DKSH


DKSH, also known as DiethelmKellerSiberHegner, is a Swiss holding company specialising in market expansion services, e.g. including outsourcing. Although its headquarters is in Zurich, DKSH is deeply rooted in communities all across the Asia Pacific region.
The company offers any combination of sourcing, marketing, sales, distribution and after-sales-services and is organized into four Business Units: Consumer Goods, Healthcare, Performance Materials and Technology. Its core business is supporting other companies to grow their business in new or existing markets.
With 825 business locations in 35 countries and 33,000 specialized staff, it is one of the top 30 Swiss companies ranked by sales and employees. In 2018, DKSH generated annual net sales of CHF 11 billion.

Organizational background

The company has its origin in the activities of three Swiss entrepreneurs who sailed in the 1860s east to Asia. Independently and within a few years of each other, Wilhelm Heinrich Diethelm set off for Singapore, Eduard Anton Keller for the Philippines, and Hermann Siber for Yokohama.
As the oldest of the original companies, Siber & Brennwald was founded in 1865. In 1868, Eduard Anton Keller joined C. Lutz & Co., which was founded in Manila in 1866, and renamed this existing enterprise Ed. A. Keller & Co. after he acquired it a year later in 1887. In a similar manner, in 1871 Wilhelm Heinrich Diethelm joined Hooglandt & Co., established in 1860 in Singapore. Sixteen years later, in 1887, he acquired this company and renamed it as Diethelm & Co. Ltd.
The three ancestral companies expanded their business primarily in Asia. Although the European market played a subsidiary role, each headquarters was situated in Switzerland, which illustrates the intensive contact to the home country.
Established in 1906 on the banks of Chao Phraya River, today the company is one of Thailand's leading business organizations, with annual sales of THB 119 billion in 2015. DKSH Thailand has close to 11,000 employees and a comprehensive network of branches across Thailand. It generates more than a third of overall revenues for DKSH.
In 1931 Diethelm & Co., Ltd. was granted permission by Royal Warrant to display the royal Garuda emblem, the official seal of the Royal Household of Thailand.
Even though the two families Diethelm and Keller always had a close-knit business and private relationship the two companies finally merged during the 2000 summer into Diethelm Keller Holding. Two years later, in 2002, Siber Hegner joined as well and this resulted in establishing DKSH. DKSH went public in March 2012 on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
In 2015, the company celebrated its 150th anniversary.
In March 2017 Stefan P. Butz became DKSH's new CEO, with former CEO, Dr. Joerg Wolle, replacing Adrian T. Keller as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In October 2018, DKSH announced that in March 2019 Wolle would be resigning his position as Chairman after just two years. Adrian T. Keller became Chairman instead of Wolle.
In order to strengthen the Consumer Goods Business Unit, the corresponding business of Auric Pacific in Malaysia and Singapore was acquired for CHF 160 million on April 1, 2019. Revenue of the acquired business is approx. CHF 185 million. This represents the most important acquisition by DKSH since 2002.