Künzelsau, Germany: Ziehl-Abegg, German manufacturer of fans, has announced that it is constructing a new building for EC production of energy-saving fans and motors in the Hohenlohe Business Park, in Baden-Württemberg. Over the next two years, the company said that it will be investing a total of around Euro 28 million in Hohenlohe.
Currently being manufactured in Würzburger Straße facilities in Künzelsau, the new building, the company said, will almost double the production area of fans to nearly 8,000 square metres. The construction costs for the new building, it added, is expected to cost Euro 11 million and will be ‘docked’ on to an existing building.
While the building work is expected to start in the summer of 2016, the company revealed that the construction of new manufacturing facilities, as well as the relocation of the existing production facilities, will then take place mid-2017. With this, the number of Ziehl-Abegg employees in the Hohenlohe Business Park, the company added, will rise from the existing 480 to more than 620 in the coming year.
Furthermore, the company mentioned that there has been a positive development in sales, which is also continuing in the current year, 2016.
Peter Fenkl, Chairman of the Board of Ziehl-Abegg, said that further growth in the existing facility is not possible as it is already operating at full capacity. “It is also clearly evident that this is a growing sector,” he said, and explained that 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 are equipping ourselves for the future,” said Fenkl. “By doing this, we are strengthening the position of Germany and Hohenlohe, in particular, as a production location.”
