• BIRKENSTOCK’s largest location in the world continues to grow
• Adjacent property purchased in the Ebersbach industrial park
• Creation of additional rooms for employees to take breaks and socialize as well as new parking spaces

BIRKENSTOCK is preparing for further growth at its production site in Görlitz. In this context, Germany’s largest shoe manufacturer has acquired a property with a production hall adjacent to its existing premises in the Ebersbach industrial park. To company plans to create 200 additional parking spaces on the 17,660-square-meter property by the end of the year. In addition, the company will add additional rooms for employees to take breaks and socialize. New plans regarding the use of the acquired production hall, which is currently leased to an external company, will be drawn up in the coming weeks. The plans include opening a factory outlet on the site.

Project planning for the new parking spaces is already underway, and construction could begin as early as the beginning of November. As such, the parking spaces could be completed before Christmas, weather permitting. The preparations for expanding the spaces for employees to take breaks and socialize are also in full swing. This project will be kicked off at the end of October. The structural work should be completed by March 2017, with construction fully completed by the end of September 2017. Further investments in expanding the site will follow. As in the previous year, an investment valued in the high two-digit million euros has been budgeted for this purpose.

BIRKENSTOCK operates two production sites in the German state of Saxony – one in Görlitz and another in Bernstadt. ALSA GmbH in Görlitz is by far the BIRKENSTOCK Group’s largest location, and not only in Saxony, but worldwide. Nearly one out of every three of the long-established, family-run company’s 3,600 employees now works in Görlitz. Thanks to its size, convenient location, and the site’s potential for further development, the production facility in Görlitz has particularly benefited from the group’s dynamic growth – BIRKENSTOCK has nearly doubled its production since early 2013. Recently, further expansion at the Görlitz location had increasingly been limited by a lack of space. By acquiring the neighboring property, however, the company has now paved the way for further growth. It plans to fill a number of open positions in the coming weeks. The company is primarily looking for qualified skilled technicians, such as mechatronics engineers, metal workers, and electrical engineers.

BIRKENSTOCK is now one of the largest private employers in the Upper Lusatia region of Germany (Oberlausitz in German). As a result of BIRKENSTOCK’s rapid growth, eastern Saxony has developed into a center of the German and European shoe industry – a development which has gone largely unnoticed by the general public. Approximately 11,600 people work in the industry in Germany, including 1,800 employees at BIRKENSTOCK’s two locations in Saxony. As such, today nearly one out of every six of the industry’s employees works at one of BIRKENSTOCK’s locations in Saxony.