Inauguration of STIHL plant extension in Wiechs am Randen

STIHL plans to grow further in the medium and long term. The German founding com-pany, ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co. KG, therefore invested € 3.5 million in an extension and renovation at Wiechs am Randen. The opening ceremony was held on 20 Septem-ber 2008 together with district administrator Frank Hämmerle, the mayor of Tengen,  Helmut Groß, and Hans Peter Stihl, chairman of the advisory board of STIHL.

Continuing successful work in Wiechs
As a direct result of STIHL’s worldwide growth, the output of handlebars and the assem-bly of Cutquik guards at Wiechs have doubled over the last ten years – and the produc-tion facilties were running at the limits of their capacity. The STIHL executive board of management therefore decided in 2007 to build an extension. In his address at the opening ceremony, Hans Peter Stihl stressed that the staff should regard this invest-ment “as a thank-you for the successful work and as a sign of our expectations in a flourishing continuation of the Wiechs chapter of the STIHL story”. He went on to say that the extension creates a future-proof facility constructed to the most modern stan-dards with ample production and warehouse space to provide outstanding working con-ditions.

Safeguarding jobs
District administrator Frank Hämmerle welcomed the plant extension and said, “the de-cision of the Stihl family to expand the plant is a very positive signal for Germany, and for the Hegau-Bodensee region in particular.” Helmut Groß, the mayor of Tengen, com-mented that “considerable infrastructural problems” would have occurred without STIHL in Tengen-Wiechs am Randen. He is therefore “very grateful for this investment in safe-guarding the plant and jobs in our town.”

Wiechs: Andreas Stihl’s “second home”
Opened in 1961, Wiechs am Randen was STIHL’s first production plant outside Waib-lingen. Company founder Andreas Stihl spent his youth in that small town and his par-ents are buried there. Some time later, he decided he wanted to do something for his “second home” and create new jobs in the structurally weak region. Andreas Stihl began to manufacture saw chains  in rented premises at the beginning of the sixties. He built his own plant with a new production shop in the seventies. And the demand has contin-ued to rise.

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