GEA Westfalia Separator launches an extensive restructuring project

Under the new Division President Holger Heinrich, GEA Westfalia Separator is launching an extensive restructuring project. With the project name “Kolumbus”, the company is aiming to bundle existing successful components and dismantle hardened organisational structures. The level of support for this project by the parent company, GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, and the fact that Holger Heinrich enjoys fullest confidence, is demonstrated by the willingness of the concern to invest 160 million Euros in the Mechanical Separation Division / GEA Westfalia Separator over the next three years.

Particularly against the background of a potential global economic slowdown and the threats arising from the global financial crisis, it is important for the Oelde-based company to actively face up to the global challenge and to invest worldwide as well as substantially in its own location.

A third of these investments, which run into a high, two-digit millions range for the Oelde location, will be channelled into building measures, while two thirds are earmarked for machine and test bay technology.

If everything goes well, the ground-breaking ceremony can take place in Oelde before the end of the year. These building measures will extend over three years.

In addition to the building measures, GEA Westfalia Separator will change its previously existing organisational structure.

The concentration on only two sales companies, GEA Westfalia Separator Process GmbH and GEA Westfalia Separator Systems GmbH, will develop clear synergy effects for the company through the logically coordinated structure of the integrated business units.
An independent production company, GEA Westfalia Separator Production GmbH, with production facilities in Germany (Oelde and Niederahr), France, India and China, provides additional market proximity. Machines and “know-how parts” will in future be produced where they are actually needed.

In summary, the essential key points of the project can be described as follows:

• Increasing the efficiency at the German location in Oelde through modernisation and concentration of production
• Reorganization of the French location Château-Thierry into a global service and maintenance centre with spare parts production
• Setting up a new production facility in China for complete separators and decanters
• Expansion of the previous assembly plant in India to a complete production plant for decanters and simple separators