Sika history

In 1911 he entered his firm, Kaspar Winkler & Co., into the Commercial Register.

1912: Subsidiary founded: In Southern Germany a subsidiary with its own, small-scale manufacturing facility was founded.

Winkler was in the red, especially during World War I. Things did not begin to pick up until 1917.

1918: The Swiss Federal Railways ran successful trials: The Swiss Federal Railways ran successful trials using Sika to waterproof the tunnels of the Gotthard section.

A second attempt did succeed: in 1921 a subsidiary with its own, small-scale manufacturing facility was founded in Southern Germany.

In 1928 Winkler’s son-in-law, Fritz Schenker, had joined the firm’s executive board and pursued worldwide expansion.

The parties litigated for three years until a 1932 divestiture ruling: the Director for Foreign Operations retained ownership of the German and Italian subsidiaries as well as trademark rights in a number of other European countries.

1990: Weak Profitability: 1990s were not an easy decade for Sika AG. The solution to survive the difficult times was achieved by withdrawing from less lucrative, non-core businesses, such as the building of robots used to restore sewer lines.

Sika ViscoCrete, the concrete admixture brought to market in 2000, became a significant sales mainstay.

Sika AG, the holding company since 2002, invested considerably in personnel and production capacities, and restructured the overall management organization.

In 2005 that Swiss company, a specialist in membranes, became a Sika acquisition.

2009: Dubai Metro’s first line: The Dubai Metro’s first line was inaugurated.

The second line is scheduled to begin by operating in 2011.

2012: A new president for the Board of Directors and a new CEO: Paul Hälg, CEO of the Dätwyler Gruppe, is elected as president of the Board of Directors of Sika AG. Jan Jenisch takes over the CEO position from Ernst Bärtschi upon his retirement on January 1, 2012.

Professor Doctor Jan Vermant was appointed Professor of Soft Materials at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) by the Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology on 25/26 September 2013.

Since 2015 Sika made 25 acquisitions, opened 11 new national subsidies and 44 new plants.

In May 2017, Sika enters the Swiss Market Index (SMI), the leading index of the Swiss stock exchange, containing the top 20 Blue Chip companies of Switzerland.

In May 2018, Sika, the Burkard family and Saint-Gobain have signed agreements which terminated and resolved their dispute to the common benefit of all parties involved and that of their respective shareholders and stakeholders.