Expansion of headquarters in Filderstadt: HERMA invests 100 million euros
HERMA is facing the largest investment in the company’s 110-year history. For a total of 100 million euros, the specialist for self-adhesive technology will build a further, brand-new coating plant for self-adhesive materials in Filderstadt, Germany – as well as what will arguably be the world’s most modern production lines for labellers and labelling machines.
Both production facilities will be located in the area immediately adjacent to the company’s headquarters that HERMA acquired in mid-2015. The purchase price for that area is not included in the inv
estment sum. In both cases, construction will begin in 2017, and commissioning is scheduled for 2019, according to an announcement made by HERMA managing directors Sven Schneller and Dr. Thomas Baumgärtner on the occasion of a visit by Filderstadt’s mayor Christoph Traub. The investment is the first stage of a master plan for the 80,000 square meter area that extends to 2040. “With the gradual implementation of this master plan, we have the opportunity to safeguard the company’s growth at this location for several generations”, said Sven Schneller.
New capacities for film-based self-adhesive materials
In the field of self-adhesive materials, which is currently experiencing strong growth, HERMA will extend the yearly coating capacity by 50 percent – from currently 750 million square metres to more than 1.1 billion square meters of self-adhesive materials. “In the new autonomous coating plant, we will produce self-adhesive materials and prepare them according to customer requests”, explained Dr. Thomas Baumgärtner, who also heads the self-adhesive materials division. “With this investment, we plan to extend our lead regarding multi-layer technology. We will therefore be able to add completely new products to our portfolio. Furthermore, due to the technology used in the new plant, we will be able to grow even more in the attractive field of film-based materials.” Thanks to innovative products, HERMA had been able to consistently grow faster than the market during the last years. “We aim at maintaining this pace”, said Dr. Baumgärtner.
“Unique opportunity for labelling machines”
Currently still located in Deizisau, Germany, the Labelling Machines division, which is also growing at a fast rate, will move to Filderstadt during the course of this investment. “We have the historically unique opportunity to build state-of-the-art production lines for labellers and labelling machines – within an ideal building layout”, summarized Martin Kühl, head of the Labelling Machines division. The largest growth drivers at the moment are machines for the healthcare sector as well as expansion in international markets, especially in North America. Therefore, the opportunity for growth in Filderstadt arose at the right time .
“With this investment in the three-digit million range, HERMA is probably the leading investor in its field in Central Europe for the time being”, said Sven Schneller. Filderstadt’s mayor Christoph Traub was impressed and delighted with the multi-generation plans for Filderstadt. “This is a major milestone for our business location in the competitive Stuttgart area.”