Bühler Group

Bühler dominates industrial food processing equipment through 163 years of accumulated expertise in milling, extrusion, and sorting technologies. Founded in 1860, the company supplies the machinery that transforms raw grains into flour, pasta, breakfast cereals, and pet food - processing 65% of the world's wheat. This industrial infrastructure business generates $3B+ annual revenue through high-value equipment sales ($1M-50M per production line) plus recurring revenue from replacement parts, upgrades, and service. Bühler's moat comes from multi-decade customer relationships and process knowledge: optimizing flour milling or chocolate production requires understanding both machinery and food science, creating switching costs that pure equipment manufacturers can't replicate. The lesson: in B2B equipment, technical consulting embedded in hardware sales creates more defensible businesses than hardware alone.