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At the end of 2006 Stork had approximately 12,700 employees, of whom 10,000 in the Netherlands. At present Stork has 4 groups:
Aerospace,
Food Systems,
Technical Services,
Prints
There are about 50 operating companies. Stork achieved a turnover of € 2 billion in 2006 worldwide The nett result 2006: € 150 million.
Stork will be focusing on the three pillars: Aerospace, Food Systems and Technical Services. Prints will be divested in 2007, as new ownership will be better positioned to unlock their potential. Stork will build on the three remaining pillars through autonomous growth and through selective acquisitions. The focus will be on productivity improvements by using lean manufacturing. The market and technology leadership positions Stork holds will be further built upon, aimed at gaining market share through the introduction of innovative solutions that create value for the blue-chip customer base.
175 years of Stork: a quick review
Stork is the overall name of today's technology company, but its earliest history dates back to the formation in 1827 of the Nederlandse Fabriek van Werktuigen en Spoorwegmaterieel (Dutch machine and railway equipment works), in brief: Werkspoor, which later also became the official name.
This originally Amsterdam-based company merged in 1954 on an equal basis with the engineering works Gebroeders Stork & Co., which was founded in Hengelo in 1868. This means that 1827 is the earliest date to which the company's roots can be traced. Stork concentrated mainly on (industrial) production equipment (steam and other engines, boilers, pumps, sugar refineries), while Werkspoor's main activities were means of transport (ship components, steam locomotives, diesel trainsets, carriages, buses and bridges).
In the fertile post-war years the combination (which for a long time worked under the very well known name Verenigde Machinefabrieken/VMF) grew strongly in the sector which can best be described as heavy capital goods. The vulnerable nature of this market (completion of the post-war rebuilding, large projects, long decision-making processes) led the company's management to initiate a far-reaching - and with government support successful - turnaround in the 1970s and 1980s. This led the company into new (niche) markets for (lighter) industrial production equipment, concentrating on primary needs: clothing, food, energy, water/air and transport, as well as technical services for the maintenance of industrial and building-related installations.
Aerospace activities were added to this list in 1996, thanks to the acquisition of the Fokker companies specialising in the building of aircraft components and integrated aircraft maintenance services. A strategic reorientation at the beginning of 2000 led to a structure with 5 groups, focusing on digital (textile) printing technologies, poultry processing/fast food, aerospace, industrial components and technical services.
In 2004 Sork sold the Industrial Components Group; so now there are four groups left.
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