Expansion into new markets secures site and jobs.

RTI Systems, a subsidiary of the large Russian conglomerate Sistema, is investing in the drive-system manufacturer Watt Drive with headquarters in Lower Austria. This new strategic partner will give the stalwart Austrian family enterprise and its worldwide 240-strong workforce access to gigantic new markets. Watt Drive aims to considerably increase its revenues over the next few years. The headquarters of the Watt Group will remain in Austria, along with the company’s technology centre and production facilities. The company founder Hans Wustinger and his capable team will continue to manage the Watt Group, and Hans Wustinger himself will also join Sistema’s board of directors in Moscow.

The Watt Drive Group, based in Markt Piesting, Lower Austria, is a significant European manufacturer of high-tech drive systems. With around 160 employees at the Austrian headquarters (240 in the Watt Group worldwide) the Group currently earns revenues of 35 million euros. RTI Systems has a 74.9% stake in the Watt Drive Group.

The company, which began 35 years ago as a family enterprise founded by the distinguished industrialist Hans Wustinger, made 2 million euros profit in 2007. Watt Drive manufactures a wide range of drive systems for manifold industrial applications. Watt’s worldwide team of experts coupled with the innovative Watt drive systems fulfil the extensive requirements of modern drive technology. Unceasing research and the very latest production technology guarantee the company its market leadership in specialised industrial sectors.

The numerous applications of Watt Drive’s gear units and motors currently include driving the stage machinery of well-known European opera houses, powering gigantic steelworks in China and simply ensuring the daily production of bread and biscuits.

Watt Drive’s Technology Centre creates specialist solutions for the most complex and sophisticated application areas.

Watt Drive is directly represented by subsidiaries, sales offices and assembly plants in Germany, Singapore and Malaysia, alongside a closely-woven worldwide sales network of specialist traders with sales, assembly and service companies right around the globe.

Right now, the Moscow company RTI Systems is purchasing 74.9% of the shares in this Austrian technology enterprise.

The management of the business will remain – the contract says so – in the hands of its founder, the distinguished industrialist Hans Wustinger and his management team.

The company’s headquarters and its technology and production facilities will remain in Markt Piesting and be further expanded.

Hans Wustinger comments: “Having one of the largest Russian concerns join our technological enterprise offers Watt Drive new opportunities for growth and new markets. The sales structures and market contacts of the listed Sistema concern will enable us to fully utilise potential growth not only in Russia but also on the Indian and Chinese markets. In past years this Austrian family enterprise has achieved stable growth. We anticipate that our partnership with the Sistema Group will take us into the European Champions League of drive technology.

Our partners are interested in Watt Drive’s specialist technology. And we can cooperate with other companies in the Sistema Group to further extend our mechatronics division.”

Hans Wustinger will remain the sole managing director of the Watt Drive Group and will also join the board of directors of RTI Systems.

RTI Systems combines a number of leading Russian technological enterprises that all exhibit a high level of scientific potential. The principal shareholder of RTI Systems is JSFC Sistema, which is listed on the stock exchanges in New York, London and Moscow. The Russian conglomerate Sistema ranks as the eleventh largest Russian company. It employs over 70,000 people, and in 2007 earned revenues of almost 14 billion US dollars.

Courtesy of Watt-Eurodrive