From Bielefeld to the rest of the world
The result of this decision was that "BST Servo-Technik GmbH" was established in Bielefeld, Germany, on the 2nd July 1979. The company immediately started with development, production and selling of web guiding systems, and they even gained ground in the Asian market with the appointment of a commercial representative in China and a partner in Japan in the same year. The business continued to expand during the following years with the company establishing its own sales and distribution offices in France, Italy, England and Scandinavia. These were later joined by production facilities that were established in the USA, Japan, Brazil and India, as well as numerous other sales offices.

Today, the BST-Group has five production facilities, nine company owned subsidiaries and more than 50 sales offices to supply their customers in 95 countries throughout the world. In order to better represent the global presence, the company was renamed as "BST International GmbH" in 2002.

A Successful Family
A partner was needed to finance this enormous growth and EMG Elektro Mechanik GmbH, which was then a subsidiary of AEG, became the major shareholder in 1980 through its acquisition of 65% of BST's shares. It also acquired the remaining shares of the company ten years later. There is an efficient division of responsibilities between the "parent" and the "subsidiary" company: EMG develops and produces web guiding systems for the metal (steel and rolling mills) industry, where BST is responsible for all applications using non-metallic materials, such as paper, synthetics or rubber.

Excellence expanded to other products
A further result of their innovative product development and in response to market needs, BST established another product division, the web inspection systems division. As web running speeds increased year-by-year, simple print quality inspection using the human eye during production became impossible! Well-trained and very experienced specialists could only cope with web speeds of up to 200m/min, but webs run at standard speeds of 800 to 1000 m/min or faster today. Therefore it was not difficult to see that automated inspection of the web was required, and still is! BST recognised this trend early on and they developed the "webscope" in 1984, which was the first industrially manufactured mechanical inspection equipment and was based on a rotating reflecting mirror-drum synchronised with the speed of the web.

Even though they were the forerunners by the end of the 80s, they recognized the enormous potential that lay in video cameras, whose prices were falling steadily, and were being widely used in the booming security and surveillance technologies. BST developed the first video web inspection system based on this technology, which remains industry standard today. In 1995 BST acquired the American market leader in this sector which is today known as "BST Pro Mark". The successful merger of American and German know-how resulted in BST becoming the market leader in video web inspection. More than 14,000 systems have been installed throughout the world and a complete product portfolio ranging from basic visual to automated print management systems with defect detection , bar code verification, color monitoring, register control and many other sophisticated functions are the result of this successful collaboration.

Automation technology is BST's newest strategic business unit. The continual use of digital, microprocessor and CCD-camera technologies as well as field bus systems for flexible networking of web guiding control components has enabled BST to produce future orientated system modules. Their own in-house application experienced engineers have been able to realise sophisticated customer specific system solutions, especially in the extruder and tyre industries. Absolute reliability and customer orientation have also resulted in rapid growth in this product division, which means that BST, as the leading provider, is fully able to participate in the growth potential of the Asian markets, especially in China.

A Strong Future
As a result of continuous growth and innovation, BST has developed from a company with just 18 employees into the world's leading manufacturer of web inspection and web guiding systems for the printing and processing industries. The company today has more than 250 employees. 80,000 units installed in more than 95 countries bear testimony to their leadership. Annual installations of more than 1,000 video inspection systems and 6,000 web guiding systems the company has a global market share of estimated at 38% and 27%, respectively..

BST International GmbH and it's parent company, EMG Elektro Mechanik GmbH, are members of elexis AG, (WKN 508500). The BST group turnover in 2003 was approximately 40 million Euro and is mentioned in the business report under "steel and printing".

Thanks to the wealth of new products and the excellent international presence, the BST Group can expect steady growth for many years to come.