In mid-September, Handtmann inaugurated a new production hall at the Aspach industrial estate in Biberach. In just eleven months, a single-storey new building was constructed here with a total production and logistics area of 2,700 m² where system components will be produced for the automotive industry in the future.
Handtmann invested € 4 million in the new building. A further € 8.5 million will be invested in the required production and assembly lines that will be installed and commissioned in the coming months. A year earlier, around € 1.2 million was invested in the structural upgrading and adaptation of an already existing building on the plot, which accommodates the production, office and recreational spaces that the site requires. The production systems installed there represent an investment volume of € 12 million. In the future, a total of 55 employees will be working in the existing hall and the new building.
Total investment volume of € 25.7 million
“We are bursting at the seams at our current site on Arthur-Handtmann-Straße. Because, for logistical reasons, we want to remain in the vicinity of the company headquarters and also reliably execute orders for our customers in the future, we have now constructed this extension in the Aspach industrial estate”, explains company director Thomas Handtmann. “At the same time, this is a further clear commitment to our region.” The selection of companies involved in the construction also emphasises Handtmann’s bond with the region. “80 percent of the companies involved in the construction come from the Biberach region, Ulm and Upper Swabia”, confirms the company director. “We were very satisfied with the entire planning and execution of the construction work”, says Thomas Handtmann in praise of the general contractor Karl Schließer as a representative of all 25 involved companies. “The building concept that we defined had to be incorporated into the planning extremely quickly by the general contractor and his planning partners. The first important milestone, the submission of the building application, was adhered to reliably despite the tight deadline”. Despite the icy temperatures in February this year, during which the construction process was brought to a halt for weeks, the lost construction time was virtually all made up for by the overall completion date. The outdoor facilities along Aspachstraße now have to be completed in October. In parallel, the installation and commissioning of the production and assembly lines in the new hall is commencing.
VW, Škoda and Audi are buyers of system components
As plans currently stand, a coolant distribution module is to be assembled in the new hall L380 for various brands of the Volkswagen Group. This part will be installed in the new generation of EA211Evo petrol engines with a 1.0-litre and 1.5-litre displacement. Production on the two systems in the new hall is scheduled to start at the beginning of 2020. This part is already in series production on a production and assembly line in the existing hall. From 2020, up to around 2 million parts will leave the company every year, destined for Volkswagen plants in Salzgitter and Chemnitz, the Škoda plant in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic, and the Audi plant in Győr, Hungary. Consequently, the new production hall will be running at full capacity. “With the new building, we are able to meet the space requirements that we have until 2020. As a result, our options for expanding the Light metal casting and Systems engineering divisions in Biberach are largely exhausted. We are therefore still interested in securing further space at the prospective IGI Rißtal”, stresses Thomas Handtmann.
