Where the future is being built: HB-Therm doubles production capacities in St. Gallen
- Investment: around 60 million Swiss francs
- Trigger: Clear commitment to growth and innovation
- Goal: Efficient business processes and effective energy management
St. Gallen. The world’s largest manufacturer of temperature control equipment for the plastics processing industry is set for sustainable growth: HB-Therm will start the construction of a new building in St. Gallen in May 2021 to expand its production capacity. Relocation is planned for March 2023. The total investment will be around 60 million Swiss Francs. The company currently employs one hundred people at its single production site worldwide.
Reto Zürcher, CEO of HB-Therm, underlines the commitment to the current location:
“This Building Project is a clear, unequivocal and sustainable commitment to the location St. Gallen!”
With this huge construction project the existing innovative strength and the synergy effects of the world’s exclusive production site will continue to be used in the future and purposefully expanded. In its final stage, workplaces for more than 200 highly qualified temperature control experts will be created, thus more than doubling the existing capacities.
Scale of the project
The new building on Piccardstrasse in the west of St. Gallen will integrate the four previously separate buildings in St. Gallen on 14 700 m2. This will create a generous amount of space about eight kilometres from the current locations: 2 200 m2 for production, 2 000 m2 for storage, 4 000 m2 for assembly, 1 500 m2 for offices and meeting rooms, and 3 500 m2 of parking space.
The first ideas were already conceived in 2015
The active search for suitable building land began in 2015, and the first sketches of the new building were available in April 2018. In 2018, Strut Architekten AG from Winterthur was commissioned as the winning architect in a competition with four finalists from Eastern Switzerland.
Goal: An optimal building
“The building is designed to enable optimal process flows and to make us feel comfortable”, Reto Zürcher describes the first major anchor point. “At the same time, it is also designed to be adaptable to future requirements.”
Great emphasis was placed on the environmental aspects as well. “We are certified according to ISO as an exemplary company regarding this issue”. The new building will also receive a CO2 certificate and will be built according to the Swiss Minergie building standard for sustainable construction. Minergie buildings are characterised by very low energy requirements and the high use of renewable energies. For this reason, the new building project would include a solar system with 300 kWp (kilowatt peak) output and charging stations for electric vehicles. Reto Zürcher is certain:
“We are building the future here and this will significantly strengthen our already excellent market position even further!”
Arial view of the new location of HB-Therm AG
New building – Visualisation from East
New building – Visulaisation from West
f. l. Roger Studerus and Peter Kunz from Strut Architekten AG, Hans Peter Zürcher (Chairman of the Board of Directors), Hansjörg Rettenmund (Board of Directors) and Reto Zürcher CEO of HB-Therm AG, Ivan Furlan – Head of the Office for Building Authorisations St. Gallen, Maria Pappa – Mayor of St. Gallen and Beat Tinner – Government of Canton St. Gallen.