Bürkert celebrates 40 years in Australia

Bürkert Australia celebrated 40 years in Australia last night (Thursday) at a gala event at Pier One, Sydney. Those invited to celebrate as partners in Bürkert’s success included (apart from local staff) local partner companies and customers, as well as several representatives from various Bürkert offices in Asia–Pacific, and Meike Querengässer, HR Manager from the global headquarters, Christian Bürkert GmbH & Co.

Bürkert was established in Australia on 8 February 1980 and was the first Asia–Pacific office for the Bürkert group, with a goal to further develop not just Australia, but the whole region.

Over the following years, Bürkert grew exponentially, servicing customers throughout the APAC region. Thanks to this strong market growth, it was able to develop independent offices in the key Asian countries and finally hand them over to the group in the 1990s. From then Bürkert Australia concentrated on the Pacific region, which has experienced strong growth since that time.

“Our company has three corporate pillars: Technology & Quality Leadership, Independence and Culture,” said Chris Hoey, Managing Director. “The first is evident in that almost 10% of our total turnover is reinvested back into R&D. Our independence is in every part of the organisation, from our products and services right through to finance. This is proven by our 74 years of continuous operation under the same entity. Our culture is the third, but probably most important pillar, as it defines who we are in the market. We strive for a flat and very open organisational structure, innovative and fast acting.”

Starting out being well known for solenoid valves, Bürkert globally has developed into a technology leader, always innovating and always one step ahead of the market. This led to many unique inventions like networked pneumatic manifolds, valve control tops, digital positioners and many more. By 2000, Bürkert was manufacturing a broad range of equipment for the process industry, including pressure, temperature, level, flow, analytical and an extensive range of valves and process actuation. The company also started to add value with system integration and panel building. Today Bürkert Australia has an entire department designing and building state-of-the-art networked systems with advanced diagnostics and cloud connectivity.

Bürkert operates in every market where fluids and gases are being measured or controlled, but its key focus markets are water (treatment, waste treatment, distribution), hygienic industries (food and beverage, pharmaceutical, biomedical), gas handling (mass flow meters, mass flow controllers and complete systems) and micro solutions (medical machinery, dosing, etc).

Flo, a sculpture commissioned to celebrate Bürkert Australia's 40 years.

“The success of the company is all about the quality and commitment of our people,” Hoey said. “Which might explain why we have over 50% of our staff with more than 10 years’ service and negligible staff turnover. We strive to be the best in the market and offer the best solutions. To do this, we must have the best people. To get and keep the best people, you need to look after them.

“Bürkert started planning for the digitised factory over 10 years ago and we now feel we are in a market-leading position to bring the company into the future,” he continued. “By utilising our common framework for communications (Efficient Device Integration Platform or EDIP) we can offer hundreds of products that can talk on any field network, to any control system.”

The celebration included the unveiling of a sculpture commissioned to commemorate the occasion (and a subsequent naming competition) and an inspiring presentation by futurist Michael McQueen.

Top image: Chris Hoey, Managing Director, Bürkert Australia.