The strong growth and global orientation of SSI SCHÄFER result in a worldwide investment boost for the company: New employees, prestigious buildings, and state-of-the-art production facilities – the intralogistics specialist has a lot going on around the globe, and developments are continuously being reported. Currently, one of the greatest milestones is the construction of new buildings at the existing locations Giebelstadt and Friesach, which will not only create more space for new employees, but will also support a modern corporate culture. The very popular sector of Customer Services & Support in Graz has also moved into a new space, given that its number of employees more than doubled in a short time.
Those following reports in the media about SSI SCHÄFER over the last few months will have noticed that the company is consistently pushing its expansion strategy. With its claim to shape the future of intralogistics, the company has become not only one of the market leaders, but also a major employer in various regions and countries. Harrie Swinkels, CEO SSI SCHÄFER, explains the intralogistics specialist’s aspirations: “Through internal growth, cooperative partnerships, and company takeovers, we are steadily expanding our know-how so that we can offer the entire range of systems and technologies worldwide. Thanks to our range of services, our actions are ‘product-neutral’; the focus is on developing optimized customer-specific solutions and not the sale of one specific product.”
One consequence of the expansion strategy is the decision to expand the Giebelstadt and Friesach locations by investing in new, modern building complexes and the related employee growth: In Giebelstadt, SSI SCHÄFER’s center of competence for automated logistics solutions, the ground-breaking ceremony for a 5-story office building took place in September of last year. The building will provide space for 450 workplaces on almost 7,000 square meters in 2020. At the Friesach location in Austria, heart of the proprietary WAMAS© logistics software, an additional office complex is being built that reflects the company’s strength in IT. After its grand opening, which is scheduled for as early as November 2019, close to 170 employees will be moving into the 1,000 square meter IT powerhouse.
Whether high-tech or semi-automated, maximum availability of the logistics systems and a trouble-free workflow are essential for any company. It is therefore not surprising that the Customer Service & Support Solutions field of SSI SCHÄFER has been expanding for years. The range of services extends from classic maintenance to modern maintenance concepts such as predictive maintenance. The Customer Service & Support 4.0 solution continuously records and evaluates the system state. The information gained is used to predict potential outages and prevent them with proactive maintenance.
In order to meet the strong demand and increased requirements, the number of employees has more than doubled over the last few years: Of the 1,500 CSS experts around the globe, 130 team members can be found at the location in Graz. This required additional space into which the staff moved just recently. Elie Zita, EVP Customer Services SSI SCHÄFER, comments on this topic: “We are continuously developing and growing to meet our customers’ challenges. This not only applies to the technologies used in our logistics center, but also relates to the integrated services and support modules. We are also adding training programs and new tools to be able to offer our customers optimized support services and to ensure that the systems run smoothly. For us, it goes without saying that this is part of the overall responsibility of a holistic intralogistics provider.”
The awards that SSI SCHÄFER regularly receives in various categories confirm that the company is on the right track. Thus, the intralogistics specialist received in April of this year the award for “Best Logistics Brand,” based on a reader and expert vote made by the magazine Logistik Heute and the Bundesvereinigung Logistik. In June, the company received another award, the “Best of Industry Award” presented by the industry magazine “MM MaschinenMarkt.” Most recently, SSI SCHÄFER was included in the circle of the most innovative companies in Germany featured in the magazines Focus and Focus Money, coming in first place in the logistics sector.
Additional information will be provided soon about the activities at SSI SCHÄFER’s international headquarters in Neunkirchen in Germany’s Siegerland region.
