Big news for Carel: the expansion of its plant in Manheim, Pennsylvania has been inaugurated. The addition of 40.000 square foot to the Group’s North American headquarters will help increase Carel’s presence in the US, Canadian and Mexican markets and support the Group’s future growth.
The factory was founded in Manheim in 2001, and joins the Mexico City office and five sales offices in the Americas: Atlanta, Lancaster, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Monterrey, which employ a total of around 55 people.
The doubling of the Group’s production plant and HQ in North America will bring significant improvements in the service level provided to the market and in procurement lead times, increasing the number of employees at Manheim to around 70, the majority of whom are involved in operations, logistics, HR, Finance, Quality, R&D and marketing, supply chain and customer care.
There will also continue to be a strong commitment to training: in addition to offering remote installation and monitoring services, Carel USA organises SW and SW application development training courses in the air-conditioning and refrigeration markets.
Present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony were Aliyah Stanger, Southeast Regional Director at the Department of Community and Economic Development, Aaron Schwartz, President of the Manheim Chamber of Commerce, Ryan Aumentar and Mindy Fee, respectively Senator and Representative for Pennsylvania’s 36th and 37th districts.
In addition to the speeches by local authorities, the audience of 115 Carel USA employees and a selected group of suppliers and customers was also addressed by Martino Manfrin, CEO CAREL USA and Pietro Rossato, Chief Operations Officer CAREL Group.
“We are extremely happy, and at the same time proud, to be able to inaugurate the expansion of our North America headquarters today”, commented Pietro Rossato, Chief Operations Officer Carel Group and Martino Manfrin Regional CEO Carel North America. “This investment is in line with what we have defined as the pillars of our industrial development: the proximity of factories to the market, with obvious benefits in terms of service, reduction in working capital and optimisation of the supply chain, business continuity through technological mirroring and process replication between different plants, and digitalisation.
With the extra space available at the new plant, we will be able to expand the range of ‘made in USA’ products; for example, the entire range of programmable controllers, one of the flagships of our offering, will also be fully manufactured in the United States. The expansion of the Manheim site represents an important step in our international development plans, announced with the stock exchange listing last year, supporting our business growth in North America”.
As of 31/12/2018, the North America area accounted for 13% of the Group’s revenues, with a total of over 35 million euros.
