Name of the provider / Family business
From a 2-person-start-up to an Austrian market leader in the comprehensive servicing of residential real estate
ATTENSAM
Professional sector and company size
Snow cleaning, real estate building services, logistics and facility management with about 4500 employees
Need/problems/challenge addressed
Woman in family business, internationalisation, risk tolerance, family business strategies
Country
Austria
Source
Link to more information
The beginning of this family business was extremely humble. The family started with practically no money. The first office was set up in a child’s room and the whole family was harnessed to work. Looking at the beginning, it was a classical start-up.
The married couple Hans and Grete Attensam founded the company of the same name in 1980 for snow cleaning services. At that time, the company saw itself primarily as a service provider for the snow removal sector. Over the years, the founders recognized the great potential in the market and expanded the company to include various home-related services.
The Attensam family’s apartment, which had previously been used as an office, soon became too small. Therefore, in 1990, they move to the first real office in Vienna. The success of the family company constantly increased. Expansion into other Austrian states was the next logical step for Hans and Grete, and a new location in St. Pölten, Lower Austria, was opened in 2002. Grete Attensam hands over the agenda to her sons Oliver and Clemens Attensam when Hans dies but Grete is still the owner of the family company. Oliver works as CEO of the whole company and Clemens is responsible for company strategy and expansion into federal states and abroad. Further branches in Germany, Hungary, and Austria follow.
In 2011 it became clear, that the internationalisation beyond Austria driven by the second-generation was not a real success. So Grete stopped it, having in mind that the philosophy of risk tolerance had always been important in the history of the family business and the cooperate identity. The Attensam family successfully overcame this crisis. They decided to withdraw from abroad and to sell the foreign subsidiaries. From this point on, Oliver Attensam assumed overall responsibility for the group of companies. They have concentrated more on their locations in the federal states of Austria since then.
From this time on, Oliver has been running the business of the ATTENSAM Group as the managing director. Clemens left the family company. Locations in every Austrian Region have been established, having the strong family governance in mind. This continuity of the family governance and cooperate identity is strongly driven by Grete Attensam. She is a very impressive example of a strong woman in the business working for decades responsible for the success of the family company.
There are regular meetings of the family board every two months. Because of the family protocol, all questions regarding company development, recruiting, and further financial operations and investments are discussed during these meetings.
The family council decided in 2011 to increase the board of directors with two non-family members to benefit from professional external expertise. Up to now, the future of ATTENSAM as a family business is not clear, it is not clear, if the next generation will continue running the business.
