On April 21st 2022, Dr Reiner Haseloff, Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, inaugurated the buildings for the new paint shop and logistics centre at the Fendt site in Hohenmölsen.
The ceremony was attended not only by Dr Haseloff but also by representatives of local politics, tradesmen, suppliers, Fendt sales partners and customers as well as employees of the site.
“AGCO Hohenmölsen is growing, and this is true not only in terms of the expansion investments but also in terms of the development of the number of employees. There are now almost 500 jobs in the company here. That is truly remarkable and was by no means a given when AGCO started here in 2009. The establishment of AGCO thus also makes an important contribution to structural change in the region. Our goal is to create new, innovative and promising jobs in the region with the lignite phase-out by 2038,” said Dr Haseloff.
The highlight of the ceremony was the placing of the topping-out crown on the roof of the 12m high building. Employees from the cutting and toolmaking departments had made the crown themselves from 40kg of steel. The topping-out saying was read out by Sven Häselbarth, managing director of Naumburger Bauunion, and Markus Giesers, managing director of Giesers Bau, who wished the workers accident-free production and every success.
The new paint shop will consist of both cathodic dip coating (CDC) and powder coating for thin and thick sheet metal parts. Both painting processes meet sustainable environmental standards. The components will be primed without heavy metals in an immersion bath containing 80% water. The paints are water-based and contain no heavy metals, solvents or volatile compounds. The residues from powder coating are processed and thus reused in a resource-saving manner.
The new logistics centre complements production for goods handling. In the future, manufactured components will be shipped from here to other Fendt plants and the new paint shop will be supplied with materials. The handling rate will then be around 40 trucks per day.
“The paint shop and the logistics centre are important investments in the future of the Hohenmölsen production site,” said Christoph Gröblinghoff, chairman of the AGCO/Fendt Management Board. “In order to meet the high quality requirements for Fendt products even better in the future, we will take over the painting of our components ourselves. The new paint shop also gives us the opportunity to manufacture even more components for other Fendt products at other plants.”
At the Hohenmölsen plant, parts and components for Fendt tractors, round balers, combine harvesters and loader wagons are produced and will soon be painted and shipped in an environmentally friendly manner.
In another production hall, the Fendt Katana forage harvester and the Fendt Rogator 600 self-propelled field sprayer are manufactured at the Saxony-Anhalt plant.
The AGCO Corporation acquired the Hohenmölsen site in 2009, and the plant has developed rapidly since then. 13 years ago, there were seven permanent employees. Today, more than 380 employees and another 90 temporary workers work in production, logistics and assembly.
“With the construction of the modern paint shop and the adjacent logistics centre, we are positioning ourselves as a technology location for the future. We are creating an infrastructure for another 50 jobs,” Dr Thomas Schneiderheinze, plant manager and managing director of AGCO Hohenmölsen GmbH, said. “We can truly say with justification that this site has risen like a phoenix from the ashes thanks to AGCO and Fendt.”
The construction project in Hohenmölsen comprises two sections, a paint shop and a logistics centre, with a total investment of 18 million euros. Construction of the two buildings began in December 2020, and the expansion of the logistics centre will be completed in September of this year. The paint shop will be set up starting in August and will go into operation in summer 2023.
