries, we support mid-size
companies and the divisions of international corporations in the preparation and realiza-
tion of cross-border transactions, providing them with our local industry and transaction
know-how.
18 18
Deutsche SiSi-Werke Betriebs GmbH (Capri-Sonne): construction owner support during the expansi-
on of the production and logistics facilities in Eppelheim, Germany
Construction of a radioactive waste storage facility at Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant: construction
owner project manager
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung
32 employees
CHF 9.2m in revenues
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung was
successful in further expanding its leading
position as a provider of total real estate
and infrastructure solutions in 2012.
Energy, Process and Building Technology
Energy ef?ciency and the deployment of
renewable energies in industrial processes
and of?ce buildings have become the
primary objectives of many investment
projects, with the marked rise in demand
for these speci?c services in foreign
markets meriting particular mention. We
widened our skills in the area of process
technology, which we put to use in a
major project for the food industry in
Hungary. We also successfully executed
a project for Google Switzerland that was
both challenging in terms of its technology
and timetable and involved the expansion
of their engineering center in Zurich.
Infrastructure and Transportation
Last year, our Infrastructure and Trans-
portation division assisted various federal
government construction agencies (SBB,
Swiss Federal Roads Of?ce FEDRO),
cantons and the city of Zurich, as well
as providing power generation support.
Our core competencies in project man-
agement and in the evaluation of service
providers for large planning projects and
for political studies played a particularly
key role.
Philipp Stoffel, Partner
dipl. Ing. ETH, Dr. sc. tech.
President and CEO
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung
Rainer Bendel, Partner
dipl. Ing. ETH
Senior Vice President
19 19
Laboratory extension on ZHAW Campus
Reidbach: building technology planning
and coordination
Spray dryer at Nutritec AG: energy savings thanks to comprehensive analysis using Pinch technology
Development and Project Management
Our Development and Project Manage-
ment unit was once again commissioned
by renowned industrial corporations and
real estate portfolio owners to deliver
proposals for site development concepts
in 2012. The management of investment
projects on behalf of construction owners
constituted another focus of our activities
and included the project for the western
expansion of the WILD production site in
Heidelberg and the construction of an
elderly people’s and nursing home in the
canton of Schwyz. As a general planner
specializing in conversions and redevelop-
ments, we were able to start work on
several new mandates such as the
construction of a laboratory for the
Eawag aquatic research institute and
the complete renewal of Zurich Public
Transport’s central workshop.
Your Partner for Real Estate,
Energy and Infrastructure
Construction Owner Civil Engineering
Services
Construction Owner Consulting /
Construction Owner Support
Construction Owner Project
Management / Construction Owner
Representation
Senior Construction Management
Construction Owner Building
Construction Services
Strategy and Development
Project Management
Technical Due Diligence
Energy / Sustainability
Energy and Production Cost
Optimization in Industry
(Pinch Technology)
Plant Engineering
Eco Improvement Master Plan
Consulting / Coaching / Training /
Expert Reports
Building Technology
Construction Owner Consulting
for Building Technology
Energy Concepts for Sites / Buildings
General Planning
Location
Zurich
Marc Petitjean
dipl. Arch. ETH
Head of Development
Construction Owner Building
Construction Services
Martin Gähwiler
dipl. Ing. ETH
Head of Development
Construction Owner
Civil Engineering Services
Bruno Hofer
dipl. Ing. FH
Head of Development
Building Technology
Raymond Morand
dipl. Ing. ETH
Head of Development
Energy and Sustainability
Your Partner for Real Estate and Infrastructure
20 20
The Helbling Group was founded in 1963 and is owned by its 25 managing partners.
The internationally active engineering and consulting ?rm Helbling employs some
450 professionals in four business divisions focused on innovation / product develop-
ment, management consulting, mergers & acquisitions, turnaround and ?nancial
performance management, information technology, real estate, energy and infrastructure.
Helbling Holding AG
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 438 17 11
Fax +41 44 438 17 10
Helbling Holding Deutschland GmbH
Leonrodstrasse 52
DE-80636 Munich, Germany
Phone +49 89 459 29 250
Fax +49 89 459 29 251
Helbling Technik AG
Schachenallee 29
CH-5000 Aarau, Switzerland
Phone +41 62 836 45 45
Fax +41 62 836 45 44
Helbling Technik Bern AG
Stationsstrasse 12
P.O. Box 171
CH-3097 Liebefeld-Bern, Switzerland
Phone +41 31 979 16 11
Fax +41 31 979 16 10
Helbling Technik GmbH
Leonrodstrasse 52
DE-80636 Munich, Germany
Phone +49 89 459 29 250
Fax +49 89 459 29 251
Helbling Technik AG
Hubstrasse 24
P.O. Box
CH-9500 Wil SG, Switzerland
Phone +41 71 913 82 11
Fax +41 71 913 82 10
Helbling Technik AG
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 438 17 11
Fax +41 44 438 17 65
Helbling Precision Engineering Inc.
One Broadway, 14
th
Floor
Cambridge MA, 02142
USA
Phone +1 617 475 1560
Fax +1 617 758 4101
Helbling Business Advisors AG
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 743 84 44
Fax +41 44 743 84 10
Helbling Business Advisors GmbH
Neuer Zollhof 3
P.O. Box
DE-40221 Düsseldorf, Germany
Phone +49 211 137 07 0
Fax +49 211 137 07 77
Helbling Business Advisors GmbH
Leonrodstrasse 52
DE-80636 Munich, Germany
Phone +49 89 459 29 100
Fax +49 89 459 29 200
Helbling Business Advisors GmbH
Bolzstrasse 3
DE-70173 Stuttgart, Germany
Phone +49 711 120 46 80
Fax +49 711 120 46 812
Helbling Beratung + Bauplanung AG
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 438 18 11
Fax +41 44 438 18 10
Helbling IT Solutions
Hohlstrasse 614
P.O. Box
CH-8048 Zurich, Switzerland
Phone +41 44 986 39 39
Fax +41 44 986 39 19
Helbling Management Consulting GmbH
Neuer Zollhof 3
P.O. Box
DE-40221 Düsseldorf, Germany
Phone +49 211 137 07 0
Fax +49 211 137 07 77
Helbling Shanghai Representative Of?ce
Room 9G, 1777 Century Avenue
East Hope Plaza
Pudong, Shanghai 200122
P.R. China
Phone +86 21 508 179 29
Fax +86 21 508 179 39
www.helbling.ch
www.helbling.de
www.helbling.eu
www.helbling-group.com
www.helbling-inc.com
www.helbling.cn
doc_242675452.pdf