History and Growth of the SecoWarwick Group
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History of group
The history of the SecoWarwick group begins in 1984 with the registration of the SecoWarwick trademark. In 1991, Seco Warwick forms a joint venture with Trans-Vac (a company founded by Andrzej Zawistowski and Janusz Gudaczewski) and SecoWarwick sp. z o.o. is established.
In 2002, the group acquired the intellectual property of Camlaw ltd (aluminum soldering competence) and in 2003 SecoWarwick acquired the Polish company Elterma, with a strong market position in Eastern Europe. The group opened a sales and customer service office in Moscow in 2004. In 2006, a joint venture with Tianjin Kama Electric Manufacturing completes the line-up - the result is SecoWarwick Tianjin Industral Furnance. In 2005, the group enters the US market by purchasing SecoWarwick Corp. In 2007, the company's IPO on the Warsaw Stock Exchange took place.
With the issue proceeds, the company invests in Retech Systems LLC in the US. In 2008, SecoWarwick Allied in India is formed. In 2010, SecoWarwick and Retech Systems LLC establish a new company in China - Seco/Warwick Retech Thermal Equipment Manufacturing Tianjin.
In 2011, SecoWarwick acquires the remaining shares in Retech, also in the same year a sales & service representative office of SecoWarwick GmbH is established in Stuttgart (with a 51% share, bought out to 100% in 2012). In 2013, the acquisition of a company in Brazil took place, and in 2015 a sales & service company in France is established (liquidated in 2019).
The group closes part of the business in India in 2018 - the sales & service company SecoWarwick Systems and Services remains there.
SecoWarwick's turnover since 2004 has increased from PLN 130mn to PLN 623mn in 2022. The average annual CAGR over this period was 23%. SecoWarwick's realized margins have clearly stabilized between 2018 and 2022, due to a more cautious approach to contract bidding and pricing.
The poor performance of 2009/2010 is a result of the economic crisis and the drastic decrease in the order book at that time. The negative results of 2014 and 2015 are the results of the write-down of two large contracts that SecoWarwick entered into during this period and the need to incur additional performance costs not previously expected (large write-downs in other operating activities during this time). The loss in 2017 is due to the negative profitability in the melting furnace segment at that time.
