Gutta Werke A Retrospective on almost 50 years of Tradition and Innovation

1955	The company guttaterna GmbH is founded in Offenburg, Germany. The company produces the guttaterna unvulcanized rubber sealant and is a general importer for Onduline bitumen corrugated sheets in Germany.
1965	The company EldaAG is founded in Glarus, Switzerland by four partners. It takes over guttaterna GmbH and begins to manufacture guttaflex bitumen corrugated sheets that are later renamed guttanit.
1968 - 1979	The corporate group begins to operate on the international market. Various licensing agreements are signed, for example, in Italy, East Germany, and in Mexico. The company builds its own factory for the manufacture of bitumen corrugated sheets in Lincolton in the United States.
1980 - 1990	The strategic diversification leads to the sales of plastics products with separate trademarks such as guttagliss, guttacryl, guttaplane and guttabeta. Thus begins the company's role as supplier to "Do-it-yourself" markets. At the same time, the Development Project "Rwanda" begins in central Africa which is sponsored by the Swiss Foreign Aid Office, the country of Rwanda and the company Elda AG. The idea behind the project is to use papyrus, a plant native to the area and that grows back quickly, as the main raw material to produce bitumen corrugated sheets for the African Continent.
1989 - 1994	Years of cooperative partnerships, investments, company buyouts follow. The Italian market is opened up thanks to the group's take-over of the company Coverlite in Filago and the establishment of a cooperative partnership with a well-known German manufacturer of building materials. An additional, high-level cooperative partnership is established in Poland. In the Czech Republic and Slovenia, local trading companies come on board as cooperative partners. The "Rwanda" Project becomes a reality. After two years of work to get the project off the ground, sheet production begins, only to be stopped again due to civil war and unrest.
1994	The merger and later take-over of the KWS Kunststoffwaren Vertriebs GmbH in Waibstadt, Germany by the Gutta Werke Schutterwald leads to a much improved position in the European market. In India, the corporate group acquires shares in a company called Modernroof in Hyderabad, the largest manufacturer of bitumen corrugated sheets on the subcontinent.
1994 - 1996	The group's organization adapts to new business conditions. The group opens Gutta International in Zürich and Schutterwald as well as Gutta Engineering in Bäretswil. Extensive Investments lead to qualitative and quantitative production optimization, improvements in environmental protection, and the construction of the logistics center in Schutterwald near Offenburg.
1997 - 1998	The Gutta Werke factory in Schutterwald receives the ISO 9002 Certificate. Additional branch offices for selling and marketing the entire product line are opened in Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary. After many years of development work, the fire-resistant subroof, a special product for the Mediterranean countries, is launched on the market.
2002	With the obligation of Dr. Rochus Kobler the owner of the company, Christoph Dicken von Oetinger, places the course next to the guarantee of the continuity in the leadership of the Gutta group . Dr. Kobler will take the management of the complete group gradually and represent the interests of the owner family. A trend-setting employee participation model got established at this time.

Current developments
2002 - 2005	Gutta starts and implements several operative initiatives. The most important subject areas and results are:        >   Forecasting und Reporting (MIS)     Management reports and budgets from all group companies are periodically entered into the consolidated figures for the whole Gutta Group. The high transparency regarding different performance indicators of the single societies forms the basis for internal and external benchmarking as well as for an efficient decision making on group level.       >   Reorganisation of the Group structure     The holding structure of the Gutta Group is changed. Therefore, the organisation chart is updated: There is an ‘Executive Committee’ (EXCO), a ‘Management Team’ (MT) and ‘Corporate Functions’.       >   Knowledge Transfer     Information flows are adjusted to this new hierarchy and financial structure of the group: Specialised and project related teams are formed. The exchange of information is ensured by specific central databases with group-wide access.       >   Focused Production     The entire value added chain is analysed. In particular production logistics and distribution are further optimised and adjusted to current needs.       >   Corporate Identity     CI directives are revised and communicated.       From a strategic point of view, the Gutta Group focuses above all on growth projects, in particular geographic expansion, acquisitions and development of the product/service range. These goals are pursued in all three product areas – bitumen corrugated sheets, dimpled membranes and plastic products/trade – with success:       >   Group companies in Romania and Russia are set up.       >   Manufacturing capacities for own products are increased significantly due to acquisitions and joint ventures.       >   Finally, successful acquisitions and cooperations in the plastic/trade sectors allow the product range to be extended and vertical integration to be increased.       Sales, as well as profitability (Net Profit, EBIT, EBITDA) of the Gutta Group increase considerably in this period.