NKE AUSTRIA GmbH – a manufacturer of premium bearings – was founded in 1996 by a group of senior staff members of the former company Steyr Wälzlager. Within a decade, the NKE brand has emerged on the world bearing market as a significant alternative in the premium class.

We offer both standard and special bearings for all industrial applications as well as technical services, including product development, application engineering, consulting, documentation and training.

NKE’s core functions – such as engineering, product development, final processing of components, modular assembly, quality assurance, logistics, sales and marketing – are centralised at our headquarters in Steyr, Austria. The site is certified to ISO9001, ISO14001 and IS45001. In April 2021, NKE was awarded the Austria Quality Seal in recognition of its high quality standards.

Today, NKE bearings are distributed in more than 80 countries through over 240 distributors and 18 international representative offices.

We overachieve expectations

What we do want to see is that we understand the expectations of our customers (can be both internal and/or external) and think deeply about how we can overachieve the expectations by finding solutions to their problems and making their lives easier. The focus should be on pain areas the customer is facing, which should avoid the trap of over-engineering by providing solutions to problems the customer is not prioritizing. Oftentimes it is the small things that make the difference. Let’s look out for them!

We value progress and development over perfection

In our endeavours, we do not strive for perfection. Instead of asking “Is it perfect?” we ask “Is it safe to try?”. We focus on getting ahead and start the action. What counts is that we push ourselves to get better than yesterday, every day. We do not let fear of mistakes guide our actions, instead, we expose ourselves to challenges and see everything as an opportunity to grow.

We are results-oriented. We go the extra mile

With this virtue we do not mean that we should maximize the hours we work (see below). Instead of maximizing the input (hours spent) we care about performance. This can be defined differently for different departments (eg Sales higher revenue vs Engineering more innovative product), but the underlying principle can be applied universally. We are ambitious to move things forward and to deliver.

We want our people to care about things

With this virtue we do not mean that we should maximize the hours we work (see below). Instead of maximizing the input (hours spent) we care about performance. This can be defined differently for different departments (eg Sales higher revenue vs Engineering more innovative product), but the underlying principle can be applied universally. We are ambitious to move things forward and to deliver.

We want our employees to care about:

Short: we want our people to care about things that matter to us, by having an opinion and not being indifferent, by voicing concerns, by contributing ideas, by making aware of bad developments!

We take active ownership

We want our employees to take ownership in the organization. For us this means that we are courageous in making decisions and acting as if we were the owners of the company. However, this also means that we openly voice our concerns if we see something that we disagree with. The manager this issue is brought up to has the responsibility to listen and consider your concerns. However, he/she may disagree. Once a decision is made, we expect that everyone sticks and commits to it.

We can summarize this virtue with an example: On the one hand, there are companies, where employees ignore if there is trash on the floor, leaving it for someone else to pick it up. On the other hand, there are also companies, where people lean down to pick up the trash that they see. Picking up the trash is the metaphor for taking care of problems, small and large, and never thinking “that’s not my job.” We don’t have rules about picking up the real or metaphoric trash. We try to create a sense of ownership so that this behaviour comes naturally. 

Since January 2016 NKE Austria has been part of the Fersa Group.

Fersa Group was created through the merger of two European bearing manufacturers: Fersa Bearings in Spain and NKE in Austria. Both are globally active in the design, production and distribution of high quality bearings for the global automotive and industrial markets.

Over 50 years of manufacturing experience and the trust of leading OEMs, Tier 1 and the Aftermarket, endorse our products and services.

The group is present on all five continents; with three state of the art factories, five distribution centers as well as three R&D centers, two in Europe and one in Asia, all of them supporting our growing presence in more than 85 countries.

https://fersagroup.com

NKE AUSTRIA’s headquarters is located in the traditional industrial town of Steyr in Upper Austria.
This is where our core competences are based:

• • • Application engineering and product development
    • Manufacture of components
    • Final processing of components and bearings
    • Modular component assembly
    • Quality assurance
    • Marketing and sales
    • Warehouse and logistics

The new NKE headquarters in Steyr has a total of more than 10,000 m² of floor space, including 7,600 m² of production and warehousing premises.

The site is certified to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO45001.

More information about the city of Steyr (external links)

• Official site of the city of Steyr (German only): www.steyr.at
• Tourist information about Steyr: www.tourism-steyr.at

Environment

We strive to minimise negative environmental impact in every aspect of our business - from product development, production, packaging, facilities management and waste disposal to daily operations such as documentation.

The environmental management system at our Steyr site is certified to ISO14001. 

Safety

Occupational safety is the cornerstone for effective workflows and motivated employees. NKE has designated safety officers and regular training sessions are held internally or by external experts to keep the employees up to date on all safety issues.

The Steyr site is certified to ISO45001.