Christa Thoben, Minister for Economic Affairs, officially opens new logistics centre at Mars Süßwaren
Important signal for the business location North Rhine-Westphalia.
15 June 2009
On Monday, the Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia officially opened the new logistics centre built by Mars Süßwaren in Viersen. Christa Thoben was standing beside Plant Manager Kai Könecke at the ceremonial commissioning attended by all site associates as she pressed the start button that set in motion the first cases of Twix and Balisto to be processed in the new facility. Automatically packed by high-tech robots, product cases can now be stacked on country-specific pallet formats and before they are wrapped in stretch foil. "It was a pleasure for me to come to Viersen today. Mars is one of the most well-known family enterprises in the Lower Rhine region and I am very delighted that the company is now expanding. It is an encouraging and important signal for North Rhine-Westphalia as a business location", praised Thoben. Mars Süßwaren invested 4.5 million euro to build this new logistics centre.
Among the guests at this grand opening were also Uwe Schummer (CDU), Member of the German Bundestag, Dr. Stefan Berger (CDU), Member of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dietmar Brockes (FDP), Member of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Günter Thönnessen, Mayor of the City of Viersen.
Construction for expanding the goods-out area into a logistics centre started with a groundbreaking ceremony on 19 August 2008. The target at that time was to begin the commissioning process within a year, and this was fully achieved by adhering to a strict schedule. "Our state-of-the-art technology helps to improve the quality and capacity utilization of the pallets. In addition, we protect the environment due to a reduced number of transports on the road. This enables us, for instance, to save 60,000 litres of diesel per year through a more efficient control of finished goods, which also helps to avoid long waiting times", enthusiastically explained Plant Manager Kai Könecke during the ceremony. Viersen Mayor Günter Thönnessen was also impressed by the well-engineered building complex, which according to Thönnessen once again underscores the strong commitment of the company to its business site in Viersen. This project also serves as a basis for further expansion.
Enlarging the logistics capacity by an additional 1,250 sqm enables a more effective separation of material and traffic flow, plus optimizes the entire logistics process. Up to eight countries will now benefit from direct delivery of goods from this snackfood producer. Altogether, 32 countries are supplied with Twix and Balisto bars made in Viersen. Due to the shorter delivery times now made possible with the new logistics centre, these products will arrive faster to the retail trade by more direct routes, and therefore in the best quality. By the way, the four fully-automated robots are brightly painted in the Balisto colours: orange, green, purple and yellow.