SMS group holds groundbreaking ceremony for its new campus in Germany
October 15, 2020
SMS group GmbH, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, reports that construction has begun on its new campus in Mönchengladbach, Germany, with the company holding a groundbreaking ceremony.
Mönchengladbach will be home to a new technology, service and digitalisation centre built on the SMS group’s premises and provide 1,500 modern workplaces. From 2023, the competences of five locations in the region will be brought together at this central location in the Rhineland. The company currently has over 1,200 staff employed in Mönchengladbach.
SMS group explains that the new campus will cover a gross surface area of approximately 44,000 m2 and consist of five-module buildings. The core of the complex will be a covered atrium serving as a meeting and communication area and a membrane-type roof with a diameter of 82 m will connect all buildings to create a unique campus.
In addition, an adjoining staff car park will offer sufficient parking space and will be equipped with charging stations for electric cars and bicycles. Given the future investments in the infrastructure of the immediate neighbourhood by the city of Mönchengladbach, the whole district will be upgraded and the new campus will become well connected with the local public transport system, states the company.
During the ceremony, Hans Wilhelm Reiners, mayor of Mönchengladbach; Heinrich Weiss, chairman of the Shareholders’ Committee of SMS Holding GmbH; Burkhard Dahmen, CEO of SMS group GmbH; Torsten Heising, Member of the Managing Board of SMS group GmbH; and Works Council Chairpersons Elke Paul (Düsseldorf) and Peter Peskes (Mönchengladbach) broke ground together with project manager Marco Kubiak, and architect and general planner Holger P Hartmann.
‟We see huge growth potential from the interaction of technical service and digital solutions,” stated Burkhard Dahmen. “Our Campus will enable us to connect these technologies closely with our product units, bringing together specialists from all over the world to form interdisciplinary teams via virtual infrastructures.”
Heinrich Weiss, commented, ‟With this new complex we are providing a significantly enhanced working environment, making us an extremely attractive employer for future talent.”
Torsten Heising reported, “Our recent experience with various forms of mobile working options has shown us that we can actually get our work done wherever we are.”
He continued, “For creative processes, though, we still need a shared environment that makes us feel inspired. The open architecture of the new campus promotes living our corporate culture and enables us as an employer to take into special consideration what our highly skilled workforce expects from a modern workplace.”
In the coming months, around 70,000 m3 of soil will be removed, with shell construction work for the five-module buildings due to start in the spring of 2021.
The shell construction is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2022, and the campus is planned to be ready for occupancy in mid/end-2023.
