History

History

Everything began in a garage

As a one-man business in his parents' garage in Switzerland, Jakob Gilgen Senior manufactured the first automatic door operators individually in 1961 and then installed them for his customers. Today, the company has a global presence with more than 1,300 employees.

See more below in a visual journey through our history...

1961

On the 1st of March 1961, Jakob Gilgen Senior from Schwarzenburg founded the Gilgen company in his parents' garage. The former federal civil servant invented the drive system for infinitely variable regulation of the final speed of an automatic sliding gate (cone). He patented his invention in the same year.

1968
1968

Jakob Gilgen Senior applies for a patent for automatic systems for emptying letterboxes. Building on this success, the company opens up a new business area. The construction of the first conveyor system (vertical transport of mail items) for the then PTT is an important reference for the Bernese SME.

1973

With a workforce of 96 employees, the original sole proprietorship was transformed into Gilgen AG on 1 January 1973. The first automatic sliding door was built.

1979
1979

To better serve the German market, we founded Gilgen GmbH in Darmstadt in 1979. With our quality drives for folding doors and large doors, we were able to penetrate the market niches and make a name for ourselves among German door manufacturers - for example at Frankfurt Airport with hangar doors.

1981

In May 1981, we inaugurated our new building in Schwarzenburg. The growth of our company was virtually unstoppable at this time. We more than doubled our turnover compared to 1973 and the Gilgen family grew ever larger with 265 employees. We were also active internationally and acquired various resellers and agencies. In addition to our presence in Germany, we were now also represented in Holland and England with our own sales structures

1986
1986

The 25th anniversary took place over two weekends in 1986 and was attended by over 700 guests from Switzerland and abroad. On the open day, we had 3,000 visitors who showed a keen interest.

2000

For the ADP (Automatic Doors for Public transport) business unit, 2000 was a very successful year with the order to retrofit the Hong Kong metro.

2003
2003

In 2007, we won the major and pioneering project to equip 38 stations on metro lines 1 and 13 in Paris. Metro line 1 alone, along the world-famous Avenue des Champs-Élysées, transports more than 1 million passengers per day!

2011

After 15 years in the Kaba Group, the company parted company at the beginning of 2011 and Gilgen Door Systems became part of the Nabtesco Group, a Japanese international company.

2018
2018

Gilgen Door Systems expands in Australia. In 2018, Gilgen becomes a shareholder in its Australian business partner Access Entry Pty Ltd and establishes its own branch in Sydney. We also win a major contract for Sydney Metro to equip the platform screen door systems for the 8 stations in the City Section. The project consists of over 2.7 kilometres of facade with 288 automatic sliding doors.

2021

Our customer service reaches a historic milestone in 2021: for the first time in 60 years, we carry out over 100,000 contract services on door and gate systems throughout Switzerland in 12 months.