The history of Wienerberger began in 1819, when 29-year-old Alois Miesba came to Vienna to purchase kilns and devote his life to making bricks from fired clay. As a former secretary of Prince Kaunitz-Rietberg-Questenberg in Moravia (Czech Republic), he studied a lot of engineering, building construction and economics, and traveled extensively. By purchasing ovens and several plots of clay-rich land, he was convinced that the demand for bricks in Vienna would grow sharply in the coming years. And he was not wrong.
Alois Miesbach was keen to meet the challenges of his new venture and was focused on innovation: “Wood-fired ovens are a thing of the past. It may have been a modern practice in the 18th century, but coal is the future. Therefore, we must invest in coal mines,”he said. Its goal was the development and production of new types of bricks for facing buildings, including decorative elements of terractor architecture - consoles, cassettes, clay figures, etc.
The key to success
The company expanded rapidly, but the key to success was not quantity. It is the outstanding product quality and innovativeness that has allowed Wienerberger to grow so rapidly. Alois Miesbach paid great attention to the optimization of production processes, which corresponded to the latest technological standards of the time.
Coal stoves instead of wood stoves significantly improved the characteristics of bricks. Since then, they have been produced in a wide range of shades, from dark red to yellow. Due to the high demand for architectural decorations, a special terracotta factory was opened in Insersdorf.
Manufacturing was not all that interested Alois Miesbach. As a forward-thinking entrepreneur, he thought about the logistics of his products. In 1846 Miesbach leased the Siner-Neustadter Canal to transport finished bricks as well as coal for production - efficiently and at a low cost. Thus, the company received its own waterway and could now easily supply products and raw materials.
A look into the past
Wienerberger in 1845:
- 37 ovens
- 103 racks for drying and laying bricks and tiles, as well as 200 dryers
- Production volume - more than 50 million bricks per year, with such indicators Wienerberger is the largest brick manufacturer in Europe
- Annual income is 1 million guilders
At the beginning of the twentieth century, after the introduction of mechanized production (Wienerberger was one of the first to do this), the annual production increased to 225 million bricks. This became possible due to the reduction of the firing process from 18-20 to 6 hours. The company confirmed its status as the leading brick manufacturer of the time.
Outside Austria
Another breakthrough came in the 1980s when the company began to expand outside Austria. Today, the Wienerberger AG concern is the world's largest manufacturer of ceramic building materials, with nearly 200 factories in 30 countries.
Wienerberger in Russia
Two Wienerberger factories for the production of ceramic blocks under the Porotherm trademark are located in Russia - in the Vladimir region (Kiprevo village) and in the Republic of Tatarstan (Kurkachi station) - with a total capacity of up to 425 million NF per year.
The rest of the products - Terca facing bricks, Koramic ceramic tiles, Penter clinker paving stones are produced in European countries and supplied to Russia.
This year the Wienerberger plant in Tatarstan celebrates its 10th anniversary and successfully continues the history of the concern.
