P. Spuhler
Peter Spuhler (Stadlerrail) is a successful tech industry entrepreneur in the Swiss public eye. His existing production facilities in the USA are proving advantageous. Nevertheless, he criticizes Donald Trump in the "TecTalk" Swissmem
800 employees in the USA, the aluminum for the train car bodies sourced from Valais. According to Forbes, the Swiss industrialist is now worth 4 billion Swiss francs, which he has invested, among other things, in the railway manufacturer Stadler. Spuhler took over Stadler in 1989 with 18 employees. Today, the company has 15,000 employees worldwide. Spuhler explains how this was achieved in an interview with the former head of the news program "10vor10".
Chicago Metro: Photo: Stadler
Perricone: What was your plan when you started?
Spuhler: I come from humble beginnings. I didn't have parents who could buy me a company. Then I was very fortunate that the Thurgau Cantonal Bank gave me an unsecured loan of approximately 5 million.
Perricone: They simply thought Peter Spuhler was a nice guy?
Spuhler: You'll have to ask the bank that! That was the start. The plan was to recoup the interest and amortization. Our major competitors at the time, such as Schindler, SIG, and ABB, withdrew from the rail vehicle manufacturing sector during the difficult 1990s.
Commuters in Taiwan. Photo: Stadler
That worked to our advantage. And we were lucky enough to find very good engineers, a real team – that's absolutely crucial!
Perricone: In 2016, Stadler opened a location in Salt Lake City, USA. I assume that's paying off now.
Spuhler: We were able to fulfill the first orders from the USA from Switzerland. Later came TaxRail, and then things really took off: we had to manufacture in the USA. At first, we rented halls in Utah, but then decided to build a factory. And that has actually become a huge success; it's going very well.
M. Perricone. Studio photo: TecTalk/Swissmem
Perricone: A great advantage in today's situation.
Spuhler: Yes, you could say that. Lucky punch.
(…)
The entire interview in TecTalk format as a podcast
