Construction of new building in the Hohenlohe Business Park – where EC production is to be relocated and expanded
“We are equipping ourselves for the future”, that is the commitment from Peter Fenkl, Chairman of the Board of Ziehl-Abegg. Since worldwide demand for energy-saving fans and motors is on the increase, the Künzelsau-based company is constructing a new building for EC production in the Hohenlohe Business Park (Baden-Württemberg). Over the next two years Ziehl-Abegg will be investing a total of around 28 million euros in Hohenlohe. “By doing this we are strengthening the position of Germany and Hohenlohe in particular as a production location” says Fenkl.
Up to now, the energy-saving motors and fans have primarily been manufactured in the Würzburger Straße facilities in Künzelsau. In order to almost double the production area to nearly 8,000 square metres there is a need for a new building in the Hohenlohe Business Park. The new building, with an initial estimate for construction costs of 11 million euros, will be ‘docked’ on to an existing building. This will not only enable use of the existing loading ramps but also incorporate existing surfaces.
Building work is in fact expected to start in the summer of 2016. The construction of new manufacturing facilities, as well as the relocation of the existing production facilities will then take place mid-2017. This will involve the relocation of 140 jobs from Künzelsau (Würzburger Straße) to the new building. “Relocating to a new place of work is of course often not easy for those affected” says CEO Fenkl. Therefore, the company did not take this decision lightly. However, the existing site is already operating at full capacity and further growth at this facility is not possible. “It is also clearly evident that this is a growing sector” says Fenkl as the targets demanded by the European Union for energy consumption by electric drives in fans will be further tightened by no later than 2020, according to the so-called ErP Directive (energy-related products). “We have been noticing the trend towards our highly efficient products for a number of years now”, says the CEO, commenting on the positive development of sales which is also continuing in the current year 2016.
Ziehl-Abegg has been producing fans in the Hohenlohe Business Park since 2003. In 2008 this facility, which is used for the manufacture of centrifugal fans, was expanded to cover an area of around 19,000 square metres. The entire Ziehl-Abegg site in the Business Park extends to 230,000 square metres. The most recent building with the distinctive ZA Tower has become a real eye-catcher. This is where the company has been developing and producing elevator motors and motors for use in both medical technology as well as underwater vehicles since 2014 on a site which covers a good 12,000 square metres and also houses the Ziehl-Abegg Automotive Division and gearless, where the ZAwheel in wheel hub drive for electric city buses is produced.
The number of Ziehl-Abegg employees in the Hohenlohe Business Park will therefore rise in the coming year from the existing 480 to more than 620. It is currently not yet possible to give a realistic estimate of how many additional jobs will be created in what period of time at the ZA branch factory in Kupferzell.
About Ziehl-Abegg
Ziehl-Abegg (Kuenzelsau, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) is one of the leading global companies in the ventilation and drive technology sector with matching control technology. Examples of application areas for the products include heating and refrigeration plant, clean rooms and agricultural systems. Back in the Fifties’ Ziehl-Abegg established the basis for modern fan drives: external rotor motors which remain, even today, state-of-the-art worldwide. Another area of business is electric motors which provide the power e.g. for elevators, medical applications (computer tomography equipment) or deep-sea underwater vehicles. The theme of electro-mobility/clean power for motor vehicles was established as part of the Ziehl-Abegg Automotive Team in 2012 that incorporates the sales and further development of a wheel hub drive for urban buses already in use in several countries
The high-tech company has an impressive innovation power. Ziehl-Abegg employs 1,950 personnel in its production plants in Southern Germany. The company has a global workforce of 3,450, spread between 16 production plants, 27 companies and 97 sales locations. The products, approx. 30,000 in all, are sold in more than 100 countries. Sales revenues in 2015 totalled 447 million euro. Exports account for two thirds of sales.
Emil Ziehl founded the company in Berlin in 1910, manufacturing electric motors. After the Second World War the company’s headquarters were relocated to Southern Germany. Ziehl-Abegg SE is not a listed company but family-owned.
www.ziehl-abegg.com
