Wacker Neuson, a leading manufacturer of compact construction machines and light equipment, has acquired a modern construction equipment manufacturing site in Hörsching, Austria. The company has been producing compact excavators, wheel and crawler-mounted dumpers and skid-steer loaders there since May.
“With a total investment of €65 million (about U.S. $84.2 million) into our new compact equipment facilities, we have highlighted not only our commitment to the Upper Austrian region of Linz but also our confidence in the future of the company,” said Cem Peksaglam, CEO of Wacker Neuson SE. “Wacker Neuson has produced compact equipment in Linz for over three decades. The site we have chosen for our new factory will allow us to retain our long-term and highly qualified employees along with the expertise they have gathered over the decades. Although it is not easy to find qualified specialists in Linz or anywhere in Upper Austria, we have managed to find over 200 new employees and trainees for Wacker Neuson over the past year. We currently employ around 550 employees in our factory.”
During an 11-month construction period, the 50,000-square-meter modern production facility was constructed on a 170,000-square-meters site neighboring the Linz Airport. The factory offers six assembly lines, a testing and demo area and a painting facility with powder coating and sand blaster equipment. The new site also includes its own training workshop, a testing area, a service workshop for customer service training and even its own canteen.
“The new construction became necessary, both due to the constantly increasing global demand for our CE and also the spatial limitations of the previous manufacturing facilities,” Peksaglam said. “In particular the increasing internationalization of our sales activities and the exclusive supply to Caterpillar of compact excavators featuring up to three tonnes of charge weight have ensured that our order volumes continue to grow. We will be able to use the new facilities to expand our capacities and develop our current and future anticipated growth.”
The company will produce track and mobile excavators up to 14 tonnes, and wheel and crawler-mounted dumpers and skid-steer loaders at the new site.
Wacker Neuson recently hosted a four-day celebration for the opening of the new compact equipment factory with more than 7,000 people visiting the newest and largest manufacturing location in the company.
The company kicked off the festivities with an employee party on Wednesday followed on Thursday by an international press conference, and factory tour. At an evening gala, managing directors of Wacker Neuson Linz GmbH, Gert Reichetseder and Johannes Mahringer, and Cem Peksaglam, CEO, spoke about the company’s 160-year history, and current developments and strategy within the company.
Since the merger of Wacker Construction Equipment AG and Neuson Kramer Baumaschinen AG in 2007, Wacker Neuson has pursued sales of its compact equipment particularly outside Europe. “We have achieved promising sales figures in North and South America,” said Peksaglam. “However, we would also like to grow further in the Asian region, which offers huge potential for our entire product range, particularly the compact equipment. Our appearance at Bauma China in November of this year in Shanghai will show us how customers and retailers react to our products, both from the compact equipment and light equipment ranges."
The festivities included an official ribbon cutting; a tightrope acrobat who rappelled from the largest compact excavator, the 14504; factory tours of the new production facilities; and an open house day.
Wacker Neuson SE is a global provider of light equipment and compact equipment, with more than 30 affiliates and more than 140 sales and service stations across the world.
