Höxter, 1 September 2017. With a figure of 241.7 million euros, sales revenues in 2016 at the Arntz Optibelt Group were again up on the previous year’s figure, resulting in a new record turnover. The manufacturer of high performance drive belts expects this trend to continue during the current fiscal year.
“We already had a very successful first half-year. After seven months, our turnover is about 166 million euros and so more than ten percent higher than for the same period last year. We therefore expect a significant increase for the whole of 2017 compared to the previous year,” commented management team chairman Reinhold Mühlbeyer on the group’s development. “The aim is to continue our global growth on a sustainable level. During the current year and at the beginning of the coming year, we will expand our domestic and international production capacities even further.” In turn, the logistic processes and capacities will be stepped up to meet the growing demand, and new warehouses (such as in Colombia) will safeguard deliveries within the various regions.
Inauguration of the new “test facility of the future”
Together with Höxter mayor Alexander Fischer, the Arntz Optibelt Group inaugurated the new “test facility of the future” at their headquarters in Höxter in August 2017. The innovative test facility, covering an area of some 2,200 square metres, was built for around 4 million euros and offers twice the space of its predecessor. In future, this new facility will be used to conduct quality testing during serial production, tests for new developments and customer-specific testing. To limit the power consumption of the test rigs for drive belts, the Arntz Optibelt Group has developed a new environmentally-friendly test facility concept which is to be implemented during the course of the current year and will be sponsored to the tune of 650,000 euros by the environmental innovation programme of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment as a project with demonstration character.
“The new test facility stands for two of our core competencies: innovation and sustainability. We always strive to develop state-of-the-art technical innovations for our customers and to incorporate these in our existing processes as ecologically and economically as possible,” explains Mühlbeyer.
New warehouse in Colombia
Also in August, a new virtually 1,200 square metre warehouse was opened in Colombia to expand the logistical and sales distribution structure in North and South America. The new warehouse is located in Cali, the capital of Colombia’s Departamento Valle del Cauca, within the free trade area “Zona Franca del Pacifico”. In future, agricultural, industrial and automotive products will be stored here alongside cutting machines for timing belts in readiness for operation.
Initially, the warehouse will mainly be used to supply customers in Colombia. In a second step, this will be extended to supply further customers in Latin America, especially in Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Panama and Guatemala. This new warehouse location will improve the availability of goods and significantly reduce delivery times.
Expansion of Optibelt Material Handling GmbH production site in Rinteln
To meet the growing demand for customised special belt drives and to support expansion into new sales regions, the Optibelt Material Handling GmbH production location in Rinteln has undergone a 1.6 million euro expansion. The new production hall offers a 1,300 square metre production and storage area and will result in 30 new jobs in the final stage of the expansion project.
The expansion that was completed in spring 2017 doubled the production and storage capacities and thus set the location up for the next ten years and an ever-growing demand. Already, the polyurethane belt segment that makes up the standard range in Rinteln, together with special products, accounts for ten percent of the overall turnover of the Arntz Optibelt Group.
