With a history of more than 100 years, Bonaria Frères has built a strong reputation as a construction company based in Esch-sur-Alzette.
Between 1914 and 1917, the Bonaria family established its roots in Luxembourg. Aurelio Bonaria, originally from Northern Italy, settled in Esch-sur-Alzette where he began working in construction and building his own family. Aurelio and his wife had four daughters and four sons.
Bonaria Frères was founded in April 1954 by the two brothers Egide and Laurent Bonaria. The first headquarters was located in the family home at 91, rue du Canal. At that time, between 40 and 50 workers, mainly of Italian origin, were employed by the company.
At the end of the 1950s, Bonaria Frères acquired land for a storage yard and workshop on rue de Belval. In 1964, the company’s premises were moved to rue du Brill. The same year, a new concrete company, Bétons Frais, was created on the rue de Belval site. After the construction boom of the 1970s, many Italian workers joined ARBED, and the construction sector was able to recover thanks to the arrival of Portuguese workers.
In 1978, the two Bonaria brothers each took over their respective parts of the business to secure the future: Egide for Bonaria Frères and Laurent for Bétons Frais.
In 1982, Gilbert Thein (Egide’s nephew) joined the company during a period of crisis in the sector. After the death of Egide Bonaria in 1987, Gilbert Thein took over the company at the age of 29, with 80 workers. A new office building was constructed on rue Zénon Bernard in 1994.
In 1999, Bonaria Frères SARL became a public limited company (SA). Over the years, Bonaria Frères has established a strong name in the fields of road works, maintenance, and construction.
In 2016, after engineering studies in Germany and four years of experience at Paul Wurth Geprolux, Gérard Thein joined the company as Technical Director of the building sector. In 2019, at the age of 34, Gérard Thein took over from his father as head of the company, representing the fourth generation, and now leads Bonaria Frères with 150 workers and a complete fleet of equipment.
Gérard Thein is a member of:
- the Committee of the Federation of Entrepreneurs at the FDA
- the STI Committee (Occupational Health)
- the FJD Committee (Federation of Young Business Leaders)
