Bühler continued to build on its successful apprenticeship program in 2025. The apprenticeships are based on the Swiss dual-vocational model, a global benchmark that has been adapted by other countries. Students receive a mix of practical and training. In 2025, Bühler trained 524 apprentices globally, 317 of whom were trained in Switzerland. Apprenticeship programs are run in 24 locations across Europe, North and South America, Middle East and Africa, and South Asia.

These 3- and 4-year courses cover 10 different vocational fields and continually evolve to meet the changing skill sets required by companies. Of those completing their apprenticeships in Switzerland in August 2025, 67% of them chose employment with Bühler. A new cohort of 85 apprentices joined the 2025 intake in Switzerland, with women accounting for 26% of the group, the highest proportion to date. Since the foundation of the program in 1915, 8,500 apprentices have been contracted at Bühler in Switzerland and nearly 2,000 more globally.

Eleven candidates represented Bühler at the SwissSkills 2025 competition in Bern, showcasing outstanding dedication and performances: Two gold medals, one silver medal, and three bronze medals. Lars Blumer (Construction) and Cyrill Koller (Industry 4.0) were particularly outstanding. As newly crowned Swiss champions, they secured their ticket to WorldSkills 2026 in Shanghai.

This year we also received state visits from the US and South Africa to see firsthand how our apprenticeship program works. We were greatly honored that our efforts in this area were recognized in this way.

We continue to offer training opportunities to our customers through our different specialist schools around the globe, including the African Milling School (AMS) in Nairobi, Kenya, the Cocoa Competence Center CFIA, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the International Rice Milling Academy in Bengaluru, India, and the new state-of-the-art Milling Academy, which opened in Uzwil, Switzerland, in 2025.  

At the AMS, a total of 15 apprentice millers graduated this year, and over 120 participants completed professional courses. In addition to the usual training at the school, more than 700 participants took Coffee, Cocoa, and Milling courses online. There was also growing demand for tailored onsite training at customers’ plants. AMS instructors travelled outside Kenya to give more than 8 weeks of training at customers’ sites. The school also trained over 30 Bühler employees this year.

The AMS offers a wide range of programs, including Feed Milling, Maize Milling, Baking Technology, Flour Laboratory, Electrical and Mechanical Maintenance, and Advanced Milling Online Training. The programs attracted a diverse group of participants, including front-line operators and senior executives such as CEOs, CFOs, General Managers, and Managing Directors. Since its establishment in 2015, the AMS has trained more than 1,625 students from over 30 countries, including Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Germany, Senegal, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Pakistan, Yemen, Cameroon, Jordan, India, Lebanon, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Algeria, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Congo, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, The Gambia, Oman, and Azerbaijan.

In 2025, we provided sustainability training for 625 people, including external training for customers, technical schools, and internal training programs. We ran 37 webinars, conferences, and workshops on the topic. Internally, 229 Bühler people were reached with training, workshops, and community updates. All Business Areas assigned a sustainability ambassador and successfully completed the sustainability training. This enabled us to bring sustainability even closer to everyday business and helps Bühler to support its customers to grow their businesses while improving the efficiency of their installed assets and reduce their footprint both in terms of operational costs and emissions. The external training, which reached approximately 396 people, included conferences, events, courses, and tailored 1:1 workshops with experts from Bühler Environmental Impact Services. This process also enables Bühler to capture internal and external feedback from various stakeholders.

In 2025, the training focused on the sustainability challenges that Bühler`s customers face and on how we can support them through our solutions. For this reason, the focus was on delivering the 50/50/50 results at Networking Days.

In 2025, Bühler continued to advance its leadership bench by offering targeted development initiatives for employees across experience and seniority levels. Introduced in 2022, the Basics in Bühler Management (BBM) program – designed for first-time people leaders – expanded beyond Switzerland, with a first European class finishing in 2024 and a second in 2025. To date, 25 participants have completed the program. In November 2025, Bühler launched its first international BBM pilot, extending the program globally beyond Europe for the 2025/2026 cycle.

In 2025, Bühler, in collaboration with IMD International Institute for Management Development, was honored with the Brandon Hall Group Bronze Medal Excellence Award in Learning and Development, in the category Best Team Development Program, for our high-performance teams’ program. This recognition celebrates not only the transformative impact of the joint initiative, but Bühler’s enduring commitment to developing high-performing, values-driven leadership teams to advance our global strategic goals. The journey that started in 2020 with a first program cohort empowered Bühler’s top 140 executives and cascaded high-performance team practices to over 1,000 leaders throughout the organization. In 2025, the top 100 senior leaders continued the conversation during their annual seminar. They focused on how to lead with energy and drive collaboration and growth in today’s volatile business environment. 

Besides the continuous development of our leaders across the organization in the Advanced Leadership Program, our global leadership development program for experienced leaders, the Ready to Go Leadership Essentials for first-time people leaders, the Excelerator Assessment Center for our high potential talents and BBM, Bühler celebrated two key highlights in 2025 regarding leadership development. First, the 2025 cohort of the Master of Bühler Management Program (MBM) actively participated during the Networking Days 2025. The MBM, the global leadership program for mid-level high potential leaders, is a key initiative translating Bühler’s commitment to talent development and lifelong learning into action. Second, in 2025 we completed the first cohort of THRIVE, our talent program for female talents. Twenty-four female talents came together in the first THRIVE face-to-face event in Uzwil as part of the program that started in 2024. Blending virtual learning, peer coaching, and mentorship, THRIVE reinforces our commitment to inclusion, equity, and diversity, and empowers women to grow, lead, and excel in a predominantly male business sector.

Bühler’s Sales Academy aims to shape our sales force to face and win the challenges of the evolving buying environment in our industries, today and tomorrow. It focusses on team selling and strong soft sales skill preparation coupled with technical skills. In 2025, 23 training sessions were conducted with approximately 700 participants, reinforcing Bühler’s commitment to excellence in customer engagement and long-term partnership building. For maximum impact, the training was delivered mostly in person at locations around the world.

In 2025, we further strengthened our Employer Value Proposition, enhancing our global attractiveness as an employer. We continued to evolve our recruiting processes to reflect changing skill requirements, investing in ongoing upskilling for our recruiters and modernizing our tools to ensure excellent candidate experience. To make career development opportunities more transparent and visible, we published new career path pages on our careers website to showcase diverse career journeys and growth opportunities across different functions at Bühler – for external and internal candidates alike. In addition, our careers website and job advertisements now feature a more dynamic design and interactive format, making it easier for candidates to explore opportunities and engage with Bühler. 

To complement the mobility initiatives, we launched the new “Welcome to our Headquarters Uzwil” video, giving potential employees and visitors an authentic glimpse into our working environment and culture.

Bühler was recognized among the World’s Best Companies by TIME Magazine in both 2024 and 2025. In 2025, the company was also named among the Financial Times’ Best Employers in Europe, ranked No. 1 in the industrial sector by the Handelszeitung Switzerland Award, and certified as a Great Place to Work in Brazil and Colombia. These achievements are a testament to the incredible dedication of our teams across the globe. Your contributions, passion, and commitment make our company a truly great place to work.