Sumetzberger: Moving blood, skin, and jewels

Vienna-made pneumatic tube systems, which use compressed air and partial vacuums to propel capsules from A to B in silence and at incredible speed, are accelerating hospital healthcare around the world – and making tracks in other industries that need to move small, precious materials very, very fast. Meet Sumetzberger, the storied Viennese company behind the state-of-the-art technology you’ve never thought about. 

The clinically bright, white showroom looks not unlike the set of a sci-fi movie. Dozens of clear pipes, some 20 centimetres in diameter, flow up the walls, cross paths in diverters on the ceiling and slide down into several loading stations around the perimeter, their front-loading doors framed by blinking lights and LED screens. This is Ing. Sumetzberger GmbH, a company that -though over 100 years old - is making waves with ultra-modern pneumatic tube systems in hospitals, airports and more.  

To the uninitiated, pneumatic tube systems (PTS) sound old-timey, a throwback to the mid-19^th century, when cities like Paris, London, Berlin, and New York operated vast subterranean networks shuttling everything from love letters to sandwiches across town faster than carts could ride or feet could carry. As the decades rolled by, cheaper and faster ways to send messages arose such that by mid-20^th century, most municipal PTS networks had been shuttered. 

Walter Sumetzberger Sr. took over his uncle’s electrical installation company (of the same name) in 1958, two years after Vienna’s own pneumatic tube network was shuttered. Counterintuitively, he chose this moment to go all in on what must have seemed like a fading technology. 

“He had foresight and patience,” explains his son, also named Walter Sumetzberger, who became CEO in early 2023. “Larger companies may have been put off, because it was no cash cow, not at first. It’s a development that requires patience and a certain passion for the topic. You have to say okay, I believe in this product, this is something great, something useful.”

After all, pneumatic tubes still fired cash from bank vaults to tellers, and zipped chits between offices and factory floors. It was a good bet: over the next 65 years, he built a global company that sells its systems in Asia, Latin America, North America and Europe. “Today,” says Sumetzberger, “we even save lives with them.” 

Sumetzberger systems are now used everywhere from airports and mines to a warehouse for the jeweller Tiffany, carrying anything from cash to gemstones, livestock sperm to mineral samples. But the biggest growth market is hospitals. Special anti-microbial hulls transport sensitive blood and tissue samples across complex networks in seconds, far faster than any human could. What’s more, their systems identify the contents of the capsules and assess whether they are valid for further analysis. And in hospitals, tech that saves time saves lives.  

“We’re installing 10,000 loading stations per year,” says Peter Friedrich, Director of Automatisation and Pneumatic Tube Systems. “That would have been unimaginable a couple of years ago. Every week, somewhere, a Sumetzberger system goes into operation.” 

These days, family-owned Sumetzberger employs nearly 250 people and works with some 90 partner companies around the world, most of which exclusively sell and install their systems. “If we included those headcounts,” said Friedrich, “it would be quite the corporation.”

The company holds numerous patents.  In the showroom, Sumetzberger and Friedrich rattle off several of the company’s inventions: ergonomic stations, disinfectant capsules, something called a “power transfer system”, the “auto-unload technology”, the special “track-and-trace scanning system”.  These days, partly funded by the Vienna Business Agency, the company is investing in virtual machine and cloud solutions, and in bespoke logistics for different medical fields. 

“The processes happening in our pneumatic tubes are increasingly personalised,” says Sumetzberger. “That means we need transparency on one hand and data security on the other. What happens in our systems needs to be clear – but only to those who should know.”

Long-term strategic partnerships with laboratory chains, hospitals and manufacturers are key. “We always bring the necessary dedication and will to succeed,” says Friedrich. “If Sumetzberger makes something, it will work. We may not see a big profit margin, but we finish what we start.” 

And that attitude also drives innovation. “Certainly, some projects have made us sweat,” laughs Sumetzberger. “But the know-how we gain pays off within five years – often less.” 

Fuelling a constant arc of innovation is no easy task. “One must find staff with the right know-how,” says Sumetzberger. “We have this in Vienna, not just because of the universities but also because of the HTL engineers whose educational track provides us with the right technicians.” 

In Austria, qualified teens can study at so-called HTL high schools, which provide a high level of applied engineering and math knowledge such that graduates can immediately enter apprenticeships in companies like Sumetzberger, or proceed to technical universities, or both. “We have 40 apprentices at the moment, and we just had a meeting where we decided that this is still the best way to develop our technical staff,” clarifies Friedrich, noting that some top managers had started this way. “Our field is so specific, we can’t simply find people on the market.”

Sumetzberger is typical for a whole class of Austrian companies that are global market leaders for one or two specific, highly technical products. With the exception of Red Bull, says Friedrich, Austria isn’t really set up or known for mass market products, but rather for products “that have a truly high level of innovation combined with specialization. Among pneumatic tube system manufacturers, Sumetzberger is known as the leading company.” 

The company’s reputation draws clients to them – and the headquarters in Vienna doesn’t hurt. “There’s so much beauty in Austria, it’s our culture, our quality of life. People like to visit us,” says Friedrich. “We say, ‘Come here!’ – and they come.”