The compressor patron resigns
After 40 years at Burckhardt Compression, including more than ten years as CEO, Marcel Pawlicek is stepping down at the end of the month. In an interview, he says how he sees the future of the oil and natural gas business – and what has already ended up on the plate at the business lunch in China.
–Heavy metal in the assembly hall of Burckhardt Compression: The managing director in front of an engine bearing for a hypercompressor weighing several tons.
Photo: Marc Dahinden
A powerful “Grüezi, come in” and Marcel Pawlicek picks up the pace. He leads us through the assembly halls of his Burckhardt Compression on Sulzerallee, past colossal steel cylinders, bearings and other compressor parts that are stored on pallets under the crane runways. Two fitters in overalls are measuring a piston rod when Pawlicek nods and calls out to them with a grin as they pass. A saying comes back, and then we are already standing in front of a 22-ton, five-meter-long drive shaft, which Pawlicek is lovingly patting. It will be installed in a hyper-compressor once used in a thermoplastics plant in China to manufacture industrial plastics and films for solar panels.
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