A building project to expand VIKING – a subsidiary of the STIHL Group based in Langkampfen near Kufstein/Austria – began today with a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony. It represents an investment of €13.7 million and is the largest single investment in VIKING's history.
Hans Peter Stihl, advisory board chairman of STIHL Holding AG & Co. KG, outlined the reasons for the new building: "As we expect further growth in the future, we have to invest in good time in the necessary buildings and plant. The upcoming expansion of capacity is an indication of our confidence in this location and the continuing sucessful development of our subsidiary VIKING."
The extra space is being created at the Tyrolean garden equipment manufacturer is to house additional assembly lines, a new production warehouse, workshops for prototyping and production equipment as well as apprentice training, and offices too. "A total covered area of about 12,000 sq.m will be built, providing useful floor space amounting to some 16,000 sq.m. Inauguration of the extension has been scheduled for autumn 2012," says VIKING general manager Dr. Peter Pretzsch.
VIKING GmbH, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, produces and distributes walk-behind lawn mowers, robot mowers, ride-on mowers, aerators, garden shredders and cultivators. Furthermore, the STIHL Group's entire cordless product line is assembled at VIKING. With a workforce of 268, VIKING achieved a turnover of €110 million in 2010. This figure will be exceeed in 2011. Products are distributed and sold exclusively through authorized servicing dealers.