Schiltach/Offenburg – Hansgrohe SE continues its history of success and is improving its competitive position by making a significant investment in its Offenburg facility. The mixer and shower manufacturer has invested about EUR 30 million in expanding its logistics centre to enable the company to deliver products even more rapidly to its customers across the globe.

Richard Grohe, deputy chairman of the executive board of Hansgrohe SE, and Frank Semling, member of the executive board of Hansgrohe SE for Supply Chain Management & Services, laid the cornerstone together with Offenburg’s Mayor Edith Schreiner. The annex is expected to go into operation in late 2016.

“In recent years, we have achieved continuous growth together with our customers,” Richard Grohe said. “As a result, our logistics centre, which was built in the early 1990s, is no longer large enough. To bridge the gap, we created storage capacity at several of our sites in the Ortenau region. We are now are putting procurement, production and distribution logistics back under one roof again. Our main goal in expanding our logistics center is to further improve delivery services for our customers.”

The existing area of the current logistics centre will be expanded by 9,000 square metres. Hansgrohe SE will use another 4,200 square metres for two new high-rack warehouses, providing 112,000 additional storage spaces and room for 11,600 pallets.

“Part of the investment will also go into introducing new technologies and optimizing processes,” said Frank Semling, member of the executive board of Hansgrohe SE for Supply Chain Management & Services. “This includes multifunctional work stations that are connected directly to the container and pallet conveyor technology and through which the various order picking operations are processed. Also, telescopic conveyors can move outbound packages directly to the vehicles of courier, express and parcel services.”

“In this way, we can use loading platforms more efficiently,” Semling said. “We aim to optimize processes so that each product is picked only once. In other words, order picking, which is still common today, can be eliminated. Ultimately, this speeds up the processing of orders."”

Digital interconnectivity also plays an increasingly important role in Hansgrohe's expanded logistics center.

“Every parcel and every pallet we send out is automatically photographed before we seal it and send it off. We can also pack pallets individually according to a customer's wishes; in other words, we can pack products in the order in which customers need them so that they in turn can optimize their incoming goods processing. In this project too, customer benefit is our top priority,” Semling said.

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