Wienerberger

Mission Statement: "Building Value" for Investors, Customers and Employees. We are focused on those areas where we are among the best in the world--our core business bricks and roof tiles. Brick is a sustainable product. Building with bricks represents a wise economic and ecological investment in the future. Our primary goal is to create a long-term, balanced increase in value for our shareholders, customers, and employees. Continual improvement is the requirement for above-average performance. Our motto: grow, but also optimize. We are competitive because we are a multi-cultural company. We are successful because our employees act like entrepreneurs. We believe in people. Bricks by Wienerberger. Designed for Living. The company reincorporates as a public limited liability company, Wienerberger Ziegelfabriks- und- Bausgesellschaft, and becomes one of the first firm to list on the Vienna Stock Exchange. Wienerberger loses its operations in Hungary, Poland, and elsewhere after the collapse of Austro-Hungarian Empire. The company attempts diversification with Pipelife joint venture and the acquisition of Trebacher Chemische Werke and OAG Group. The company acquires General Shale in the United States and becomes the world's leading brick manufacturer. Wienerberger divests itself of the last of its diversified holdings to become a pure play building materials group. Wienerberger AG is the world's leading manufacturer of bricks, including hollow bricks and facing bricks. The company dominates the brick market, with a number one position in hollow bricks worldwide, the lead in the European facing brick market, and the number two spot in facing bricks in the United States. Wienerberger produces its hollow bricks under the Porotherm and Poroton brands in Europe. Facing bricks are marketed under the Terca brand in Europe and through subsidiary General Shale in the United States. Wienerberger is also one of the world's leading manufacturers of concrete pavers. The company's Semmelrock division holds the number one position in Europe for that segment. In the mid-2000s, Wienerberger added a second core operation, roofing systems, in order to balance out its bricks business. To this end, the company acquired Belgium's Koramic, the leading roofing systems company in Europe, in 2004. Other roofing systems subsidiaries include ZZ Wancor, in Switzerland, and Bramac and Tondach Gleinstatten, both of which are active in Central and Eastern Europe. Wienerberger has a manufacturing presence in nearly 25 countries, with a total of some 235 plants under operation in 2005. The company has been engaged on an active expansion program. In 2004 alone the company spent approximately EUR 540 million on investments and has announced plans to spend at least EUR 250 million in 2005. Wienerberger is listed on the Austrian Stock exchange. In 2004, the company posted revenues of 1.76 billion. Alois Miesbach was 29 years old when he decided to launch a company manufacturing bricks in 1819. A native of Mähren, Miesbach built a factory on the Wienerbergstrasse in Vienna. Over the next 40 years, Miesbach's company developed into one of the region's largest and became a primary source of employment for workers from the Böhmen region. As his business grew, Miesbach continued to add new capacity, and during this period the company built Europe's largest brickworks. By the time Miesbach died in 1857, his company operated nine brickworks, a clay plant, and several coal mines. Miesbach's company also entered the construction sector, building a number of homes and buildings in the Vienna area. Miesbach's nephew, Heinrich Drasche, took over at the company and continued its expansion. Among other achievements, the company added more than 400 new houses outside of the city center, as well as ten new houses on Vienna's exclusive Ringstrasse, under Drasche's leadership. Other buildings constructed by the company using its bricks was the famed Heinrichhof, built in 1868.