Hirsch Servo (Glanegg / Austria; www.hirsch-gruppe.com), which specialises in the manufacture of EPS mouldings and associated production machinery, is investing just short of EUR 1m in an innovation centre at its home site. The centre is scheduled to open in mid-October 2005. As CFO Carsten Brinkmeier explained, the centre will combine the “Shape Moulding” and “Machinery and Plant Engineering” divisions, which up to now have operated independently. At the same time, the R&D budget is to be increased – whereby no figures have been disclosed – and additional personnel will be hired. The company plans to develop “new energy-saving and ecologically sustainable technologies and machinery.”

Hirsch has still not fully settled down after repeated disagreements concerning company management over the past few years. Supervisory board president Christian Grave, vice-president Heinz Paar and Werner Kraus, who were only appointed in 2004 by founder Kurt Hirsch and showered with perhaps premature praise (“internally renowned experts from the Austrian business world”) resigned with effect from 15 September. Their resignations were prompted by “differences of opinion and a loss of confidence,” Grave explained to the Austrian press. Brinkmeier has confirmed the differences of opinion. However, he said they had nothing to do with the company´s economic situation or its strategic alignment.

The resignation of the three supervisory board members, whose contracts end in October, apparently is in response to the fact that Hirsch did not nominate them for an additional term of office at the annual general meeting. This marks the third change in the Hirsch supervisory board in two years. Georg Wall, Axel Hirschberg and Helmut Grienschgl are planned as successors.

The company will present its closing figures for the 2004/2005 financial year and also its future strategy at the balance sheet press conference on 4 October 2005.