GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft history, profile and corporate video
GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft is a German management holding company of the GEA Group. Founded in 1881, the company employs over 18,000 people working across 62 countries. Its portfolio includes machinery and plants as well as advanced process technology, components and comprehensive services for the food, beverage, chemical, pharma, dairy processing, dairy farming and marine industries. The group’s structure is based on technologies and includes five divisions: Separation & Flow Technologies; Liquid & Powder Technologies; Food & Healthcare Technologies; Farm Technologies and Heating & Refrigeration Technologies.
The GEA Group is listed in the German MDAX and the STOXX® Europe 600 Index and is also among the companies comprising the DAX 50 ESG and MSCI Global Sustainability Indices.
Chronicle of GEA
Founding & growth
1881 – Metallgesellschaft AG (MG) established as a metals trading company.
1882-1914 – MG becomes a global player represented on all continents.
– Investments in mines and metallurgical plants.
– Metallurgische Gesellschaft (Lurgi) founded.
1918 – Large proportion of foreign investments lost in the First World War.
– Start of chemicals trading.
1939-1945 – Extensive destruction of German MG facilities.
1947-1950 – period of intense reconstruction and financial growth with increased focus on plant engineering
Reconstruction and globalization
1971 – All MG businesses organized into five divisions: metals processing, plant construction, chemicals, transport and communications
1984-1993 – MG increases its focus on specialty chemicals sector through key acquisitions and on environmental technologies; following decades of growth, MG suffers heavy losses on oil futures transactions in the US, plunging the company into crisis
1994 – Start of a fundamental realignment of the MG Group turning it into an innovative technology group.
– Up to 1996 disposal of around 300 companies in the Group.
– Focus on engineering and chemicals.
1999 – Metallgesellschaft acquires GEA AG.
2000 – Metallgesellschaft AG becomes mg technologies ag.
2003 – Strategic realignment of the Group focusing on specialty mechanical engineering, especially process engineering and equipment, as well as on plant engineering.
2004 – Disposal of the Chemicals division: sale of four of the five business units in Dynamit Nobel AG.
The new GEA
2005 – Change in company name from mg technologies ag to GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft.
– Disposal of the DynamitNobel Plastics business unit.
2007 – Sale of Plant Engineering Segment.
2008 – “GEA” as corporate master brand.
2010 – GEA streamlines group structure: 9 divisions become 5 segments.
2011 – Acquisition of Convenience Food Systems (CFS), headquartered in Bakel, Netherlands; becomes the group’s sixth segment.
2015-2019 – GEA divisions organized under two business areas: Solutions and Equipment; centralized and uniform country organization created; new logo combining company name and purpose launched; first sustainability reporting as part of annual financial report; intensified food&beverage acquisitions.
2020 – GEA group structured into five divisions based on technologies; P&L responsibility returned to division managers; GEA becomes founding member of DAX 50 ESG.
*Information from Forbes.com and www.gea.com/en
**Video published on YouTube by “GEA Group“