Panattoni Europe has laid the cornerstone to mark the beginning of the construction of a dishwasher factory for BSH Sprzęt Gospodarstwa Domowego, dedicated to Industry 4.0. The facility, featuring close to 58,500 sqm, is being built in Łódź next to the Central European Logistics Hub and is the developer’s largest manufacturing project. Completion of construction works and handover of the facility to the investor is planned for the beginning of 2019, and first appliances will leave the factory in mid-2019.
The developer is set to undertake another project for BSH Sprzęt Gospodarstwa Domowego, a leading European provider of home appliances and owner of such brands as Bosch, Siemens, Gaggenau and Zelmer. It provides for a dishwasher factory in Łódź featuring close to 58,500 sqm, with a production hall of 47,400 sqm, and 9,500 sqm of office and staff space. The facility will include a dishwasher testing and development centre. The project itself will be adapted to the needs of Industry 4.0 – integrating human resources and digitally controlled machines with the Internet and information technologies – as well as featuring an intelligent building management system (BMS). Moreover, solutions optimising energy and resource consumption will be implemented here. The official cornerstone ceremony took place on 15 October 2018, and was attended by the representatives of both companies, as well as local authorities, including Hanna Zdanowska – the Mayor of Łódź and Joanna Skrzydlewska – Deputy Marshal of the Łódź Voivodeship. Completion of construction works and commissioning of the facility is planned for the beginning of 2019, and production will be launched halfway through the year.
The manufacturing plant will be delivered in the build-to-own (BTO) formula – for the investor to own – right next to the massive logistics centre of BSH Sprzęt Gospodarstwa Domowego, which operates at the largest distribution complex in Poland, Central European Logistics Hub Panattoni Europe. The location is by no means random. The factory will collaborate on a daily basis with the logistics centre, which has its own inner railway station. For this reason, a 58-metre roofed and walled passageway will be installed between the buildings, allowing for an uninterrupted flow of materials between the factory and the logistics centre, and facilitating the logistics of finished products from the factory to their destinations.
Marek Dobrzycki, Managing Director Panattoni Europe commented: “The most recent investment for BSH Sprzęt Gospodarstwa Domowego is already our third joint project. We started with warehouse space, continued with a large-scale logistics centre with its own 590-metre railway platform inside the building, and this time we are working on a manufacturing facility dedicated to Industry 4.0. This development is challenging for us, not only technologically, but also in terms of size – the BSH dishwasher factory is the largest manufacturing development ever undertaken by Panattoni Europe.”
BSH Sprzęt Gospodarstwa Domowego has a portfolio of home appliance brands in Poland, including Bosch, Siemens, Gaggenau and Zelmer, and operates six factories. The two manufacturing plants in Wrocław make ovens and fridges, Rogoźnica near Rzeszów focuses on small household appliances, while three Łódź-based factories make washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers. And it is the latter that will be moving to a new address. By moving the existing plant to the factory built by Panattoni Europe, the company will be able to double production and ultimately in the long run employ up to 1,500 people, while the appliances it makes will be exported worldwide.
“We manufacture more and more, we export more and more, and, inevitably, we need more and more space,” explained Konrad Pokutycki, President of the Management Board, BSH Sprzęt Gospodarstwa Domowego, and adds “Among other things, the new factory will be making dishwashers featuring the Home Connect system, a proprietary BSH solution applying the Internet of Things. With this platform, users will be able to manage their home appliances remotely and will gain an enhanced range of functions. As a novelty, the factory will make 45cm wide dishwashers. It is the first time this appliance format will be made in Poland.”
Apart from manufacturing facilities, the company also has shared service centres. They work for BSH around the world, covering a range of functions including IT, accounting, foreign trade and central procurement. BSH in Poland has a Research & Development Centre in Łódź and Digital & E-Commerce Competence Centre.
The new investment will be built at ul. Jędrzejowska. The facility will stand right next to the A1 – the only Polish motorway running north-south. It will be just 30 km away from the Łódź Północ junction, where the A1 and A2 motorways intersect. The perfect location in Central Poland with access to the intersection of the European east-west and north-south routes, as well as within administrative city limits, will facilitate BSH’s domestic and international logistics, as well as making it fast and easy for employees to get to work.
