GIPO AG celebrates its anniversary

Anyone traveling by car to the canton of Uri will pass through the Seelisberg tunnel, depending on the route. And this is exactly where a success story begins: for mechanic Emil Gisler and his wife Elisabeth Gisler-Muff, the construction of this tunnel in 1973 was the initial spark for their own independence. Their small company was able to carry out repair work on the tunnel boring machines and was soon able to take on its first employee. Even back then, Emil Gisler was considered a visionary entrepreneur and technician who built up his company with a strong commitment to quality and innovation, as the following years clearly demonstrated. The company moved into a new workshop, office and residential building in the fall of 1974, followed by the construction of the first factory building in 1979 and the founding of Emil Gisler AG, Maschinenbau und Hydraulik in 1981.

The crusher must go with the material – and not the other way around

Emil Gisler set the most significant milestone in 1982 when he produced the first track-mounted crushing plant for Schweizer Aggregat AG – a mobile stone crusher the size of a tracked excavator, the first of its kind for miles around. The underlying and certainly unique idea: the crushing plant should come to the material and not the material to the crushing plant. In 1986, Gisler was the first and only exhibitor to present a mobile crushing plant at bauma in Munich. Just seven years later, in 1989, GIPO AG – the abbreviation for Gisler Power – was founded as a sales company of Emil Gisler AG. Thanks to the excellent order situation, the number of employees increases steadily. The production site is continuously expanded during these years. Following the unexpected death of Emil Gisler in 2017, his daughters Sabine Arnold-Gisler and Claudia Gisler take over entrepreneurial responsibility for one of the largest private employers in the canton of Uri. The great success in Eastern Europe leads to the founding of the subsidiary GIPO d.o.o. in Senj/Croatia, in 2018. Increasing demand, including for larger systems, forces the company to expand the factory premises and fundamentally restructure the production halls between 2019 and 2012.

Extensive product portfolio

The delivery of the 1000 GIPO system in 2021 marks another milestone, which will almost be surpassed by the next system: The 1001 system will be handed over to Agir Aggregat AG, which had already purchased the very first GIPO system ever. Within 50 years, the Swiss company has become a recognized global player in the manufacture of high-quality crushing and screening plants. The product portfolio has also grown accordingly. This includes Gipogreen, a compact, electrically powered mobile crushing plant that is becoming increasingly popular in today’s environmental requirements. Gipowash comprises various wet processing solutions with mobile and semi-mobile excavation washing systems. Stockpile conveyors, special transport systems, stationary crushing and screening plants are further cornerstones of an extensive product range. GIPO has also taken over the commercial agency for McCloskey and thus also offers a complete range of mobile and semi-mobile plants. The Hyundai dealership is completely new – “in order to be able to provide our customers with comprehensive solutions for various sub-sectors,” as CEO Kari Gasser emphasizes.

The employees are very important to GIPO: What started 50 years ago as a one-man operation has grown into a company with 250 employees. Together with the colleagues in Croatia, there are now 320 employees. The various services in particular play an important role in this context.  Training is not forgotten either. More than eleven different training courses are offered, spread over 20 training places.

Customized solutions

High-quality and robust plants for the construction, mining and recycling industries are undoubtedly GIPO’s specialty. When such a plant is referred to as the “Ferrari of rock crushers” or in a report by Central Switzerland Television as a “monster machine”, this also shows a certain respect for the company. In 2003, the construction of the Gipokombi RC 170 FDR, the world’s largest track-mounted combi plant with impact crusher and screening machine on a shared machine chassis, caused quite a stir. After more than 56 000 operating hours, the plant has an availability of 99.5 %, with a throughput of up to 1100 t/h. Operations at temperatures of over 50 °C, as in Dubai, or minus 50 °C in Russia, for example, are not uncommon and testify to the enormous robustness of the Swiss precision machines. “Every system is unique,” emphasizes Kari Gasser in this context, and this is precisely the GIPO niche in which a good one percent of the overall market is generated. As the only manufacturer in Switzerland, various components such as impact mills, jaw crushers, steel plate conveyors and conveyor belts are produced in-house at the plant in Seedorf, which means maximum independence and flexibility.

The tour during the well-attended Open Days shows a more than well-organized company with its own metalworking shop, folding shop, welding robots, CNC machines, painting and sandblasting booths and much more. 4000 t of steel are processed here every year and 42 t of welding rod and 52 000 kg of paint are used annually. 50 to 60 systems leave the factory each year after a production time of between 4 and 6 months, and there could be as many as 100.

Swiss precision, reliability and high quality – GIPO and Gisler have successfully and confidently embodied these values for 50 years. These are probably the best foundations for the challenges of the future.