Different Women’s Carnival Day: Strama-MPS opens new “Plant Danube” with Minister, Ms. Ilse Aigner and Lord Mayor Markus Pannermayr

On 27 February 2014 the new domicile of Strama-MPS, referred to internally as ”Plant Danube”, at the Banater Straße in Straubing was officially opened. After exactly a construction period of 12 months on the 33,600m2 site they moved into the 15 million Euro plant with a floor space of almost 17,000 m2, of which approx. 2,900 m2 are office space. Strama-MPS was particularly pleased about many guests of honour from politics, authorities, banks, schools, City of Straubing, construction, customers as well as companies we are acquainted with. The more than 600 guests, including 400 Straubing employees celebrated under the motto “A new domicile for a creative company”. Kabarett artist Lothar Kulzer, who acted as moderator, ensured an enjoyable atmosphere. The blessing for the new building was given by Pastor/Ms. Erna Meiser and Priest Johannes Plank.

Further guests who attended the event were, among others, Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Ms. Ilse Aigner, Lord Mayor Markus Pannermayr, Mayoress Maria Stelzl, Chairmen of the City Council Fritz Geisperger (SPD) and Peter Mittermeier (CSU), Members of the Bavarian State Parliament Josef Zellmeier and Hans Ritt as well as Member of the German Federal Parliament Alois Rainer and his predecessor Ernst Hinsken. Not to forget the partners Senator h.c. Dipl.-Betriebswirt (Economics graduate) Hans Hermann Peter Rösner and the Director of Production and Services Werner Schmidbauer.

”Much attention was given to a sustainable and efficient construction” emphasized Strama-MPS Managing Director Herbert Wittl in his opening speech. After several preliminary investigations, the thermal use of the underground for regenerative heat recovery was decided. On the site there are now 82 borehole heat exchangers in a depth of 29 m below ground, providing the heating and air conditioning of the premises throughout much of the year by the use of a heat pump. Peak loads on very cold days are ensured with conventional natural gas heating. Without using a heat pump the air conditioning of the office building can be achieved more energy efficient only with a circulating pump.

The specified values according to the German Energy Conservation Regulations (ENEV) are approx. 30% below the requirements due to a roof covering with 20 cm insulation and sealing, wall cladding with sandwich elements and thermal insulation glazing. In the future this investment does not only save energy costs and provide a comfortable room climate, but also reduces the ecologically damaging CO2 to a low residual value.

Strama-MPS deliberately invested in the Straubing location, as there is a high potential of flexible, creative and partially also international university leavers available. ”This flexibility and creativity, that is essential for special machine design and manufacturing to find solutions for our customers, that further ensures the German automotive industry to play a leading role in the world, is not found in other regions of the world”. The investment in a new plant became necessary as Strama-MPS doubled its sales in the last eight years.

The location of the new Strama-MPS building, directly situated on the Danube, offers exceptionally pleasant working conditions. The unobstructed view from the office building along the Danube River provides the employees from the engineering divisions a creative working atmosphere. Also the personnel in the assembly shops have very comfortable working conditions in the extensive shop areas, each one with a size of 3000 m² and flooded with daylight.

The building project was assisted by the Architectural Office Anker Bauconsulting GmbH. When awarding the contracts, particular importance was attached to take local companies on board. Construction work as well as the precast concrete elements were carried out by the Construction Company Aigner+Wurm. The building envelope was made by MEFAtec from Thannberg. Two companies from Straubing were entrusted with two essential tasks: Hörtensteiner made the electrical installation and Reiki Metallbau (metal construction), located in close proximity supplied the windows and exterior doors. Lausser from Pilgramsberg was responsible for the sections heating, air conditioning, sanitary and ventilation systems.

Straubing‘s Lord Mayor Markus Pannermayr praised the flexibility and continuous enhancement of Strama-MPS since beginning of the 40ies. The motto “Moving the limits together” speaks for itself and also fits the mission statement of the City of Straubing “Sustainable living and growing”. The high level of identification of the employees with the company, the high workforce cohesion as well their outstanding commitment in apprenticeship training in the own training shop speak also in favour of Strama-MPS as an attractive employer in the region of Straubing. In 2013 Strama-MPS obtained the apprenticeship award from the City of Straubing. Last but not least Lord Mayor thanked for the excellent cooperation with the management and for the significant investment of 15 million Euros in the Straubing location.

In her ceremonial speech, Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Ms. Ilse Aigner, expressed her respect regarding the performance of Strama-MPS as an innovative and competitive mid-sized company. She said that the company is also a “flagship” especially in view of excellent vocational training provided by them. She explained the three key factors of economy – the three I-words: investment, innovation and international competitiveness. Therefore, Strama-MPS’s investment in their location was of tremendous importance. She also spoke of the investment in the minds of the employees, on the one hand to recruit and retain highly qualified personnel and on the other hand as important factor to push ahead innovations and consequently to ensure the international competitiveness.

Major partner Senator h.c. Dipl.-Betriebswirt (Economics graduate) Hans Hermann Peter Rösner, who holds participating interests in Strama-MPS since 1984 and became major partner of the company with a majority of 80%, first looked briefly at the company history of Strama-MPS. He reported about his experiences with the today’s 99 years of age company founder Dipl.-Ing. (Graduate engineer) Alfred Michaelis, who started the company as one-man operation for motor repair. Michaelis attached great importance to a solid apprenticeship training, what became and remained an established company tradition to date. Rösner considers the qualified apprenticeship training as one of the success factors anyway as well as the close cooperation with the TU Munich, where Dr. Ing. Klaus Michaelis the son of the company founder Alfred Michaelis worked as Chief Engineer and Research Group Leader at FZG until 2010. Strama-MPS is of enourmous importance in the Rösner-Mautby Group, encompassing more companies of the industry sectors Agriculture, Real Estate, Hospitals and Retirement Homes as well as Medicine. According to Rösner it goes without saying that a large part of the profits is constantly invested in the further development of Strama-MPS. Rösner expressed his thanks for the pleasant cooperation with all partners and for the outstanding business development of Strama-MPS.

When the Kabarett artist Lothar Kulzer asked to join for the ribbon cutting ceremony, the 600 guests were astonished to see that in celebration of Women’s Carnival Day Minister Ilse Aigner spontaneously grasped a pair of scissors and “accidentally” took the tie of Lord Mayor Markus Pannermayr for the ribbon. Before Pannermayr realized what was happening, his tie “met its maker”. However, he showed a sense of humour and found his smile again quickly. Finally the partners Peter Rösner, Herbert Wittl and Helmut Petzko as well as Lord Mayor Pannermayr and Minister Ilse Aigner lined up for symbolic cutting of the opening ribbon. The new location of Strama-MPS at the Banater Straße was officially opened now.

Strama-MPS would like to thank everyone who was involved in the implementation of the project “New Building Plant Danube”. The Director of Production and Services, Werner Schmidbauer, who took care of the new building from the first to the last day deserves special thanks.