No other BIRKENSTOCK site benefited more over the past five years from the dramatic growth experienced by Germany’s largest footwear manufacturer than the plant in Görlitz. This is also why the consequences of this positive development were particularly evident there – the site increasingly reached its spatial limits, and this is something which affected the staff, too. But this will soon no longer be the case. The number of parking spaces was significantly increased at the end of 2017. And a new staff facility for some 650 employees with changing rooms, restrooms, and showers as well as a sizable break room with an outdoor area is currently being developed on the plant grounds at the Ebersbach Business Park. The new building has entirely wheelchair-accessible floor space of approximately 1,200 square meters. The investment sum will total approximately 3 million euros. The symbolic laying of the foundation stone which took place recently during a brief ceremony attended by members of the management and plant managers was therefore also a symbol of BIRKENSTOCK’s commitment to this site.
The grand laying of the foundation stone for the new block in Görlitz was attended among others by Sean Harris, Chief Administration Officer of the BIRKENSTOCK Group, as well as Andreas Schulz, Head of Plant Production, and head of the Görlitz site Hilmar Knoll, both of BIRKENSTOCK in Görlitz. The ceremony was also attended by Christian Müller of the commissioned architecture firm O+M Architekten based in Dresden and project coordinator Roger Herold of the Chemnitz-based consultancy company herold.connect, both of whom respectively represent the regional companies that won the public tender and will now jointly oversee the building project with the able assistance of the city of Görlitz and the local authorities.
Since this ceremony, the natural substance cork is no longer just the basis of the famous footbed at BIRKENSTOCK, as a copper cylinder filled with cork granules was inserted into the symbolic foundation slab. This brings to an end the foundation preparations, meaning above-ground construction can now commence as the next building stage. According to the current schedule, the building’s interior will be fitted out over the winter so that the staff facility can be used for the first time in the spring of next year.
The Görlitz site has benefited in particular from the BIRKENSTOCK Group’s dynamic growth thanks to its favorable location within Ebersbach Business Park, its size, and its development potential. But as this increasingly pushed the site’s space to its limits, the company invested in expanding the site’s infrastructure and therefore also in improving the employees’ labor conditions. In addition to the building of the new staff facility, this includes the purchase of the adjacent plot of land and the development of further staff parking spaces last year.
The Görlitz site is comfortably the largest BIRKENSTOCK Group facility in the world. As a result of the company’s positive development, there are various vacancies to be filled in the near future. Skilled workers are needed in particular, such as electricians, technicians, and mechatronics fitters, as well as quality assurance and production staff. Applications can also be submitted once again for apprenticeships as a footwear maker and finisher or as a mechatronics fitter over the next year. More information can be found on the company’s careers pages.
