Foundation Stone for biggest Investment in Grass Company History
Hohenems. On 18 June 2018, the foundation stone for the new GRASS central warehouse in Hohenems (Vorarlberg/Austria) was laid. The worldwide leading manufacturer of movable joint systems for furniture is building a 45-million-euro hub for its European production sites. This is the biggest investment in the company’s history.
The new central hub provides a total of 30,000 pallet spaces at 22 levels. Start of operations is planned for the end of 2019 with 150 employees for the time being. Then, plants will deliver finished products which will be individualized, packed and picked order-related and in accordance with customers’ needs in Hohenems.
Strategic Key Project
“Optimizing supply chain management is a central challenge to be successful in the long term,” Thomas Zenker, Chairman of the GRASS Management, describes the motivation for the biggest investment in the company’s history: “Our order books are full and the market demand is perfect. In spite of strong market growth in previous years, chances remained unused. The central warehouse will resolve one of the central bottlenecks and establish the prerequisites for a profitable and sustainable development.”
GRASS became part of the Würth Group in 2004 and stands on very solid footing. “Investments in logistics, above all to this extent, always stand for growth and development. The central warehouse enables us to significantly reduce reaction times,” Robert Friedmann, Chairman of the Central Managing Board of the Würth Group, is content and adds: “We are pleased that the company underwent such a dynamic development.”
Test run in Feldkirch
The former spinning plant in Feldkirch-Gisingen shall serve as an interim solution. A service depot will be established there and planned production and logistics processes be tested. These preparations may serve to test positive effects and reduce the complexity of the start of operations in Hohenems scheduled for 2019.
Festive groundbreaking of symbolic character
The foundation stone contains six time capsules, five of which shall symbolize the existing production sites, the sixth shall stand for the joint central warehouse. Representatives of the existing locations handed over the containers filled with individual items to the patrons, among them Robert Friedmann representing the Würth Group, and the three Members of the GRASS Management, Thomas Zenker, Thomas Müller and André Stiller. The patrons put the capsules in the foundation stone, which will be built into the central warehouse at a clearly visible place. The symbolic act ended with good wishes for a construction process free of incidents and accidents.
