The Hochland plant in Schongau needs more space. The production quantities for which the plant was designed during construction in 1995/96 had been clearly exceeded for some time. The production of Gervais cottage cheese is also to be relocated to Schongau by the coming year, which could create 50 jobs.
Schongau - In the last city council of Schongau in the old legislative period, the change to the development plan "Stockackerfeld industrial estate" was recently on the agenda. As city architect Sebastian Dietrich explained, the planning law requirements for a high-bay warehouse should be created for the Hochland company at its Schongau location.
The processes are to be optimized
Operational workflows are to be optimized, it was said, for which purpose a high-bay warehouse with around 10,000 pallet spaces on nine levels is to be built in the north-eastern area of the company premises. According to Dietrich, the high-bay warehouse should reach a total height of around 25 meters and offer an expansion option for future developments at the operating location.
What's behind it? As was known only a few hours earlier in the Hochland balance sheet press conference (see box), additional cottage cheese of the "Gervais" brand is to be produced in the Schongau factory from the second half of 2021. So far, this has been produced at the Danone plant in Rosenheim for the Heimenkircher company, which acquired the rights to the brand in 2013. The background to the decision was that Danone had announced the closure of the Rosenheim site by July 2021, board member Peter Stahl said in the video conference. A project team is currently working on the plans for the production expansion. This is to be implemented on the existing factory site. As spokeswoman Petra Berners revealed on request, Hochland would like to convert a finished goods warehouse and a packaging materials warehouse. The planned high-bay warehouse in the Stockackerfeld industrial area could then replace these storage areas.
Space is scarce in the factory even without cottage cheese production
As Stahl had explained, the space in the existing plant is already scarce even without cottage cheese production. It was designed for 35,000 tons of cheese per year. The company has now reached 50,000 tons. However, it is currently still unclear when the construction of the high-bay warehouse will be realized. A final decision has not yet been made. "It will certainly not happen in the next year."
In any case, there would be enough room for a structural expansion of the capacities in Schongau. As early as 2015, Hochland had secured the approximately four hectare site in the immediate vicinity of its own plant for possible later expansion. The city council then initiated the necessary land use planning.
The city of Schongau is now creating the conditions for further planning: the city council unanimously decided that the development plan should be changed. There is a height restriction at this point, according to Dietrich's comment on the plans, but this is already interrupted by the silos, he says. "The camp will certainly be visible from the east."
Location appreciation is good news
Friedrich Zeller (SPD) praised the project. "This is very good news, the company wants to significantly upgrade the Schongau location." According to Zeller, this is also a good thing for Schongau in these Corona times, since the food sector is somewhat more crisis-proof than the topic of mobility. The height development of the camp does not bother the SPD city council. “You can also see an industrial city in the green.” There is nothing to be said against allowing large architecture close to the B 17. "And jobs are created."
Bettina Buresch (Greens) also called it "gratifying" that this location would be expanded. Even if it may not be highly qualified jobs that are added, they are jobs. The environmental officer questioned the greening, which looks a little different from the aerial view. "According to the planning, these high halls go all the way to the tree line." City architect Dietrich explained that an environmental report is still being prepared. "Every surface that is sealed is shown differently." It was also only a preliminary draft that the building committee would be involved twice.
At Hochland they were happy about the first step of the city. After completion of the land use planning, one can then go into the detailed planning.
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