Hutchinson celebrated on July 11th, 2024 the laying of the foundation stone for its new distribution center of sealing solutions in Mannheim, a key project that demonstrates its commitment to innovation and sustainability. With an investment of over 7 million euros, the distribution center, which is planned to begin operations in the third quarter of 2025, embodies the company’s Industry 4.0 strategy and strengthens its ability to meet the needs of the German customers, while integrating a photovoltaic system for a neutral climate footprint.
Mannheim, July 15th, 2024 – Hutchinson laid the foundation stone for its future distribution center for O-Rings & Bonded Seals on the historical Mannheim site in presence of Arnaud Vaz, Senior Vice President, Head of the Precision Sealing Systems Activity, Michel-André Courcol, Executive Vice-President, Head of O-Rings and Bonded Seals, Michael Klein, Mannheim Managing Director and Christian Specht, Mayor of the city of Mannheim.
For almost two years, Hutchinson GmbH has been in the implementation phase of a major investment project on the site of Mannheim. Over the next 12 months, Hutchinson will have invested more than €7 Million in the construction of highly automated distribution center in its Mannheim site, thereby securing jobs in the region.
The construction phase started in April of this year with the demolition of the old production hall.
The new hall will be completed in January 2025, followed by the installation of the automated warehouse (mini-loads), with a start of operations scheduled beginning of Q3 2025.
Customer-oriented picking and packing of the sealing solutions produced in the European plants of Chateau-Gontier (France), Campo-Maior (Portugal) and Gozo (Malta) will enable Hutchinson to even better support its German customers and efficiently meet the packaging requirements and the increasingly customized demands.
After the launch of a O-Rings & Bonded Seals distribution center in Château-Gontier (France) in March 2023, Hutchinson is pursuing its Industry 4.0 approach – optimized logistics, algorithms calculating ideal delivery routes, machines reporting in real time their needs of material – smart networking enables an optimal inventory management.
Hutchinson developed its own specific WMS (Warehouse Management System) software for its distribution centers: the shelving system, the connected conveyor technology and the storage and retrieval machine at the heart of the system all work together for increased performance.
The ultra-modern Distribution Center will be built according to the latest safety and environmental standards and will be equipped with a photovoltaic system on the entire roof area, which makes the building completely climate neutral, in line with the group’s ambitious sustainability objectives.
Visualization of the future Hutchinson Distribution Center in Mannheim
Despite economically challenging times, Hutchinson continues its growth course of recent years and has decided to launch the construction of this Distribution Center at the Mannheim site.
Michel-André Courcol, Head of the O-Rings & Bonded Seals business unit, told that he is “very pleased by the selection of Mannheim in competition against 2 other sites in Europe. This was made possible by the excellent work carried out by the teams beforehand to pick the best location to serve our German customers.”
“As the Managing Director responsible for the Hutchinson locations in Germany, I have been very committed to maintaining the company at its historical location in Mannheim during the past difficult global crisis years and am now very proud to realize this step,” said Managing Director Michael Klein at today’s ground-breaking ceremony on the Hutchinson GmbH site.
“The city administration with the business development department and all the departments of the building authority involved have supported Hutchinson GmbH extremely well over the past two years of the planning and implementation phase and have played a not inconsiderable part in the fact that Hutchinson can celebrate the ground-breaking ceremony today and that the construction project is on schedule,” continued Klein.
“Your commitment to Mannheim as a business location is very pleasing. At the same time, it encourages us to continue our course and to focus our administrative actions consistently, agilely and innovatively on the needs of our companies,” said Christian Specht, Mayor of the City of Mannheim.
