Swiss office specialists Denz Office AG merge with Lista Office Vertriebs AG. From 1 November 2016, they are able to offer an expanded overall product range under the overarching "Lista Office LO" brand. The merger will create new possibilities for state-of-the-art office furniture and design – both for local SMEs and large multinational corporations.

Media release

Once more, Lista Office LO has set a strong innovative example in workspace design with the “Open Space” concept “Mindport® by Lista Office LO”. The new Lista Office LO “Open Space” furniture creates a working environment that supports various kinds of work, makes efficient use of available areas, provides a private sphere as well as an opportunity for personal retreat and ensures optimised acoustics in an open-plan office. No matter whether the work is communicative in a team or concentrated on one’s own, Mindport® by Lista Office LO can always offer the ideal place to work. During a scientifically based pilot project, the new “Open Space” furniture will be tested in-depth until the end of 2011 and developed further during a joint effort by the universities of Zurich (ZHAW) as well as Lucerne (HSLU) and the design studio Greutmann Bolzern.

A family-owned company ensures continuity during change. The Lienhard Office Group, founded in 2009 with the autonomous brands Office LO, InterOffice and Denz, ranks among the leading manufacturers and providers of office furniture systems. Throughout Switzerland, customers benefit from a varied and comprehensive offering of products and services. An emotional understanding of the office market is one of the common values of the brand family. The Lienhard Office Group does not merely furnish abstract rooms or buildings with its brands, but puts life into people’s workplaces. In this way, they promote well-being and productivity in the office. And, they contribute successfully to change in the working environment.

Acquisition of the InterOffice group from its founder Antonio Rubel. The company had operated under the names IEM Office and Nivobüro since 1979.

In order to address customer wishes optimally, Lista organised itself with two divisions: Workspace and Storage Systems (Lista B+L) and Office Systems (Lista Office). Both hold the position of leader in their markets, the B+L Division with 800 employees and sales of CHF 220 million, the Office Division with 300 people and sales of CHF 100 million. In 2006, entrepreneurial independence followed operational independence: The B+L Division was sold to the Capvis Group as Lista Holding. Lista Office remained in the ownership of the founder family around Fredy A. Lienhard. With a new corporate design and continual investments in products and services, the leader in office furniture systems upheld the success of the traditional Lista brand, day in, day out, office for office and workplace for workplace.

In this year, Lista celebrated not only its 50th anniversary, but also resolved important initiatives for the future. Acquisition of C + A Dick GmbH, a longstanding German sales partner in Bergneustadt, strengthened the company’s position in Germany. The subsidiaries founded in other countries at the beginning of the 1990s were flourishing. In Vienna, Lista’s subsidiary moved into its own building. In Switzerland, sustainable actions were also taken. The Purchase of the majority holding in Denz & Co AG made it possible for the product range to be supplemented for an interesting market segment. In 2004, Lista, after the withdrawal of Albert Denz, took over the remaining shares of the company. In 1998, the vision “Making Workspace Work” was realised by combining the divisions Lista Workspace and Storage Systems and Office in Europe to “Lista Europe”. Lista also showed that it was fit for the future in manufacturing: In the middle of the 1990s, the plants in Degersheim and Arnegg ranked among the first companies to have their environmental management systems certified according to the ISO standard 14001.

Founded originally as a local metalworking shop, Lista increasingly established itself as an international group of companies in the 1990s. The Lista Europe Division, which incorporated the Europe-wide business for workplace, storage and office furniture systems, founded new subsidiaries abroad one after the other: Lista Vienna, Lista Italy, Lista Spain, Lista France, Lista England and Lista Prague. In the Swiss home market, the network of the company’s own sales offices and authorised distributors was strengthened. Production reflected this sales offensive. On 2 January 1990, a new plant, designed with the very latest manufacturing processes in mind, opened its doors in Arnegg. In the USA too, Lista progressed along the growth course, making it necessary for the head office in Holliston to be expanded by 2,000 square metres.

Innovative furniture systems were developed by Lista to meet large orders placed by Hoffmann-La Roche, SFS Stadler and other customers. They quickly advanced to sales hits and literally caused the office business line at the Erlen-headquartered company to burst at the seams. Consequently, the search began for a new location for the production of office furniture. As luck would have it, an ideal plot of land was found in Degersheim of all places, just where Alfred Lienhard had founded his company in 1945. Well-considered purchases accelerated growth: in 1988, Lista took over the office chair manufacturer Züco with factories in Rebstein and Hohenems. Where workplace and storage systems were concerned, acquisition of the South German storage carousel manufacturer Megamat & Co. GmbH in 1989 enabled Lista to strengthen the company’s strategic position in Europe. In Switzerland, furthermore, the firms Vidmar in Bern as well as the Scheer Company’s factory in Herisau were taken over.

This year witnessed both the establishment of Lista Degersheim AG and the birth of the third generation of the Lienhard family.

A tragic stroke of fate hit the company on 7 April 1970: Alfred Lienhard died of a heart attack at the age of 44. His 22-year-old son Fredy A. Lienhard took on the entrepreneurial responsibility, and successfully. Jointly, he and the existing managerial staff led not only the parent company in Switzerland to new heights, but also the US business through expansion. The office and warehouse building of the Lista International Corporation was built at Holliston, Massachusetts. It was followed shortly by the first manufacturing facility where production rapidly expanded in the second half of the 1970s. The production and office premises were enlarged and the company’s presence in the US market successively increased. Between 1981 and 1985, Lista opened its own subsidiaries at Long Beach and Dallas.

The sole trader company Lienhard Stahlbau became Lienhard AG. The first steps were taken towards putting succession arrangements in place.

In the 1960s, Lista was characterised by internationalisation and increases in output as well as efficiency. In 1965, Lista processed 500 tons of sheet steel every month and produced 1,000 drawers every day. The range of products consisted of workplace systems, such as clothes lockers, tool cabinets, workbenches and storage shelving, but also office furniture like filing cabinets, drawing cabinets, desks and archiving frames. The first production line for drawers and a new painting bay modernised the production facility. Lista received large orders from the automotive industry. In 1968, encouraged by these successes, Alfred Lienhard supplied Lista products to his business partner Deluxe-Systems (later Deluxe-Lista) in the USA.

At the beginning of the 1950s, Alfred Lienhard was 25 years of age. In the decade of the economic miracle, his company climbed the ladder from the level of small business enterprise to that of a top player among the Swiss industrial companies. High-quality products and a strong demand for steel furniture resulted in 228 employees playing a part in Lista’s success as early as 1958. The opening of KAG Kunststoffwerk AG in 1960, a subsidiary which manufactures tools and drawer inserts for the parent company, contributed to a further growth spurt. An exceptional product created in 1953 – the motorised bicycle “LISTA” (Lista Stahlbau) – became one of the very special milestones although only 600 were sold. From then on, this concise brand name was taken over for all products and later also used for the company.

Under the brand “ALID” (Alfred Lienhard Degersheim), Alfred Lienhard and his employees produced an increasing number of products. However, the launch of an Alid refrigerator turned out to be a severe setback. Five years after founding the company, the entrepreneur decided to focus on workplace and storage systems. It was a decision that shaped the future: Among other products, the tool drawer cabinet resulted from the company’s know-how in processing sheet steel. It has become a lasting top-selling article and the symbol of Lista’s history. Owing to the success of the product, the workforce rapidly rose to 40 people, pushing the available workspace at the company headquarters in Degersheim to its limits. On 17 April 1951, Alfred Lienhard acquired the premises of the Tetra-Werke in Erlen TG, a company that had gone bankrupt. Twenty-four employees relocated from Degersheim to Erlen with Alfred Lienhard.

What began in 1945 as a one-man business for steel products was the start of a long and continuing success story. Born in 1925, Lista company founder Alfred Lienhard discovered his passion for steel in early youth. After his school days, he learned the metalworking trade in Herisau at the Ernst Scheer Company, a leading manufacturer of factory equipment. Following a job as a structural metal worker with the SIG Company in Neuhausen, he ventured into self-employment. In his uncle’s basement in Herisau, he set about producing garden furniture and other steel products. The investment took his entire savings, but paid off. After only a very short time, he was able to move the facility into his own premises in Degersheim. On 17 February 1945, aged twenty, the young entrepreneur had his tubular steel equipment fabrication company entered in the commercial register.