Löbau: Palfinger expands production in Löbau

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The production facility of the Austrian lifting platform group Palfinger is the largest industrial employer in Löbau. The global company continues to grow – and will soon be back in Löbau. As Palfinger has now announced, production in Löbau will be expanded. However, at the expense of another Palfinger location in North Rhine-Westphalia. Basically, what belongs together grows together with it.

In addition to Löbau, the group also has a production site in Krefeld. But it will be closed in 2023. “The lease for the Palfinger location in Krefeld will expire in August 2023,” announced the company. Since the aim is to achieve further growth in the access platform market, a location is needed that can be substantially expanded and expanded. “This option cannot be implemented in Krefeld from an economic point of view,” it continues. While areas such as sales and service will remain in the Krefeld area, production will be relocated to the Löbau location at this point in time.

Lots of new jobs

That affects 50 jobs in Krefeld. “40 to 50 new jobs will be created at the Löbauer site,” said a company spokeswoman when asked by SZ. Of course, the employees in Krefeld will also be offered the opportunity to move to Löbau. Due to the relocation of production, Palfinger also wants to enlarge its location in Löbau in terms of area. The group does not yet want to comment on what area that will be. A plot of land next to the company premises on Äußere Bautzner Strasse would be an option.

Palfinger had already wanted to acquire this property in September 2019. The area opposite the pasta factory once housed parts of the bankrupt training building yard. Because of accumulated tax debts, the property was put up for foreclosure together with the noodle factory. At that time, Palfinger had already rented the site and the hall on it as a parking space for trucks. However, the company did not get a chance because the judge did not accept the power of attorney from the Palfinger authorized representative. Instead, a Bautzner freight forwarder bought the property at auction. It is possible that Palfinger has now been able to acquire it. What seems certain, however, is that Palfinger will remain with the Outer Bautzner. “They don’t want to go to the new industrial park,” says building authority Albrecht Gubsch when asked by SZ.

Late homecoming

The production expansion will be the second expansion of the Löbauer Palfinger location. In 2018, the group built a hall and offices for its service branch across from the company premises. This part of the company was previously located in Ebersbach. For Palfinger, however, it had many logistical advantages to relocate the service branch directly to production. Because this area has not yet been exhausted in terms of area, it might also be an option for increasing production.

With the Palfinger move from Krefeld to Löbau, what once began in Upper Lusatia comes back completely to Upper Lusatia – more precisely in Görlitz. The Wumag company was founded there in January 1921 Waggon- und Mmechanical engineering AG Görlitz – the company’s roots go back to 1828. Its general director re-founded the company in Krefeld after the war. The Görlitzer Wumag went into the VEB Waggonbau Görlitz (today Alstom) and VEB Bergmann-Borsig / Maschinenbau Görlitz (today Siemens Turbinen).

What is in Löbau Palfinger today was still the “Spezialfahrzeugbau Löbau” (SFL) in GDR times – the company equipped around W50 trucks with lifting platforms. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, SFL was looking for a West German partner and found him in the Krefeld Wumag, into which the SFL was merged. In 2008 Palfinger finally took over Wumag.

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