Schottel logistics capacity investment

The new building will be built adjoining the existing facility and will provide 2,634 square metres of industrial floor space and 1,326 square metres of offices. Schottel expects to move into the new building at the start of 2025.

The company expects to invest a further EUR2.0m in equipment for the fully automated warehouse, including crane systems. The new logistics facility will permit the consolidation of the handling of new ship propulsion systems and Schottel’s spare parts business, which are currently split between Schottel’s Dörth and Spay production sites, which are about 30 km apart.

To date, goods for the construction of new ship propulsion systems and the spare parts business are handled in parallel in both Dörth and Spay, two places, which are about 30 km apart. “By getting rid of this double warehousing system we can vastly reduce the number of interfaces in internal logistics. The processing of incoming goods, order picking and the storage of supplies will become much more efficient,” says Schottel’s CEO Stefan Kaul. The timing was also perfect from another aspect. “Our service business and thus the need for spare parts are constantly growing. In the future, our international customers will profit from a noticeably higher availability of parts, also with unstable supply chains elsewhere,” he adds.

The investment in the new logistics center in Dörth forms part of a series of investment projects. A large hall and office complex in Itajaí in Brazil is just about to be completed, while construction work recently began in Cartagena in Colombia in September on a separate project.