BWT boss Weissenbacher

The water billionaire’s next coup

Andreas Weissenbacher: New business segment with Windhager(Bild: BWT)

With the purchase of insolvent heating technology specialist Windhager, water purifier BWT is launching a new business segment. BWT boss Andreas Weissenbacher has already made a lucrative deal with cutlery giant WMF.

Andreas Weissenbacher is already known as an entrepreneur with quick decisions and a good nose. Just this week, Weissenbacher took over Windhager's core business, which currently employs 440 people, via his Fiba Beteiligungs GmbH; he is also interested in Windhager's brand-new heat pump factory, which is separately insolvent. "Fiba has set out to find an overall solution for both processes." The new company boss made the move because of the good employees, he announced to the workforce. BWT and Windhager will remain separate, but synergies will be sought within the new group.

The core of the small company empire is the Mondsee-based water technology group BWT. In 1990, Weissenbacher took over the then German Benckiser Wassertechnik, which was barely in the red, in a management buy-out at the age of 30 with hardly any capital. His parents were horrified, but within a short time the young entrepreneur steered the ailing company into a wave of success. The turnover of the company, which was renamed Best Water Technology, shot up from around €70 million at the time to over €1 billion for the first time in 2022, according to the latest figures, and employs around 5,500 people at ten locations worldwide. BWT is also known to consumers for its water filter jugs, domestic water systems and swimming pool supplies. However, 80% of the business is generated by systems for the hotel and catering industry, ultra-pure water production for the medical sector or biotechnology, superheated steam appliances, etc. BWT also produces special filter membranes for these applications, which are also used in fuel cells.

Most of the 440 jobs at the heating technology company Windhager are to be retained(Bild: Windhager)

Corona caused a slump in sales in 2020 due to the tourism slump, some jobs were lost and turnover "only" rose by less than 3 %. In 2021, it was almost 18% again.

In between, Weissenbacher managed another takeover coup: in 2012, together with a US fund, he acquired a stake in the ailing southern German kitchen appliance giant WMF. Although he was unable to secure the majority stake he had hoped for, Weissenbacher made a lot of money when WMF was sold on to the French Moulinex Group in 2016. The value of the company is likely to have tripled . . .

But the Salzburg-based company does not do anything small either. Until 2025, BWT is the main sponsor of the Salzburg Festival, the LASK soccer club and ski jumpers, and car racing cars are also in the company color pink - for a while even with a Formula 1 team. According to Weissenbacher, this is not an expensive hobby, but is intended to turn the current European market leader in water purification technology into a global brand.