01/12/2024

Visitors enthusiastic about the new domicile

But the effort was worth it. Media representatives and representatives of regional institutions, customers and suppliers as well as employees and their families were all impressed by the new building and the high degree of automation used in the production of HB-Therm temperature control technology. With the move to the new premises, the four original locations have been transformed into one large, centralised company site, which also impresses in terms of the logistical challenges and the sustainability aspects required today. The move from the centre of St. Gallen to Piccardstrasse in Winkeln alone has completely eliminated some logistical activities, such as transporting components from one area to another. Now the distances are short, the processes have been reorganised according to the one-piece flow principle and the new workstations have also been ergonomically adapted to the latest findings. According to CEO Reto Zürcher, all of this was achieved without external help, solely through the activities of the employees, who designed their workstations according to their own needs in order to realise an optimal workflow.

Sustainability plays a major role

Not only since the construction of the new building in St. Gallen as a resource-conserving construction measure with geothermal air conditioning, well thought-out use of materials or the use of solar energy through extensive collectors on the roof has the company thought and acted responsibly, sustainably and environmentally friendly. Not only production and global sales, but also the products themselves are developed and realised according to these guidelines. A good example: energy efficiency. Reto Zürcher states: "If we can protect the environment and reduce costs at the same time, then we have achieved our goal. To achieve this, we not only consistently implement internal optimisation measures ourselves and only invest in our own machinery while taking energy costs into account. Our products are primarily used in the energy-intensive injection moulding process. However, it is precisely here that a great deal of energy can be saved by taking appropriate measures. Our product developments are therefore always carried out with energy efficiency in mind, as the running costs must also be included in the overall calculation from an economic perspective." Here too, HB-Therm is a pioneer and think tank for the entire industry.

Ensure that employees enjoy coming to work

Of course, a new building at a new company location cannot always work in the interests of all employees. But at HB-Therm, the amalgamation of the four sub-locations into one has already made things much easier for trainees, workers and employees. The CEO and his management team also do everything they can to ensure that employees feel at home at HB-Therm. For the past 10 years, the "you" culture at the workplace has ensured that there is very little distance between all employees in the company and that contact between the individual departments is kept as direct as possible. This starts with the boss and ends with the trainees. As a result, there has been a sense of togetherness in the company from the very beginning, which has become incredibly important for team building and working at HB-Therm. In addition to very flexible working hours, there is also a large 'timeout zone' with darts, table football, a goal wall and relaxing furniture, where the HB-Therm team can get together informally for lunch, but also for professional and technical discussions over a coffee and soft drinks. There are no separate rooms; people literally work together in open-plan offices and meeting rooms. And the CEO also has his workplace there - to be directly approachable and to show that there are no differences here, but rather a high willingness to identify. In general, "the boss" talks to almost every employee on his tours of the company, which is gladly accepted with a smile.

Official inauguration in the spirit of team spirit

The participants of the "Press Day", including a group of specialised journalists, the architect of the new building and representatives of the city and canton of St. Gallen, were the first to be given a tour of the new company location. On the following day, things got livelier at the "Business Day". Around 400 visitors, consisting of HB-Therm customers and suppliers, came to see the new site in detail and to be spoilt with culinary delights from the food trucks set up. The sales and customer service teams were on hand to assist customers and fulfil their wishes. The "Family and Friends Day" was even busier, with almost 700 visitors, including former employees. Once again, the food trucks provided special culinary delights and the expertly guided company tours provided many "aha moments" for the participants. While the children had fun in the play area, the adults were able to experience HB-Therm's latest temperature control units in production use on two injection moulding machines, which were provided by business partners Arburg and ENGEL and supervised by specialist application engineers. Many old and new friendships were rekindled on this day.
Both visitors and the company were more than positive about the three fantastic days. All those present agreed that the new HB-Therm site is a great success and will help to further advance the work, products, customer care, service and team spirit of the workforce for the benefit of the company.

HB-Therm today: the epitome of top quality, reliability and durability

With its high proportion of development activities, HB-Therm AG is purposefully at the forefront of the industry. To ensure that this remains the case, innovations and investments will continue to be kept high in St. Gallen in the coming years - now at a central production site with a high proportion of in-house production and the shortest possible supply chains. The cost-effectiveness of the appliances will continue to be reflected in their maintenance-free nature, quality, energy efficiency and user-friendliness thanks to process and energy consumption monitoring. 
Of course, you can never fully predict the future. The surprising global political, health and economic events of the last three years have shown that the more focussed and proactive a company's ideas and investments are, the greater its resilience. In this respect, HB-Therm has done many things right: New production with state-of-the-art machinery in a central location with short supply chains, a great deal of emotion and passion, innovations in the direction of digitalisation, energy efficiency and durability, as well as sales and services you can rely on. This is what characterises HB-Therm.

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