Leoni Builds 'Factory Of The Future'

Leoni, the leading European provider of cables and cable systems to the automotive sector and other industries, has reached another milestone on its way to realising the 'Factory of the Future': now that the contract covering the 'An der Lände' site has been successfully concluded with the City of Roth, the construction phase officially starts today. With this project, Leoni is making a clear commitment to this location in Germany – and to safeguarding as well as creating modern jobs. This plant will in the future both underpin Leoni's core business in the cable sector and lay the foundations for use of digital technologies and the strategic expansion of its solutions business.

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Buildings covering a total floor space of about 57,000 square metres will now be erected on the 134,000 square metre-sized site in Roth. Alongside additional production capacity, Leoni will be establishing the basis for production that points the way to the future: As a laboratory and development center for innovative products, our Factory of the Future will enhance our specialised work involving high degrees of added value as well as optimise both operating and logistical processes – the focus of production will be on cables for the car industry. In total, Leoni will be investing EUR 90 million in the facility.

"We will need innovative products and services to operate successfully in our market in the future as well – our Factory of the Future is therefore a key building block in the further development of our business division," said Bruno Fankhauser, member of Leoni AG's Board of Directors and in charge of the Wire & Cable Solutions Division. With this new plant, Leoni is contributing to safeguarding and in future creating modern jobs in Germany. 

One area that is to be further expanded in the Factory of the Future involves the development and production of state-of-the-art data cables for autonomous driving. These are particularly suited for high data rates at frequencies of several GHz and are used on both infotainment and driver assistance systems. This new generation of data cables will furthermore facilitate connecting a large number of such components as car-to-x communication, which links vehicles with each other and also with transport infrastructure.

With a cable output of about 400,000 kilometres per year, the new facility's products will also range from glass fiber cables for telecommunications and infrastructure through to high-voltage and charging cables for cars with alternative drive systems. Leoni has set itself the objective of establishing Europe's most modern cables plant with its Factory of the Future. In addition to the laboratory and development center, the buildings will also comprise, among other things, an educational and advanced training facility.

Based on an estimated construction period of about two years, Leoni expects to start step-by-step relocation of its ongoing production from the existing plant in early 2019. Relocation of the roughly 800 employees to the Factory of the Future is likely to be completed in mid-2020.

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