 The new premises of EBLO Seating has eight loading docks and is perfect for handling large shipments and container loads. |
EBLO Seating NV is investing USD4.55 million in new premises into which it is moving by the end of this year.
The industrial equipment seat supplier says rapid growth made its current location untenable. The new 10,000 sqm (107,639 sqft.) site in the De Geer industrial zone in Zwijndrecht, which is 20 km (12 mi.) from its old premises in Krimpen a/d Ijssel, will have a 8,000 sqm (86,111 sqft.) storage area and 2,000 sqm (21,528 sqft.) in office space.
EBLO spokesman Jeroen van Es tells
Forkliftaction.com News that the new site is "even closer to Rotterdam Harbour". "This new premises, with eight loading docks, is a perfect location to handle large shipments and container loads and allows us to stock, modify and ship every quantity of seats to small and large customers."
Van Es says the company had attracted a lot of new business in the past few years, and the new brand, United Seats, is popular in the OEM sector. "Due to the (financial) crisis in Europe, many OEMs started to look at other seat manufacturers and tried to find a way to maintain their quality level but reduce costs," he explains.
"This opened doors and created a lot of new business for our US seat line. Although we manufacture overseas, we supply from stock - this is (rare for) many OEM customers since they are used to purchasing with a lead time of between eight and 12 weeks.
"All this new business made us decide and seek a new location that has more possibilities and can service customers for the next decade. The new distribution centre is about five times the size of our current warehouse."
The new building will be completed by the first quarter of 2014, but will be operational by January. There are currently 27 people working in EBLO but van Es says in the near future, eight new staff will be trained and employed to join the company.
The 2,000 sqm (21,528 sqft.) Krimpen a/d Ijssel headquarters has been sold to a neighbouring company for an undisclosed sum. EBLO has agreed to move out of the site by 31 December.