Furrer+Frey AG is the winner of the Phoenix Award 2023

The Phoenix Award for long-term entrepreneurship, presented for the fourth time, once again goes to a Bern-based company: After the Blaser Café AG 2022 Furrer+Frey AG was honored on January 19, 2024. Beat Furrer, member of the Executive Board and representative of the third generation of the family business, and his son Rico Furrer, CEO, accepted the award in person. The award marks a successful conclusion to the anniversary year 2023, in which the company celebrated its 100th anniversary. The award certificate was presented by Carla Kaufmann, Vice President of the CHDU, together with laudator Armin Baumann, member of the Phoenix Award jury advisory board and CEO of KMU SWISS AG. In his laudatory speech, he praised the company with these words, among others: "I wish there were more companies like Furrer+Frey AG. To operate successfully as a company for over 100 years is phenomenal, considering that today only one company out of five start-ups survives the fifth year."

National Councillor Dominik Blunschy also offered his personal congratulations on receiving the award. "With its successful company succession into the fourth generation, Furrer+Frey AG has made a lasting contribution to Switzerland as a location for innovation and business. The company is emblematic of our SMEs, which are the heart and engine of the Swiss economy," he summarized. Martin Godel, Deputy Director of Location Promotion and Head of SME Policy at SECO, also congratulated the award winners at the company headquarters in Bern.

Putting the spotlight on successful company successions

The Phoenix Award for long-term Swiss entrepreneurship has been awarded annually since 2020. The award honors Swiss SMEs that have mastered their succession planning for at least a century. It gives them the visibility and the stage they deserve. SMEs that have successfully managed their succession over such a long period of time have usually had to overcome several crises, such as world wars and economic crises, and rise anew like the "Phoenix from the ashes". Furrer+Frey also experienced this, for example with the untimely death of company founder Emil Furrer or the departure of the second founding family. Despite everything, the company proved to be resilient time and again.

The focus as potential award winners is on Swiss SMEs that are 100 years old in the respective year or have been entered in the Swiss commercial register for 100 years. An expert jury and a jury advisory board with representatives from science, entrepreneurship and the media select the winner of the Phoenix Award from these companies in a multi-stage process. The evaluation focuses on the company's innovative and disruptive capabilities, team performance and its contribution to society and the economy. In this sense, Furrer+Frey proved to be a worthy candidate for this year's Phoenix Award.

Convincing the jury with courage, expertise and innovation

From a two-man engineering office, founded in Bern by engineers Emil Furrer and Arnold Frey in 1923, to one of the leading international suppliers of overhead contact line systems for public transport. The foundation for this success story is entrepreneurial courage, professional expertise and a strong mission: to support the railroads with electrification and carry out overhead line work. This is how the two company founders won their first contract 100 years ago from SBB, which is still a customer of Furrer+Frey AG today. These skills, which have been a common thread running through the company's development ever since, also impressed the jury and jury advisory board of the Phoenix Award. They summarized the company's worthiness of the award in these points, among others:

• The consistent focus on the core competence of overhead line construction and electrification of public mobility.
• The innovative strength that manifests itself in various developments and projects and forms the basis for international expansion, for example:
  • 1984 saw the development of the overhead conductor rail system, which set a world record of 302 km/h in 2014.
  • Overhead contact line systems developed in-house, which have been the Swiss standard for private railroads since 2003.
  • Projects such as the Zimmerberg and Ceneri base tunnels, the Bern West streetcar, the Limmattalbahn and various other major projects.
• The ability to succeed with the management of the family business in the fourth generation.
• The company's sustainable business model, with which it continuously contributes to the decarbonization of public transport.
• Financing growth largely from our own resources in order to maintain our entrepreneurial independence.
• The team spirit and the great commitment to the employees through appreciation and passing on know-how.

With a bit of luck and the right employees

Furrer+Frey AG has been operating internationally since 1991 and has since founded subsidiaries in Italy, Great Britain, China, Germany and India with a total of 340 employees. The fact that their commitment is one of the key success factors is still firmly anchored in the consciousness of the Furrer generations today. This is also reflected in the words of thanks from Beat and Rico Furrer: "We are delighted to receive the Phoenix Award and see it both as recognition of our successful entrepreneurial activities and as great appreciation for our employees. After all, it is thanks to them, in addition to our own diligence, modesty, conscientiousness and a pinch of luck, that our company still exists today. This award also reinforces the importance of company succession for the diversity of our Swiss SME landscape and Switzerland as a workplace, which we very much welcome."

Source: Swiss umbrella organization for company succession CHDU. Further information on the award winner