In early October, Gerhard Schubert GmbH opened a new factory complex at its Crailsheim location and began production. By putting this new assembly hall into operation, the company is increasing its production capacities and strengthening its position on its worldwide growth course. After only 18 months of construction, the new hall complex covers 12,000 square meters and can accommodate assembly, shipping, and 40 office spaces.
“Our new plant represents a significant milestone in our growth strategy,” explains Ralf Schubert. “With the new building, we will not only eliminate assembly bottlenecks, we are now able to further increase our serial production.” Schubert invested a total of 16 million euros in the new complex. In the future, along with an existing hall, the new hall will be used for final assembly of TLM machines.
Altogether, Schubert now has three halls with a total area of 32,000 square meters. While building the complex, the company incorporated state-of-the-art environmentally friendly technology: air conditioning will take place via geothermal power, for which more than 75 holes were drilled to a depth of around 80 meters.
The manufacturer of high-performance packaging machines considers itself ideally equipped to gain an additional share of both growth markets and new business areas such as the pharmaceutical industry. The company anticipates annual growth of 8% to 10% within the next five years. In order to secure the necessary manufacturing capacity over the long term, the company is already looking at investing in a fourth hall by 2020.
A review of three recent trade fairs (FachPack in Nuremberg, Pack Expo in Chicago and Agropodmash in Moscow) also indicates a very positive trend for the future. At this year's FachPack alone, Schubert successfully generated orders amounting to four million euros.
In 2014, the Group generated consolidated revenues of 228 million euros, representing a sales increase of 14 percentage points over the previous year. The positive turnover in the growing U.S. market is expected to double within the next five years thanks to the restructuring of the sales organization and the company’s recently opened location in Charlotte, NC. The Schubert Group currently employs 1,050 people, including close to 700 at Gerhard Schubert GmbH and 55 at the IPS subsidiary in Crailsheim.
