Draft:Stern Gruppe

Stern Gruppe

Type	GmbH
Industry	Public Transportation Construction Electric power systems Precast concrete Shipping line Event management
Founded	1883 (1883)
Headquarters	Josef Stern Building Kuferzeile 32 Gmunden, Austria, EU
Key people	Stern Holding GmbH Karl Neumann (CEO) Manfred Schmalzer (CFO) Julia Graf-Pinaucic (CLO)
Revenue	EUR >100 million (2019)
Total assets	EUR >100 million (2024)
Number of employees	>700 (2026)
Website	stern.at

The Stern Gruppe (transl. Stern Group) is a privately held conglomerate company based in Austria, operating public transportation for government entities , caring out construction for public and private projects, planning and installing electric power systems for residential and industrial use, manufacturing precast concrete parts for all intents and purposes as well as running cruise ships on lakes in the Salzkammergut region. The company also does multiple other things to lesser extend like event management.

History

Founding and early infrastructure projects

The history of the Stern Group dates back to 1883, when two engineers named Josef Stern and Franz Hafferl founded an engineering consultancy in Vienna, specializing in the planning and development of tramways and regional railways. They worked on the Vienna Tramway Network as well as the Aschach Railway. Only a year later they shifted their operational focus to Upper Austria and the Salzkannergut region. In 1887, the founders expanded their operations by forming the Bauunternehmen Stern & Hafferl OHG, entering the construction sector to self-execute their planned infrastructure projects.

Salzkammergut Railway allong lake Mondsee shortly after completion 1893.

Engine Nr. 7 at St Gilgen station in 1895.

Stern & Hafferl quickly became a pioneer in regional transit and engineering within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the following years they completet multiple major projects like the famouse Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn between Salzburg and Bad Ischl, the Schafbergbahn from St Wolfgang up to the peak of the Schafberg, and also the Gmunden Tramway which was one of the earliest fully electrified tram networks in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Due to the majority of the projects now taking place in the Salzkammergut, in 1893 all devisions of Stern & Hafferl moved from Vienna to Gmunden, which was ideal as Emperor Franz Joseph I. with his entire retinue resided in Bad Ischl not far away.

Electrification and corporate expansion

In order to power the expanding electric railway endevors Stern & Hefferl was setting out to complete, they had to build some of the first power plants in Austria. Their first project was a 18 kW coal power plant producing direct current electricity for St Wolfgang, completet in 1892/93. Only a year later they completet their second coal power plant in Gmunden, providing power to the tramway and residents. In 1895 Stern & Hafferl created the Gmundner Elektrizitäts Aktiengesellschaft abbr. G.E.A.G. (trans. Gmunden Electric Corporation) for the purpose of better managing the ever increasing demand of electric power.

Starting 1902 Stern & Hafferl began the construction of high volatge transmission lines in order to interconnect their stations, creating a stable power grid. In the following years multiple other railway projects such as the Unterach Tramway and the Atterseebahn were completet. Stern & Hafferl continued to use and build direct current catenary with voltages in the 600 to 750 V range, making mercury-arc rectifiers and rotary converters nesesary, as their power generation divion has switched to using three phase alternating current with voltages up to 10 kV for early transmission lines.

Between 1906 and 1924 Stern & Hafferl drove the large-scale electrification of Upper Austria and Salzburg by constructing multiple major hydroelectric power plants, including but not limited to facilities in Offensee, Gosau, Steeg, and Großarl. During this time in Stern & Hafferl consolidated its power generation operations, which were split between subsidiaries, into the Elektrizitätswerke Stern & Hafferl AG abbr. EW (trans. Electrical Plants Stern and Hafferl Corp.) Concurrently, Stern & Hafferl expanded into maritime transport. Having introduced electric boates on lake Attersee in 1913, providing cennecting services for railway passengers of the Atterseebahn, Stern & Hafferl formally acuired the financially struggeling Attersee-Dampfschifffahrt (trans. Attersee Steamboat Company) in 1924, establishing a monopoly on commercial shipping across austrias largest lake. In 1928, the company further diversified into regional public transit by introducing its first regional bus route around lake Attersee.

In 1929 the Stern & Hafferl owned EW was merged with the Oberösterreichische Wasserkraft- und Elektrizitäts-AG abbr. OWEAG (trans. Upper Austrian Hydropower and Electric Corp.) that formed just a few years prior, creating the new Österreichische Kraftwerke AG abbr. ÖKA (trans. Austrian Powerplant Corporation) that controlled allmost 100 WM of power generation and 3,250 kilometres of distribution lines. This company would later go one to become the Energie AG, Upper Austria's most important electricity and natural gas provider.

Diversification and restructuring

In 1951, it commenced operations on the Bürmoos–Trimmelkam railway to support regional coal transport for the SAKOG mining operations. Stern & Hafferl also expanded into alpine tourism infrastructure, constructing the Grünbergseilbahn cable car in Gmunden in 1957.

In order to reduce the dependency on the overly regulated public transportation sector, Stern & Hafferl branched out its operations successfull diversifing into new fields of business during the second half of the 20th century. Starting in 1972 Stern & Hafferl partnered with Asamer Kies- und Betonwerke GmbH abbr. ASAMER, to found Gmunden Fertigteile GmbH abbr. GF (trans. Gmunden Prefabricated Parts), specializing in precast concrete blocks and infrastructure components, which later achieved international success with specialized railway crossings. In 1974 Stern & Hafferl also founded Stern Reisen (trans. Stern Trips) travel agency, that would later also take over of its competitors, e.g. Wintereder Reisen.

In 1980 Stern & Hafferl initiated a multi-decade corporate restructuring process to untangle it's heavily diversified operations into autonomous corporate entities under a common ownership, this being the Stern & Hafferl Holding which was formaly formed in 1992. During the restructuring the electric subsidiaries were comind into the GEG Elektro- und Gebäudetechnik GmbH abbr. GEG (trans. GEG Electrical and Building Services Engineering). Later in 1998 Stern & Hafferl founded the GEG Agency, which functiond as a marketing agency and created the Energy Globe Award, though the agency was later spun off in 2011. Also in 2011 Stern & Hafferl took over the Altausee shipping, putting into service the first solar powered passanger ship in Austria. In 2017 the Stern & Hafferl holding company is renaimed to Stern Holding GmbH using the brand identity Stern Gruppe. A year later the century project, closing the gap between the Gmunden tramway and the Traunseebahn is completet after years of legal battle with local residents.

Following the anoucement of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) in summer 2025 that they are planning to shut down the Hausruckbahn, Mühlkreisbahn and Almtalbahn rail lines, the deputy mayor of Pettenbach Sigrid Maria Grubmair, called for Stern Group to take over the Almtalbahn from the ÖBB, as they got more operational experience with runing local rail lines than the federaly owned ÖBB.

Business divisions

Public transportation

Being one of if not the largest business divisions of the group with more then 400 employees, the public transportation divison is the flag ship devision of the group. It is split into three main subsidiaries, these being the Stern & Hafferl Verkehrsgesellschaft m.b.H. (trans. Stern & Hefferl Transport Company), the Stern & Hafferl Kraftfahrlinien GmbH (trans. Stern & Hafferl Motor Vehicle Lines Compoany) and the Bus Technik Center Schörfling (trans. Schörfling Bus Technical Centre).

Traunseebahn electric multiple unit on the Gmunden tramway section.

Stern & Hafferl Verkehrsgesellschaft m.b.H. Bombardier TRAXX with bulk goods wagons.

The Stern & Hafferl Verkehrsgesellschaft m.b.H. operates four rail lines (Linzer Lokalbahn, Traunseebahn, Atterseebahn and Vorchdorferbahn) with a length of more than 130 km, transporting 3.75 million passengers anualy with a punctuality of more than 99%. The Linzer Lokalbahn, Traunseebahn and Atterseebahn are metre gauge while the Vorchdorferbahn is standard gauge. Apart from these four passanger rail lines, the subsidiary also operates nine mainline diesel electric locomotives and dual mode locomotives which transport up to 9.4 million tonnes of freight, traveling more than 350,000 km anualy. The subsidiary is member of the Rail Cargo Group Austria.

The Stern & Hafferl Kraftfahrlinien GmbH operates 30 bus lines with a combined length of 523 km and transports 1.25 million passengers anualy, traveling more than 2.2 million scheduled kilometres. The subsidiary not only runs scheduled services but also let coaches as wet or dry leasing, also overing tailored excursions for schools, companies and goverment entities.

The Bus Technik Center Schörfling acts as the internal maintenance devision of the Kraftfahrlinien, but also offers services to other bus operators. They service more than 180 busses per year from all major brands.

Construction

The construction devision of the group is unified into the Stern & Hafferl Baugesellschaft m.b.H. (trans. Stern & Hafferl Construction Company). The subsidiary does Planning, building construction (residential, commercial, detached houses and main contractor projects), private new-build projects (renovations, conversions and extensions, revitalisation of vacant properties) and timber construction (houses, conversions and extensions, façades, terraces, carpentry and structural timber engineering).

Electrical power systems

The GEG Elektro und Gebäudetechnik GmbH abbr. GEG (trans. GEG Electrical and Building Services Engineering) provides electrical planning and installation, implementation of computer networks, HVAC systems, emergency power systems and plumbing.

Precast concrete

The Gmundner Fertigteile GesmbH & CoKG abbr. GF (trans. Gmunden Prefabricated Parts) as the legal structure allready implies, is a joint-venture of the Stern Group and Asamer Kies- und Betonwerke GmbH abbr. ASAMER (trans. Asamer Gravel and Concrete Works). The subsidiary main produces precast conrete parts for level railway crossings, station platforms and prefabricated high security conrete buildings, especially for remot locations like cellular base station infrastructure.

Shipping line

MS Vöcklabruck on lake Attersee docking in Attersee

The Stern Schifffahrt GmbH (trans. Stern Shipping Company) is the subsidiary that runs the all shipping operations both on lake Attersee, the largest lake within Austria, as well as lake Altaussee. It operates four ships, eight boats and one flatboat. The four ships are the MS Vöcklabruck, MS Weyregg, MS Unterach and the MS Altaussee, with the first three being in duty on lake Attersee and the last one on lake Altaussee. The subsidiary maintains 13 moorings along both lakes and offers line service stlye round trips and sectioned routes in the summer. The ships can also be chartered and are used for themed trips, espectialy in the off season. The bootes are generally for rental use on the Altaussee.

Stern ships on lake Altaussee were involved in the production of the James Bond film Spectre.