Sika AG

1910 - 1950

1910: Kaspar Winkler founded Sika under the name Kaspar Winkler & Co, Zurich. Winkler's first inventions were agents to protect and clean granite and a waterproofing agent for mortars. This waterproofing agent named Sika-1 is still sold today in a slightly modified version.

1912: Subsidiary founded. In Southern Germany, a subsidiary with its own, smallscale manufacturing facility. By hiring a director for foreign operations who cared about the Sika operations, more subsidiaries were founded in England, Italy and France.

1918: The Swiss Federal Railways ran successful trials using Sika to waterproof the tunnels of the Gotthard section. Waterproofing became necessary with the introduction of electric trains. The Swiss National Railways waterproofed 67 tunnels with Sika during the following years, which was Sika's breakthrough, as it represented the first big reference project, a true landmark.

1935: Worldwide presence. Before World War II, Fritz Schenker, Winkler's son-in-law, drove forward the expansion in Europe, North and South America and Asia.

1950 - 2000

1971: Second generation change. Romuald Burkard took over the leadership of the group of companies which by 1968 had become a single integral corporate structure with Sika Finanz AG as the parent company. Subsequentlly, Sika was listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange.

1990: Challenging environment. The 1990s was a challenging decade for Sika. To improve performance, the company withdrew from less lucrative, non-core businesses, such as the building of robots used to restore sewer lines. Sika also abandoned the manufacture of road building products.

Besides the brand Sika, more than 900 product brands are in use, including Sikaflex, SikaTack, Sika ViscoCrete, SikaBond, Sikafloor, Sika CarboDur Sikagard, Sika MaxTack, Sikaplan, Sikament, Sikadur, SikaLastic, SikaRoof MTC, Sika Unitherm and Sika Sarnafil.