History of the Pörner Group

1972 the Pörner Group was founded as a ten-men engineering office for piping design. Today the group has a workforce of about 580.

"If we weren't an excellent engineering company, we would have been blown away by the market's wind long ago."

Kurt Thomas Pörner, founder of the enterprise (1939 - 2018)    

2021 – the year of anniversaries

In 2021, three Pörner locations celebrate their company anniversary:

• 30 years EDL Anlagenbau Gesellschaft
• 30 years Pörner Kyiv
• 15 years Pörner Romania

Congratulations! May the coming years be as successful as the
previous ones.

2021 – Rebranding of Gazintek to Pörner Kyiv

Since September 16th, 2021, the former “JSC Gazintek” has been operating under the name “Pörner Kyiv LLC”. With the change from a JSC to a LLC, the Kiev subsidiary is affiliated closer to the group of companies, administrative and legal matters are simplified. Next to the new company name, the replacement of the Gazintek logo by the Pörner logo is the only thing that changes for our employees and clients.

Find the new Pörner Kyiv page and contact details here!

2020 – Pörner Water – Pörner’s new competence center

In order to offer clients an even wider range of services, the Pörner Group adds water treatment engineering to their portfolio. The new “Pörner Water” team, which previously worked for Siemens, was integrated into the Pörner Group in March 2020.

The new competence center “Pörner Water” covers industrial water treatment from concept study to the implementation of entire projects up to predictive maintenance and services in all industrial sectors.

2020 – EDL Cologne becomes location #10 of Pörner Group

Pörner’s wholly owned subsidiary EDL Anlagenbau Gesellschaft mbH opened its Rhine-Ruhr location in Cologne in March 2020. The local industry benefits from EDL’s engineering services in all professional competences.

2019: Location #9 - Burghausen

Since 2018, Pörner has had an office on the refinery site in Burghausen to support the regional southern German industry. Due to the positive business development, Burghausen was officially declared the new Pörner location in 2019. The location is specialized in refinery and chemical plants as well as energy and environmental facilities.

2016: 25 years of EDL Anlagenbau Gesellschaft

In September 2016 EDL celebrated its 25th company anniversary. Since its start EDL has evolved into an internationally recognized plant engineering company. 

The anniversary brochure „25 years EDL“ does not only describes recent project highlights, but also the comprehensive technology portfolio to produce high-quality products such as base oils, waxes and lubricants. Further information about EDL technologies can be taken here and from the EDL brochure, page 6 ff.

2016: Foundation of OOO "Pörner Group Russia"

OOO "Pörner Group Russia” was established in March 2016, thus expanding the Pörner network of independent subsidiaries.

Back in autumn 2014 a Pörner representative office was opened in Moscow. With the transformation to OOO "Pörner Group Russia"the branch is now legally authorized to enter into contracts and independently manage projects in Russia. OOO "Pörner Group Russia" combines the CIS activities of all Pörner companies, has a local presence for stakeholders and facilitates the direct communication with our Russian customers. 
 

2015: State Award & Anlagenbau 4.0

Pörner wins with the project "Clean Air for Siberia: Planning a desulfurization plant for Norilsk Nickel" the nomination for the Austrian State Award for Consulting 2015. The three-year, internationally acclaimed mega project, containing 25 sub plants was headed by Pörner and contributes significantly to the environmental protection of the entire Arctic Circle. 

Pörner developed its own modern concept "Anlagenbau 4.0" for the best possible project realisation, as well as providing the "Plant 4.0" with the highest possible efficiency, today and in the future. 
 

2014: Opening of Representative Office Moscow

In the fall of 2014, a representative office in Moscow was opened. The premises in Moscow serves as a conference location and facilitates the supervision of Pörner’s Russian customers. A highly qualified team is now available, on site, as a competent partner for our customers.

2006: Pörner Romania is founded

With the founding of "S.C. Poerner Engineering S.R.L." in November 2006 the Pörner Group does now have a new subsidiary in Bucharest and Ploesti. This implies a consolidation of flexible, medium-sized companies with a low cost structure. Engineering services with focus in process engineering will therefore be provided locally in Romania.

Currently more than 45 employees join the team that originally started as a 3-man one. Framework agreements and follow up contracts testify the high quality of their performance.
 

2005: Pörner Kyiv (former Gazintek) - Welcome on board

On July 1^st, the Pörner Group acquired 70% of the shares of the Ukrainian engineering company from Tecnimont- subsidiary´s Sofregaz. Since its foundation in 1991, Pörner Kyiv worked almost exclusively for Western European clients. The now 50+ specialists and engineers are proficient in the Western working norms and regulations, as well as Ukrainian and Russian norms, such as GOST, and are able to work multilingually in English, Russian and Ukrainian.

Since the beginning they specialized in plant design of LPG tankers and terminals for LPG and oil, complete pipelines and gas stations. Under the new ownership, Pörner Kyiv focused on the Russian speaking countries, where enormous investments have been made over the last years. They also cooperated in several projects within the Pörner Group. 
 

2003: EDL Anlagebau Gesellschaft in Leipzig becomes Pörners prestigious subsidiary

A new chapter began in Pörner´s company history: after long and fair negotiations, the Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH took over 100% of the shares of EDL Anlagenbau Gesellschaft mbH from RWE Solutions AG.

Until 2001, the company based in Leipzig belonged to the Tessag Edeleanu GmbH and employed 100 engineers and professionals specialized in designing refineries, chemical and petrochemical plants. With acquisition of EDL the Pörner Group has grown to a staff strength of 280 employees, which equals 45.000 engineering hours per annum.  

This way the EDL as mid-size company has managed to become an active player with a strong process engineering not only in Germany, but also in Austria and Eastern Europe.  
 

2003: Pörner Grimma Technology Center for formalin

Since 2003 the Pörner subsidiary in Grimma has become the Technology Center for formalin and its derivates within the Pörner Group. In collaboration with renowned European licensors and know-how partners Pörner Grimma provides all services for the engineering and construction of plants of this product family (formalin, UFC, paraformaldehyde, hexamine, UF, MUF, MF, PF resins, novolak  and bakelites, acetaldehydes, pentaerythritol, polyester and alkyd resins) as EPC contractor. In the last few years plants were built in Hungary, Germany, Russia, USA, Canada and successfully put into operation.
 

1996: New Management

In 1996, the company founder K.Th. Pörner withdraws from active business. A new management around Andreas Pörner and Peter Schlossnikel has been established, which since then has been in charge of the Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft.

1992: subsidiary in Tyrol for pharmacy and industrial building services

Since 1992 several project regarding pharmaceutical plant engineering, energy supply and industrial building services had been developed by Pörner Linz for companies in the Tyrolean area. The constant workflow was the reason for the creation of an independent subsidiary in Kundl, Tyrol.

Next to the planning of plants and systems, the team soon took over the area of qualification and validation according to FDA-standards in SANDOZ (originally Biochemie Kundl). Its competence constructing pilot facilities and small-scale production plants, clean-room systems and plant certifications makes Pörner Kundl the competence center for pharmaceutical plants and industrial building services within the Pörner Group.
 

1992: Going international- Pörner opens its first foreign subsidiary   

This first step over the border is a big one in the company´s expansion plan. The new office in Eastern Germany was founded as the German Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft on January 30^st, 1992 in the Saxon district town of Grimma, place of the former headquarters of the eastern "Anlagebaukombinat". An office building was adapted for the purpose and in record time, a team of specialist was providing the full branch of engineering services after the political change. The structure of the new company was designed like the parent company in Vienna.

In the joint venture "Tecnimont-Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft" (TPI) with the Italian plant constructor Tecnimont, the office in Grimma was in charge of the general planning of several major projects, such as a hydrogen peroxide-plant in Bitterfeld and the starch plant Barbie for CRESTAR.
 

1991: Pörner awards the Austrian National Price for Consulting

In the nineties Pörner realized several fore-running environmental projects such as waste incineration plants and optimization of sewage treatment plants. In 1991, the innovative skills of the Pörner engineers were rewarded by the most desired award for engineering companies: Pörner won the Austrian National Price for Consulting for the general planning of an integrated water treatment unit including waste water evaporation, fluidized bed incinerator and power station for Funder Industries in St Veit/Glan, Austria.
 

1987: Civil engineering bureau Pörner+Partner

The product range of the independent engineering company was amplified by adding a department for civil engineering called "Pörner & Partner ZT GmbH".

With this new enterprise focused on the design and execution of the constructive matters of plant construction, the company was able to consolidate its foundations and set architectonical emphases. In 1987 Pörner Ingenieurgesellschaft was awarded the national distinction of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce.
 

1978: a golden chance by hitting the mark

At the beginning of the 70ies, the OMV offered K.Th. Pörner the commercialization of the newly developed Biturox-technology for production of quality bitumen beyond Austrian borders. A cooperation agreement was signed. 1978 they were able to sell the first Biturox license to Mobil Wörth in Germany. Within a short period of time, it became clear that this technology represented a niche technology that Pörner could exploit, since it was a product of global demand.
 

1975: Expansion- the first subsidiary in Linz

In 1975 Pörner Technical Bureau grew by opening a subsidiary in Linz and turned into a private limited company in 1979. The bureau in Linz was principally a planning partner for the locally based Austrian nationalized companies (VÖEST and "Linzer Stickstoffwerke" back then).

By now 35 specialists realize complex Austrian and international engineering projects independently in the steel and chemical industry.
 

1972: The beginning

Ing. Kurt Thomas PÖRNER started as a young engineer at OMV until he moved to Germany in 1961 where he learned as a piping designer the complex art of planning and processing of refineries at major engineering companies like Lurgi und R.M. Parsons. After the petrol scare he returned to Austria and founded a "Technical Bureau" in Vienna in 1972, specialized in industrial piping.

Within the first 2 years complex planning work could be realized for refineries in Congo and Mauritania which meant an enormous commercial upswing for the small company.