07.07.2021

Hagedorn acquires Wasel

Germany’s Hagedorn group, one of the five largest demolition companies in the world, has acquired crane and heavy haulage specialist Wasel.

The move is intended to provide a single source supplier for dismantling large coal fired power stations over the next decade or two, as well as wind turbine replacement work.

While Wasel will become part of the Hagedorn group, managing directors Matthias and Thomas Wasel will continue to run the company as a stand alone entity under the Wasel brand. The combined business will have revenues in the region of €360 million, with more than 1,100 employees and a fleet of around 1,000 units. Wasel makes up around €60 million and 400 employees, plus most of the machinery, compared to Hagedorn’s €300 million and 700 employees.
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(L-R) Matthias and Thomas Wasel with Barbara and Thomas Hagedorn

Managing director, Thomas Hagedorn, said: “If Germany is to be climate neutral by 2045, we will have to significantly increase the pace of structural change. This requires strong partners who can efficiently and reliably implement the restructuring of industry, energy and infrastructure. And the coal phase out should be completed by 2038 at the latest. To do this, many coal fired power plants have to be dismantled.”

“The existing wind turbines will also have to be replaced by newer, more powerful systems. Hagedorn calculates that by 2025 over 8,000 wind turbines will need to be recycled and new ones installed and serviced.”
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Wasel’s new 700 tonne Liebherr LTM 1650-8.1

Matthias Wasel added: “We have to shape the structural change together, as a reliable partner who lends a hand today and tomorrow. Because especially in the opencast mines, where systems and machines have to be maintained until the coal fired power generation expires. Together with Hagedorn, we are ready to support the transition responsibly. Wasel and Hagedorn have already worked closely in the past, for example on the dismantling of wind turbines and the Lünen power plant.”

Hagedorn was established in 1997 and is based in Gütersloh near Bielefeld, with locations in Berlin, Hanover and Cologne. Ownership remains with the family, with the company headed by Barbara and Thomas Hagedorn.

Wasel is based in Bergheim, to the west of Cologne, and runs a fleet of more than 150 Liebherr All Terrain and heavy crawler cranes, along with 400 tower cranes, 60 tractor units and with 100 semi-trailers, with around 400 across 11 locations. It has also been a Liebherr tower crane dealer for more than 65 years and is a strategic partner of RWE Power.