On a visit to Austrian Family Businesses 2025
On Thursday and Friday, April 3 and 4, 2025, the Centre for Family Business (CRF) organized a trip to Linz and Vienna for its community of Czech family business owners and successors. Our goal was to gain experience from foreign family companies on preparing for the family business handover, succession, intergenerational conflict, family constitution and other topics. At the same time to spend time together sharing our own experiences. In Austria we had the opportunity to meet owners of family businesses with a long tradition: Schmachtl, Schweizerhaus and Kapsch TrafficCom.
Schmachtl
Schmachtl is the exclusive representative of global manufacturers in the field of electrical engineering, electronics and mechanical engineering. However, over the past five years it has evolved from a supplier of individual components into a designer of customised solutions that have high added value for clients. Their clients are mainly small and medium-sized companies, but they also supply solutions to large multinational companies in the field of robotics. According to customer demand, the team selects the appropriate components, gets everything up and running, and provides final training and ongoing service. The company’s headquarters in Linz, Austria, is complemented by branches in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria. The company has 250 employees.
The cradle of Schmachtl is the Czech lands, where the company was founded in 1936. It was founded by Franz Schmachtl, the uncle of the current owner Karl-Heinz Schmachtl. Due to the war and the post-war developments, he resumed the company in 1947, already in Austria. He ran the company until 1972. And the very first succession in the company took place in a curious way. Since Franz Schmachtl had no direct successor, he had to consider several succession options within the extended family at the age of 69. First he approached his wife’s relatives, then the representatives of the German branch of his family, and finally and successfully his brother’s son, Karl-Heinz Schmachtl. “My uncle was interested in keeping the business in the family. But he didn’t tell me about it, so I took my career in a different direction. I studied law. That’s why I agreed to take over the company, but with the proviso that I would also have a managing director educated in technical fields,” Karel-Heinz Schmachtl described to us how succession can sometimes be complicated. So he ran the company with a non-family managing director from 1972 to 2006. He then worked together with other non-family managing directors until 2025. In recent years, his son Kari Schmachtl has been successfully involved in the running of the company and officially took over the management on 1 April 2025. He also runs the company together with a non-family managing director for the technical area. “I am lucky and grateful that my son is professionally and humanly competent to take over the management of the company together with another fellow technician,” Karel-Heinz Schmachtl told us. “Over the last 5 years, we have gradually changed the organisational structure of the company from a hierarchical structure to a holocratic organisation where employees have more responsibility,” says Kari Schmachtl, describing how the company has differentiated itself under his leadership.
The priority of this traditional family-run company is to innovate both its organisational structure and its service portfolio so that it can continue to be successful in the future.
Schweizerhaus
Vienna’s largest garden, the Schweizerhaus, which was established in the Prater 250 years ago, has been run by the Kolarik family since 1920. The founder of this entrepreneurial family with Czech roots, Karel Kolarik, overcame all the hardships of the war years and continued to work here until he was 90 years old. When he died in 1993, he passed the business on to the 2nd generation of the family. His son Karel Jan Kolarik, his wife Hanni and his daughter Lydia Kolarik have preserved this exceptional family tradition and prepared it for handing over to the 3rd generation of the family.
Today, Karel Kolarik runs the family business and all other family members have worked there at some stage in their lives. The personal presence of the members of the owning family in the business is one of the cornerstones of a 100year old business. “Our rule is that at least one member of the Kolarik family has to be on set every night,” Lydia Kolarik confirmed to us.
Lydia Kolarik has been in the Schweizerhaus environment since childhood, and this has also influenced her approach to succession in the family business. “It was not my brother and I’s duty to take over the business. However, our parents were role models for us and, having grown up in the business, we wanted to take it over. It was a no-brainer for us,” Lydia Kolarik described. She herself has the same approach, letting her children have the freedom to decide their future.
The Kolarik family adheres to the basic principles set by the company’s founder. According to them, these are the proven principles that have kept the company running to this day. These include the fact that the family members speak Czech and still serve Czech beer on tap “with a cap” to guests.
Kapch TrafficCom
The Kapsch family has been in business since 1892. Kapsch TrafficCom creates innovative solutions for the transport sector, operating toll systems, providing telecommunications solutions and ICT services. The corporate group employs more than 5,000 people worldwide. During our trip to the company’s headquarters in Vienna, we met with 4th generation member Georg Kapsch, who has been CEO and Chairman of the Board of Kapsch TrafficCom since 2002. He also acted as chairman of the association representing the Austrian industry until 2020.
As of 1 April 2025, Mr. Kapsch’s son, who represents the 5th generation of the business family, is also involved in the management of the company. “I have two sons and they have always had the freedom to choose what they want to do. But my condition was that they should tell me at the age of 25 whether they wanted to be involved in the company so that I could arrange things accordingly,” Georg Kapsch described his approach to succession.
It is unclear who from the fifth generation of the Kapsch family will be involved with the company in future, determining its strategy. Georg Kapsch believes that it is his generation’s responsibility to prepare the company for succession properly and give the next generation free rein to run the company.
