The ground-breaking ceremony for the international distribution centre in Unterlenningen, near the Leuze headquarters in Owen, took place 12 months ago. It will now go into operation at the end of July. From this time on, the subsidiaries as well as national and international customers will be supplied from Unterlenningen.

The sensor manufacturer invested a double-digit million euro amount in the warehouse. This resulted in a building with 4,000 m² of floor space and 40,000 container locations. A storage area for a northern expansion is available, and Leuze is already working on a master plan for further expansion.

The building provides space for the logistics areas of incoming and outgoing goods, automated small parts warehouse (AKL) as well as storage, picking and dispatch. The building and room concept is bright and friendly. Glass roof domes and attractive office workplaces as well as meeting rooms allow working in an environment flooded with daylight.

"Corona has shown how important functioning supply chains are

"The steady growth of recent years and the increasing internationalisation of the company required new distribution logistics," says Ulrich Balbach, CEO at Leuze, explaining the decision to build. "Fast reaction and delivery times and functioning logistics chains are the be-all and end-all, especially in system-relevant areas. The corona pandemic has shown this once again and strengthened our decision in favour of the new building", he explains.

No contradiction: ecology and economy

Already during the interior construction phase, the building was provided with a special façade greening from the outside, and new trees were planted on the outside areas. In this way, the new building was optimally integrated into the natural landscape of the Lenninger Valley. "With the aim of keeping CO₂ emissions as low as possible, a separate energy concept was developed for the new distribution centre that meets the KfW55 standard. In addition to LED lighting, the concept includes a photovoltaic system that generates an electricity output of up to 220 KWP," explains Balbach. This can be used to cover the entire energy requirement in the summer months. For the additional external energy required, only resource-saving primary and secondary materials are used and certified 100% green electricity is obtained from renewable energy sources.