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The company was once considered a high-flyer and a beacon of hope for Switzerland in the field of sustainable energy. That was once.
There isn’t much left of Meyer Burger’s former glory. Rather, the company with its 1,300 employees is marked by years of decline: On Monday afternoon, Meyer Burger held – once again – an extraordinary general meeting in order to – once again – raise fresh money.
The last financial year was a new low: Meyer Burger made a loss of almost 300 million francs. It is the tenth business year in a row that has ended in the red. That’s why some of the factories in Germany are currently being closed and production is being relocated to the USA. The headquarters and research remain in Switzerland.
“Unfair competition” in Europe
Gunter Erfurt, head of Meyer Burger for four years, explains the move as follows: “We are ending the losses that have resulted from completely unfair competition and are focusing on the USA. Behavior like we experience in Europe is not possible there.”
By “unfair competition” he means China, which dominates the global solar panel market by subsidizing its solar industry. Europe would do nothing to counteract this, criticizes Erfurt. In the USA, however, things are different: “The market conditions work there. In the USA, due to the demand for our product, we have binding purchase agreements until 2030.”
There is also the prospect that Meyer Burger can benefit from the US government’s investment program – the Inflation Reduction Act. We are talking about up to 1.4 billion dollars. Money that the company could urgently need. But first, Meyer Burger needs fresh capital to start in the USA: we’re talking about 200 million francs.
At the general meeting, the shareholders have now given the green light for a capital increase. And then – according to the management’s promise – things will look up for Meyer Burger. But that’s what it’s sounded like several times in recent years.
In 2016, the then boss Peter Pauli said: “We have absolutely good conditions. The decisions of the Paris climate conference hold enormous potential for us over the next ten or fifteen years.” However, the Thun location was closed in 2018.
New leadership, red numbers
The successor Hans Brändle moved part of the production to China: “Meyer Burger is going to China because I need to be closer to the customer. Because that’s where 85 percent of our customers are located. We have to make up for the disadvantage we have on the cost side.” Despite everything, numbers remained red; Brändle resigned in 2020 and current boss Gunter Erfurt took over the leadership. At the same time, he changed the business model; From then on, Meyer Burger produced solar modules for the mass market.
The new boss was confident, even though China was already dominating the European market back then: “In the future, we will no longer offer machines for the photovoltaic market. Instead, we use our above-average technology and get involved in the value creation and use of solar modules ourselves,” said Erfurt at the time.
Legend:
Equipped with fresh money, two new production sites were then opened in Germany. One of them is now being closed again – after just three years. Image: Gunter Erfurt, Managing Director of Meyer Burger.
Keystone/DPA/SEBASTIAN WILLNOW
These are turbulent days that Meyer Burger is going through. Once more. And it remains to be seen today whether the planned 200 million francs for the expansion in the USA will actually be raised. Only at the beginning of April will it become clear whether investors are prepared to invest in Meyer Burger again.