BGS Company History
BGS Beta-Gamma-Service GmbH & Co. KG was founded in 1981 by Dr. Lothar Wiesner in Wiehl, near Gummersbach, Germany. His business idea: to provide demand-oriented, customer-focussed irradiation services for industry, because acquiring, installing and running this technology is too costly and too complex for many enterprises to consider.
Today, BGS is owned by the families of Kotz (Wiehl) and Fissler (Idar-Oberstein). Dr. Andreas Ostrowicki has been Managing Director since 2008. His predecessor, Dr. Alfred Zyball, was Managing Director from 1990 to 2008.
BGS Company Milestones:
| 1981 | Company founded |
| 1983 | 0.56 MeV and 3.0 MeV electron accelerators go into operation |
| 1986 | 3.5 MCi Cobalt-60 gamma plant built in Wiehl Bruchsal becomes the second location of BGS, with a 4.5 MeV electron accelerator |
| 1990 | Dr. Alfred Zyball appointed Managing Director |
| 1993 | 1.5 MeV electron accelerator goes into operation in Wiehl |
| 1997 | Commissioning of the new 5 MCi Cobalt-60 gamma plant in Wiehl |
| 1998 | The previous gamma plant in Wiehl is converted into a 2.5 MeV electron accelerator |
| 2000 | Saal an der Donau becomes BGS’s third location, with a 10 MeV electron accelerator for the highly-automated irradiation of packaged goods |
| 2002 | Construction of a new 10 MeV electron accelerator for the irradiation of items measuring up to 12 m x 1.60 m in Bruchsal |
| 2008 | Dr. Andreas Ostrowicki takes over as Managing Director from Dr. Zyball, who goes into retirement |
| 2009 | Construction of a new 5 MeV accelerator at the location in Saal an der Donau |
