Felten & Guilleaume Austria AG#

Felten & Guilleaume Austria AG: electronics company producing high-tech automatic circuit breakers and low-voltage distributor panels; headquarters at Schrems-Eugenia in Lower Austria; since 1998 part of the German company Moeller-Holding. By 1899 the firm, which began in Cologne as Felten & Guilleaume Carlswerk AG, already had subsidiary companies in Vienna and Budapest; in 1944 bombing over Cologne meant that the production of electric coils was partly re-located to Kleedorf near Schrems, and it was from this that the present company developed. In 1947 it began producing Pupin coils for the re-construction of the Austrian telephone network, and in 1948 it re-located to Schrems-Eugenia. In 1949 production of safety switches was started and in 1957 the company established its own centre for the development of Niederspannungsschaltgeraete at Doebling in Vienna. Exports rose considerably from the 1960s (exceeded 40% for the first time in 1983) and in the 1980s and 1990s production and distribution branches were established in Spain, France and the Czech Republic. In 1998 the company employed a staff of 1,100 and had a turnover of ATS 1.8 billion; exports accounted for approx. 67%.

Literature#