Stadler Boosts Service Business

Stadler Rail signed a contract with Voith regarding the sale of the Voith service subsidiary in the Netherlands. This relates to a maintenance company with four sites and around 100 employees. It is currently turning over just under EUR 20 million and has long-term maintenance contracts with four rail operators. Neither party wished to comment on the sale price. This takeover marks another step for Stadler towards the reinforcement of its service sector. Stadler has already signed long-term maintenance contracts in Germany, Hungary, Algeria, Austria, Italy, Poland, Norway and Sweden and operates maintenance works in these countries.

Since 2005, Voith GmbH has been operating Voith Rail Services B.V. based in Twello (NL) via its subsidiariy Voith Industrial Services (Germany). As of now, Stadler Rail AG is taking over 100% of Voith Rail Services B.V. with its three workshops in Venlo, Leeuwarden and Nieuwegein and the offices in Twello. The company, which will now operate under the name Stadler Netherlands B.V., has long-term maintenance contracts with Arriva, Veolia, Connexxion and Regio Utrecht. These cover 84 GTW trains delivered by Stadler to the Netherlands over the last seven years, plus 38 tram vehicles by other manufacturers. Jürg Gygax, Executive Vice President Service at Stadler Rail, is delighted: “We are taking over from Voith a team of highly qualified employees and are thus in a position to offer our customers a comprehensive and high-quality service.”

Growing business areas
For Stadler Rail, the purchase of Voith Railservices B.V. represents an opportunity to expand on its position in the Netherlands. On the one hand, it can reinforce links to existing customers and gain a more in-depth knowledge of its own vehicles, which is also beneficial to the rail operators. On the other hand, it can strengthen its position in the Netherlands with respect to future orders.

Stadler Rail is increasingly committed to the growing service sector. This is why a high-performance Service Division has been set up at Bussnang, with further sites in Hungary, Algeria, Austria and South Tyrol. Long-term service contracts have recently been signed in Switzerland, Poland and Sweden. The company is already achieving excellent availability levels at all its sites so far. The front runner is the Westbahn fleet in Linz, which achieved availability of 99.7% in 2012.

As well as maintaining a range of fleets, Stadler also offers various services and revisions, ranging from minor service work by mobile teams on sub-systems or vehicles to extensive repairs to vehicles severely damaged in accidents. This allows Stadler to build on its extensive company know-how in these service fields.