Owners, managers, employees: Who has the final say?

In 1989, WINTERSTEIGER made Austrian business history: The workforce united to prevail against the 76-percent majority of the company’s owners at the time and the interim management, and WINTERSTEIGER was completely restructured.

But from the very beginning

Before the major restructuring of the ownership structure, the owners and management could not agree on a strategy to increase profits. The majority of shareholders replaced the proven management team—Peter Steinberger, Peter Süß, and Roger Prasser—with Alfred Fiedler, Manfred Selinger, and Wolfgang Rabl. Company founder Johann Wintersteiger also returned to the company from retirement for a short time.

Fierce Resistance

However, the 250 employees stood behind the previous management team and rejected the new one. The second-level management resigned en masse! In a second step, all employees intended to leave the company and join a new firm led by the former management. It didn’t come to that: On May 20, 1989, following marathon negotiations that lasted until 2:00 a.m. and were mediated by Länderbank—WINTERSTEIGER’s primary bank—an agreement was reached on a restructuring of the ownership structure. The majority shareholders withdrew. Rainer Bartram, who had held a 25% stake in WINTERSTEIGER since 1982, took a majority stake of 50.1%. Senior employees, managing directors, and the Länderbank acquired the remainder. WINTERSTEIGER was converted into a GmbH (limited liability company). This turbulent phase lasted about two months: constant fear of layoffs, a 25% drop in production, and a halving of the company’s value were the accompanying effects.

A New Beginning

But from the very beginning, things started looking up again: Rainer Bartram brought back the management team—Peter Steinberger, Peter Süß, and Roger Prasser—and the executives rescinded their resignations. Bartram set the company on a course for growth and later brought the German Lange Group on board; today, the Lange Group is the majority owner and, in Wolff Lange, provides the Chairman of the Supervisory Board.