Ground-breaking ceremony for new 1,100 square metre knife production hall in Hayingen

Geislingen/Steige – The traditional ground-breaking ceremony marked the start of the construction work to expand the production facilities at the WMF knife forge in Hayingen. The construction work takes account of the high demand for high-quality knives that are "made in Germany" with patented Performance Cut technology from the WMF Group, as a result of which larger production facilities are required. Stiftung Warentest declared the forged steel WMF knives from Hayingen as the sharpest knives in Germany in a recent test.

Last Wednesday the symbolic ground-breaking ceremony was held on the knife production construction site in Hayingen by Martin Geiger, Plant Manager and Vice President Quality Management Consumer Goods & Hotel, together with the Mayor of Hayingen Kevin Dorner and Dr Jörg Peter Schwartze, Vice President Production Consumer at WMF Group. "The expansion of our production facilities to include an additional hall is an important step forward in light of the increasing demand for the production of our knives," said Geiger at the celebrations. "Thanks to the new hall we can increase knife production by around 30 percent. In order to meet demand we are also creating around 20 new jobs on the site," Geiger explained. Alongside the expansion of the premises, we are also investing in state-of-the-art production machinery. The plant in Hayingen is a symbol of the link between tradition and innovation at the company: "High quality combined with our patented Performance Cut technology make our knives an extremely attractive product around the world," commented Geiger.

Mayor of Hayingen Kevin Dorner welcomed the new building during his speech: "The WMF Group has always been an important employer for Hayingen and the region. The current expansion of the production facilities is a positive and important sign for our town." The new premises covering around 1,100 square metres over two floors will enable us to improve our production workflows and provide space for the modern machine fleet. The construction work is due to be completed in October of this year. Around 100 WMF Group employees currently work in knife production at the Hayingen site.

Image caption (left to right): Herbert Mauser, Architect, Dr Jörg Peter Schwartze, Vice President Production Consumer WMF Group, Martin Geiger, Knife Production Plant Manager Hayingen and Vice President Quality Management Consumer Goods & Hotel WMF Group, Helmut Kloker, Works Council Chairman Hayingen WMF Group, Simon Brodbeck, Managing Director of construction company Brodbeck GmbH.

About the WMF Group
For more than 160 years, the brands that make up the WMF Group have stood for the best in cooking, drinking and dining. Every day, more than 100 million people around the world use products from WMF, Silit and Kaiser to prepare, cook, bake, eat and drink in their homes. And when they are not doing that, they are enjoying coffee specialities and foods prepared by the hotel and catering industry using WMF, Schaerer or Hepp products. Our employees are passionate about bringing people together, whether at home, on the move or at fine-dining establishments, in order to give them shared moments that are both precious and delicious. All this with products which have outstanding design, perfect functionality and excellent quality to make every culinary experience a real joy. Our traditional company was founded in 1853 in Geislingen an der Steige. Nearly 6,000 employees provide culinary pleasure at over 40 locations worldwide.

For further information, please contact:

WMF Group
Kai Hummel
Vice President | Head of Corporate Communication
Telephone +49 7331 258167
xnv.uhzzry@jzs-tebhc.pbz