Finland's K. Hartwall to build new factory in TIP Innovationspark

“Our current premises in Heidenau were becoming cramped, especially when it came to conducting test runs of our LiftLiner tugger trains and our star mobile robot, the A-MATE, before delivering them to our customers,” said Jerker Hartwall, Managing Director of K. Hartwall. The Finnish company manufactures tugger trains e.g., for the rapid delivery of workplaces in factories with high material turnover as well as driverless vehicles for transporting pallets and load carriers. The approximately 12,500-square-metre factory site is only 20 kilometres from its current branch. Thus, the transition is expected to be smooth and as the site offers advantages such as 5G, collaboration with universities and improved links to suppliers. The good transport links to Hamburg are likely to attract talented professionals to the company.

Founded in 1932, K. Hartwall provides solutions and services for intralogistics. The company has over 240 employees and works with various companies in the retail, dairy and beverage, logistics and automotive industries. Jens Wrede, Managing Director of WLH Wirtschaftsförderung im Landkreis Harburg, said: "The TIP Innovation Park is growing into an innovation ecosystem. We are deliberately focusing on infrastructure for cutting-edge technology and technology transfer tailored to the needs of highly innovative companies like K. Hartwall. The development and manufacture of automation solutions for production processes is an industry of the future."

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