GERMANY - Over the next five years, the Swiss Krono Group will invest up to 300 million euros in plant expansion at its site in Heiligengrabe, Germany.

The focus of activities will be on the further automation of production and logistics processes. With an additional high-bay warehouse, further areas of production will be automatically loaded and unloaded by self-driving vehicles in the future. An additional truck parking area is being built for delivery traffic to relieve traffic on the B 189 highway around the plant.

Sustainability is the guiding principle of Swiss Krono´s corporate development. With the planned new biomass and recycled wood energy plant,  the company is almost completely decoupling from the consumption of the fossil energy source natural gas. This new energy plant reduces CO₂ emissions by half in a 10-year comparison. The  medium-term goal is to achieve CO₂-neutral production at the site.

As the largest industrial company in Northwest Brandenburg, Swiss Krono is continuously improving the quality of its site for the 850 employees. By the end of the year, a new restaurant with an outdoor terrace will be built for the Swiss Krono team. In the future, fresh food will be prepared every day.

The construction of a new social building with up to 500 changing rooms at the site is also in the planning stage.

Swiss Krono Group, with its head office in Lucerne/Switzerland, is a world leading manufacturer of wood-based materials. The company provides an extensive range in the interiors, flooring and building materials sectors. The Swiss Krono Group generated sales of CHF 2.0 billion (USD 2.1 billion) in the previous business year. The group of companies employs around 5,000 employees at ten production sites across the globe. The eight national companies in the Swiss Krono Group operate in Switzerland, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia and the USA. Their products are distributed in 120 countries.