An official inauguration ceremony was held on 27 September for the new building located at Peter-Schaufler-Platz 1 in Sindelfingen. Christiane Schaufler-Münch (Chairwoman of the BITZER SE Supervisory Board and THE SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION Board of Trustees) ceremoniously cut the ribbon to the delight of many guests and representatives of business and politics as well as the construction companies involved in the project. There will be an internal employee party tomorrow for the Sindelfingen and Rottenburg sites to celebrate moving into the new office building with open plan.
Located diagonally opposite the former headquarters of many years in Eschenbrünnlestrasse, the new headquarters offer around 20,000 square metres of space for up to 500 modern workplaces. The communicative office structure is a mix of open spaces and closed-off team and management offices. The specialist in refrigeration, air conditioning and heating technology is leasing six floors of offices and using the other nine floors itself.
Aachen-based architecture firm kadawittfeldarchitektur constructed the building, which is based on the central idea of a vertical campus. The high-rise is built on a two-storey base, which houses central areas such as reception, the employee restaurant and meeting rooms. Located right next to reception, the spacious BITZER Showroom exhibition area showcases the long-standing company’s history, present and future vision using a variety of media. Here, visitors can take guided tours and get acquainted with the products, their applications and other services in a hands-on and digital format.
The refrigeration and ventilation stations are located on the second floor of the basement. Three central refrigeration systems each with a different compressor technology (reciprocating, screw and scroll compressors) are positioned in such a way to provide specialist visitors with easy access for viewing purposes.
The new headquarters signal that the company established in 1934 remains visibly and steadfastly committed to its original site in Sindelfingen. ‘BITZER was established as a one-man workshop in Sindelfingen 85 years ago. This is where we belong. We remain true to our roots. That’s what Peter Schaufler and the entire BITZER Group wanted,’ says Christian Wehrle, Chief Operations Officer and member of the Management Board at BITZER. The new building is part of the legacy left behind by Senator h. c. Peter Schaufler, who was the Managing Director and company owner of BITZER for many decades. The employees of BITZER who work there will continue the life’s work of Peter Schaufler. It was his contribution that has allowed the long-standing company to continue driving the refrigeration and air conditioning industry as a global player. The building is angled slightly in the direction of SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen, the museum of contemporary art founded by Peter Schaufler and his wife Christiane Schaufler-Münch.
The neighbouring SCHAUWERK museum in Sindelfingen, which is funded by THE SCHAUFLER FOUNDATION, will primarily use the premises of the former headquarters for storage and logistics. The foundation is a shareholder in the BITZER Group.