Soudal places first column of the factory of the future
Today, on Everdongenlaan in Turnhout, which is just a stone's throw from Soudal's headquarters, the first column for Soudal Plant 5 was ceremonially placed. This new, hyper-modern production site will produce adhesives and sealants from 2023 onwards. Plant 5, which will support the further growth ambitions of the Kempen specialist in silicone, adhesives, and PU foams, will also provide additional employment.
Naessens Industriebouw and Vanhout are building an ultramodern, fully automatic production site covering 20,000 m² on the almost 5-hectare site. Soudal is a 100% family business and Chairman-Founder Vic Swerts placed the first column together with his youngest grandson, Andreas. In doing this together, the young and not-so-young symbolized the Soudal slogan, "BUILD THE FUTURE".
Dirk Coorevits, Managing Director of Soudal, who was also earlier this year elected as Trends Manager of the Year: "Our slogan, ‘BUILD THE FUTURE’ can be taken literally. We currently have construction projects underway at 12 of our 23 production sites, worldwide. These mainly involve investments in additional production and storage capacity. Among these, Plant 5 is definitely the project that stands out, in terms of investment, ambition, and innovation. In this factory of the future, large quantities of mastics will be mixed and filled in an almost fully automatic process. Extensive automation will mean even less waste and less energy consumption. We have been making environmentally friendly systems for decades. And we now also want to extend our green philosophy to our infrastructure. With a BREEAM score of 'outstanding', Plant 5 will serve as an example for the numerous other plants that Soudal will undoubtedly build throughout the world in the future."
The doubling of production capacity at the Everdongenlaan site is urgently needed. This is due to many years of continuous growth, averaging more than 10% per year. In the first phase of the new site's operation, it will produce hybrid mastics (of which Fix ALL is the best-known brand). Plant 5 represents an investment of 40 million euros and it further affirms Soudal's deep roots in the Kempen region. In addition, employment in Soudal’s Turnhout branches, which currently already exceeds 1,100 employees, will also benefit.