Gelsenkirchen, Friday, 20 January 2017 - Big event at the Masterflex SE headquarters in Gelsenkirchen-Erle: Today the extension was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Gelsenkirchen, the management of the company and the employees of the Gelsenkirchen connection systems specialists.
This marked the official beginning of the use of the new two-storey building, with a gross floor space of 7,700 square metres. Thanks to the extension, the storage capacities are also being increased by around 3,700 square metres in addition to the quantity and quality increase of production up to 2,400 square metres. The remaining space in the new building is reserved for operational offices, innovative laboratories, a new workshop and larger social rooms for the employees. In addition, the entire premises now has enhanced loading and unloading zones and a smoothly running circulatory traffic system for heavy vehicles. Overall, the Masterflex Group is investing around € 7 million in building and machinery - including modern, Industry 4.0-capable facilities.
The company is hoping for several benefits from this extension: Apart from optimising the production and delivery capability, logistics processes at the central spiral hose location are being improved. In addition, the Masterflex Group is expanding its Industry 4.0-capable production competence with this. In his welcome address, CEO Dr Andreas Bastin also stressed the forward-looking character of the new building: "The extension is another large step forwards - for us as a company, for our customers and for Gelsenkirchen," Bastin said. Georg van Hall, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, also sees the building as an important basis for the challenges of the coming years: "Of course, we also want to improve our production processes, increase our efficiency and further expand our competitiveness with this."
With the official opening of the investment, the hose specialist was also celebrating its 30th anniversary: 'Masterflex Kunststofftechnik' was founded in 1987, still a limited company (GmbH) at the time, which was 30 years ago. "So old and yet still such an innovative company, as the title 'Top-Innovator' in 2016 and the title 'Global market leader', which we just received again, show. For our customers, this is certainly a great combination of the well-established and innovation," stresses CEO Bastin.
In his welcome address, Lord Mayor Frank Baranowski underlined the fact that the expansion measures by the global market leader represent a significant commitment to Gelsenkirchen as a location: "The new production hall is a definite commitment to this location. A commitment to industrial manufacturing in our city, which I am particularly pleased with, of course. It is a commitment to want to continue the 30-year story of Masterflex. I wish you all the best and warmly congratulate you - doubly so! Good luck!"
