WCA January 2009

news

New Niehoff plant Arnd Willmann (architecture office Reindl & Partner, Nuremberg), Heinz Rockenhäuser (president of Maschinenfabrik Niehoff), Matthias Thürauf m m (mayor of Schwabach), Hans-Hermann Kroher, delegate of the shareholder families Niehoff and Kroher, Dr. Michael Schwarzer (chairman of the supervisory board), Richard Schwager (finance director and economic counsellor of Schwabach) (from left to right) Industry news

The new plant will include a state of the art paint finishing system. This investment is aimed at increasing the company’s competitiveness – which is no longer possible at its present site – and at reducing lead times in high demand conditions. Over four hundred employees, plus more than forty apprentices, work for Niehoff in Germany. Niehoff group worldwide comprises five subsidiaries and four representative and service offices with about two hundred fifty employees. Of current revenue, about 80% is still generated at the company’s headquarters. Maschinenfabrik Niehoff GmbH & Co KG – Germany Fax : +49 9122 977 155 Email : info@niehoff.de Website : www.niehoff.de

Niehoff continuously invests in the development of new products and in machinery, equipment and manu- facturing and organisational methods. During the last few years the company has expanded its portfolio by adding braiding machines, stranding machines for data cables and inductive annealers to its product line. The buyout of Hacoba rewinders and Bongard coilers completed Niehoff’s production portfolio and considerable worldwide investments were under- taken in the USA (2004), India (2006), Czech Republic (2007) and in Brazil (2008). The forthcoming headquarters re- location in Schwabach is another contribution to the company’s capacity expansion. Spacious shop floors with optimally designed workplaces will enable a more efficient organisation of process flows and savings for material handling and order processing.

Maschinenfabrik Niehoff GmbH & Co KG is building a completely new plant at the company’s headquarters in Schwabach near Nuremberg, Germany. The mid-September groundbreaking ceremony marked the beginning of the development. The company’s departments will be relocated in three stages. The first phase of construction will include the new locations for assembly, test stand, trials, shipping, paint shop and apprentices workshop. The first construction stage, which has been started, comprises a production area of 17,000m 2 and production-related offices of 1,500m 2 . The company is investing €25 million, not including the property purchase, in this first construction phase. Dependent upon business conditions, the company is planning a second phase of construction consisting of a further 8,000m 2 production area.

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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2009