With the aim of further expanding its international range of project management, consulting and engineering services, Drees & Sommer opened its first Swiss office in Zurich on 1 October 2008. Drees & Sommer now has 230 employees in Switzerland at its offices in Zurich, Basel and Lausanne.
As entrepreneurs within the company, the employees are customer-orientated, responsible and make full use of their decision-making scope. Anyone who works with them on projects can sense the special "Drees & Sommer spirit".
Growth and expansion
Today, Drees & Sommer's beginnings in Switzerland would be described as a classic start-up: A small, highly motivated and competent team takes on a major challenge. Although the first office was not a garage like Apple's, it came very close. Driven by a shared vision, the Drees & Sommer team managed to successfully realise two outstanding major projects in Switzerland in the first few years: The 5-star superior hotel "The Chedi" in Andermatt and the office tower "Bau 1" for F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG in Basel.
These flagship projects were followed by others, and as the number of employees grew, so too did the range of services. While the initial focus was still very much on general planning and construction management services, expertise in the field of engineering has been continuously built up in recent years. The integration of RBS Projektmanagement (Schweiz) GmbH in 2016 further contributed to the expansion of the service portfolio. This means that interesting and forward-looking workplace consulting projects can now also be supported directly from Switzerland. The company added the final building block to complete its range of services with the acquisition of RESO Partners AG: With the new colleagues from Real Estate Consulting, Drees & Sommer Schweiz AG offers complete services from a single source, covering the entire life cycle of properties in a wide range of sectors.
Drees & Sommer - the complete company history
In 1970, Gerhard Drees founded a small engineering office in Stuttgart. At the time, he and co-founder Hans Sommer had no idea that the team of three would become an international company with more than 5,100 employees. Innovation and "thinking differently" characterise Drees & Sommer to this day.