At the festive opening of the central warehouse, Georg F. W. Schaeffler, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Schaeffler AG, said: "This new logistics center at our new location in Kitzingen is another milestone in the implementation of our 'Mobility for tomorrow' strategy. At the same time, we see the new EDZ Mitte as a commitment to the Franconian region, to Bavaria and to Germany as a business location." Schaeffler has invested around 110 million euros in the construction of the new site in Lower Franconia. Around 100 employees currently work in Kitzingen. The number of jobs is to be increased to around 200 by the middle of next year.

The new central warehouse in Kitzingen, with its convenient location in the middle of Europe, is the main location of Schaeffler's European warehouse network. To date, the European Distribution Center (EDC) network has one warehouse each for Northern Europe in Arlandastad, Sweden, and for Southern Europe in Carisio, Italy.

In addition to the company's headquarters in Herzogenaurach in Middle Franconia and the new location in Kitzingen in Lower Franconia, the globally active automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler is represented at ten other locations in Bavaria. The Bavarian Minister President Dr. Markus Söder, who attended the inauguration of the EDZ Mitte as a guest of honor, said: "Kitzingen is now the center of Schaeffler's Europe-wide logistics. This is a huge investment for Schaeffler AG and good for Lower Franconia and Bavaria as a whole!"

Schaeffler's new EDC center went into operation in May 2018. Schaeffler supplies its customers in Europe from Kitzingen. (Image: Schaeffler)

The realignment of logistics with the European Distribution Network is part of an initiative of the future program "Agenda 4 plus One", which aims to make the company more agile, faster and bolder, as Klaus Rosenfeld, CEO, explains: "With the investment in Kitzingen, our main aim is to make the entire global supply chain, from our suppliers to our production network to our customers, more cost-efficient, faster and more flexible. The new EDZ Mitte will therefore make a direct contribution to improving the Schaeffler Group's supply capability and ensuring its future competitiveness."

With the European distribution network, the supplier aims to increase market supply, the reliability and performance of deliveries and thus further improve customer satisfaction. Standard products from the EDZ Mitte can be delivered to customers in Europe within 24 to 48 hours of order receipt. It is also possible to accept and dispatch a customer order up to two hours before the truck departs. Schaeffler also fulfills special customer requirements such as shipping the goods in containers or the customer's own packaging. Special sorting is also possible, as is labeling with the recipient's specific labels.

In October 2016, the ground-breaking ceremony for the EDZ Mitte took place on the 148,000 square meter site in the conneKT Technology Park in Kitzingen. The result is a 38.5-metre-high high-bay warehouse with space for 28,000 euro pallets and an automated container warehouse with just under 95,000 container spaces. These loading aids are transported using an electric floor conveyor and state-of-the-art conveyor technology with a length of more than 2,000 meters. Up to 85 trucks can be loaded and unloaded daily at 20 ramps. With a floor area of around 17,000 square meters, the logistics area in the partly two-storey warehouse has a usable hall area of around 25,000 square meters. mho