Interview with Peter Schikarski, Member of the executive board, Haefely AG

‘Coming back to Switzerland’ Haefely is a very well-known Swiss company for producing high voltage test equipment for manufacturers of transformers, instrument transformers, cables and...

byTransformers Magazine


‘Coming back to Switzerland’

Haefely is a very well-known Swiss company for producing high voltage test equipment for manufacturers of transformers, instrument transformers, cables and switchgear. The company was founded by pioneer Emil Haefely in 1904. Haefely has been based in Basel in the intervening decades, where they employ more than a hundred people. Haefely also has employees in India and China to support their world-wide customer base. Pfiffner group of companies is a well-known maker of high voltage grid components such as instrument transformers, bushings, busbar systems and disconnectors as well as medium voltage assemblies for railways. Pfiffner group is a Swiss family owned company and is focused on long-term reliable growth. The Pfiffner’s group owner, who is the chairman of the group, has more than 40 years of experience in operating the business.

The group is entirely independent, investing back into the company. This also gives us full power to move forward in the direction that we want to go in. We are very proud to be a member of the Pfiffner group, because we share the same values, we share the same passion for high voltage, and we serve the same end customer base. So, we can proudly say, we belong now to a team working towards entirely similar goals. Over the past ten years or so, the group has recorded a growth of ten times in sales turnover for transformer bushings said Mr. Schikarski.

Customers have high levels of expectation when buying equipment from Switzerland and we strive to put in our best efforts to match or exceed this level of expectation and offer best in class specifications and reliability in our products continued Mr. Schikarski.

Synergy in addressing the market

Haefely and Pfiffner both target the power transmission and distribution grid market and not only supply test equipment to the manufacturers of grid components, but also supply test equipment to the substation operators helping them to verify grid component performance and analyse their life cycles. Pfiffner’s four main products for substations are instrument transformers, bushings, insulated busbar systems and air-insulated switchgear. The group runs four plants in Switzerland, one of them is another renowned brand Moser Glaser, which is in the neighbourhood of Haefely, that manufactures bushings and insulated busbar systems. Pfiffner plants in Brazil, Turkey, India, Germany mainly manufacture instrument transformers. A third brand of the Pfiffner group is Alpha-ET which manufactures disconnectors and medium-voltage assemblies for railway traction.

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