Packaging and filling equipment manufacturer Optima Group is to invest €50 million in the next two years in facilities at its base in Scwäbisch Hall, Germany.
Half the total will go into building infrastructure, including a fourth production site commissioned in summer 2012; major renovations to the company’s head office in Scwäbisch Hall; a new administration building; and improvements and extensions to other existing buildings and parking space for more than 100 employees.
At the same time, manufacturing, administration and R&D will be updated with the latest technology. A total of €25 million has been earmarked in the years 2011/2012 primarily for production machinery and IT, with additional funds for bringing new technologies to market, enhancing synergies within the Optima Group.
“We’re bursting at the seams,” comments managing partner Hans Bühler on the current state of business. “Our order books are full, and we have to and want to act.”
Upon completion of all construction, the total utilisable space will have increased from 30,000sqm to 50,000sqm. For future expansion, Optima has purchased a 3-hectare plot of land.
A ‘Multi-Event’ at the end of November combined celebrations for three separate occasions. Hosting numerous dignitaries from politics and commerce, Optima celebrated the roofing ceremony of a new assembly building for the pharma division, symbolic breaking of the ground for a new office building and the inauguration of a new assembly building. The latter two buildings will house Optima consumer.
Founded in 1922, Optima Group has more than 1400 employees worldwide, and specialises in highly reliable and innovative equipment for packaging single-serve solutions for coffee, packaging and palletising of paper hygiene products, turnkey systems for the pharmaceutical industry and flexible equipment for modern manufacture of wound care products.
Groundbreaking ceremony at Optima Group, Germany: far left, CEO Hans Bühler
