SUCCESS CUBED Haga Metallbau is a leading European fabricator of aluminium, glass and steel for the construction industry. Philip Yorke talked to Mario Haepp, one of the company’s CEOs and technical director about its latest projects and re-launch into the UK market.
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aga was founded in 1976 by Christian Haepp and Norbert Rumpel who started to fabricate window frames in aluminium in Germany. This was at a time when the trend to move away from wooden window frames was in its infancy. They quickly captured their local market with the quality and services that they were offering and within just three years had established the company’s first custombuilt fabrication hall in Hofheim, Germany, which remains its headquarters to this day. By 1990 Haga had expanded dramatically and was now operating four state-of-the-art fabrication plants. Two of them in Bavaria and two in eastern region of Germany. Remarkable, 2002 HAGA established its own primary steel fabrication in Fuchsstadt, Bavaria. Today the company employs more than 400 people and in 2013 recorded sales of more than €50 million.
Individual, innovative solutions There are many reasons why Haga is so successful in its niche markets. The com-
pany offers individual, cost-effective solutions for projects in industrial construction, steel construction, engineering and metalworking. By placing its customers’ requirements at the top of its priority list and meeting tight deadlines, the company has earned an enviable reputation throughout Europe and in particular in Germany. Major contracts for large construction projects have been completed in Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain and the UK in recent years and the company continues to extend its global reach. Haga’s three key areas of expertise are the manufacture of key elements in aluminium, steel and glass. In aluminium, Haga specialises in facades, curtain walls and unitised system windows, as well as a in a wide range of special doors for fire and burglar resistance and for shop fronts. In steel, Haga produces roof lights, canopies and in particular structural steel, whilst in glass it manufactures photovoltaic solar reduction glass and frameless glass doors. All Haga products are made to the same exacting
standards and are given the same degree of expertise and priority whether they are for just one individual window or a major project.
Focus on the UK market Germany remains the company’s biggest European market but it has also been involved in some of the UK’s most prestigious and innovative projects in the recent past. This has led to the strategic decision to build upon its reputation in the UK and establish a sales office there in the near future. One of the recent high-profile UK projects was its involvement in the building of Birmingham’s most distinctive modern façade, that of the commercial building known as “The Cube”. This 23 storey city centre land-mark building was completed in 2010 at a cost of more than £100 million and was designed by Ken Shuttleworth, the architect renowned for his design of the “Gherkin” in the city of London’s financial district. Haepp said, “The Birmingham “Cube” project was a major UK contract for us
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