Hauert HBG Dünger AG has been producing and marketing fertilizers for professional and home garden use for over 300 years. The company was founded in 1663 at the site of its current headquarters in Grossaffoltern BE, Switzerland. The small fertilizer business has long since become Switzerland’s number one for horticultural fertilizers. Since the acquisition of the Erlangen fertilizer producer Günther Cornufera in 2007, the company has also been present in Germany with quality fertilizers. Internationally, it sets the quality standards for organic and organic-mineral fertilizers. Over decades, Hauert has developed extensive expertise: thanks to targeted research in plant nutrition and development in fertilizer production, the company has consistently introduced groundbreaking innovations.

The topic of “Time to Market” is also high on Hauert’s agenda. This requires seamless logistics. Part of this chain is an aging, complex palletizing system. Mechanically, it still meets the needs of the Bern site today. The system control was replaced by Autexis with a latest-generation Siemens PLC. The old operating panel gave way to a generously sized touch display, equipped with a user-friendly interface, configured with Autexis’s latest library modules, which ensures ergonomic and intuitive system operation.

Compared to a new acquisition, the retrofit of the control technology was significantly more cost-effective. In addition to low investment costs, a very short production downtime was achieved. Another advantage is that the personnel could operate the system flawlessly again after a brief training session.