GEALAN celebrates topping-out ceremony for high-bay warehouse

125m long, 26m high, 22m wide: The shell is in place, the façade is currently being closed, insulation and the final outer shell are still missing – once this has been done in the next few weeks, the new high-bay warehouse at GEALAN's Tanna site will already be in its final dimensions and perfect splendour from the outside. Work will then continue within the future fully automated storage facility: In the next steps, electrical work will be carried out, the lighting of the picking hall will be installed, and smoke screens necessary for fire protection will be installed.   

The shell of the new fully automated high-bay warehouse on the day of the topping-out ceremony. 

With the final work on the shell of the building, GEALAN has now traditionally set the topping-out ceremony as the next symbolic project milestone.   

 

"Great help in a world that is becoming more and more complex" 

The short welcome and introduction to the festivities were given by the two GEALAN managing directors. Ivica Maurović, Spokesman of GEALAN's Management Board, described the new high-bay warehouse as a strategic milestone for his company: "Innovations and the associated investments are a must if we want to continue to grow. Our new building will be of great help to us in a world that is becoming increasingly complex. With our fully automated high-bay warehouse, we will soon be able to work even more efficiently. I would like to thank all companies, business partners and craftsmen who have actively supported us in our major project and continue to support us!".   

From left: The two GEALAN managing directors Ivica Maurović and Tino Albert express their gratitude for the personal greetings from Tanna's mayor Marco Seidel and those of the district administrator of the Saale-Orla district, Thomas Fügmann.   

 

Tino Albert, Managing Director Technology and Finance at GEALAN, joined in thanking everyone involved, then briefly looked back to outline the planned development of the high-bay warehouse milestone: "In mid-May 2022, we stood here on a flat area for the groundbreaking ceremony. Now our new building can be admired in its full size. We are right on schedule with the work. The plan is to put our new high-bay warehouse into operation in December of this year."  

GEALAN will invest around 15 million euros in the new building. The building will be implemented in accordance with the KfW 45 standard, i.e. it will be built in an extremely energy-efficient manner right from the start.   

Hans-Jürgen Wittig (right) from the Hof architectural firm of the same name wished the construction project all the best with his topping-out speech.   

 

Shards are said to bring good luck

After the welcoming words, Hans-Jürgen Wittig (Wittig Architekten Hof) finally gave the topping-out speech, with which he thanked all the craftsmen and wished the new building and its client GEALAN good luck and blessings at all times. In good tradition, the speaker then smashed his champagne glass on the floor, so that the shards may bring the desired happiness.   

Finally, Thomas Fügmann, District Administrator of the Saale-Orla district, and the Mayor of the city of Tanna, Marco Seidel, conveyed their personal congratulations on this further milestone in GEALAN's company history.   

Of course, all the craftsmen present were invited to the final topping-out ceremony, who contribute every day with their tireless efforts on the large construction site to get the GEALAN high-bay warehouse up and running within the set time frame.  

 

 

The GEALAN high-bay warehouse in Tanna: 

Groundbreaking: May 19, 2022  

Dimensions: length 125m, height 26m, width 22m.  

Number of storage bins: 5020  

Payload per cassette: 1700 kg  

Capacity up to: approx. 70 cassette changes per hour  

The storage and retrieval of goods in the high-bay warehouse is controlled by modern software and mechanically carried out by two so-called storage and retrieval machines. This increases the speed and safety of the work steps. The physical strain on employees is significantly reduced by an ergonomic design of the picking stations.  

This is what the GEALAN high-bay warehouse will look like after completion (source rendering: Wittig Architekten). 

 

The advantages of a high-bay  warehouse

A high-bay warehouse describes a warehouse with racks from a height of 12 meters. Normally, it offers several thousand pallet storage locations, where both flat and long goods can be stored. GEALAN is building a so-called automated long goods warehouse at the Tanna site by 2024.  

Automatic high-bay or long goods warehouses make optimal use of the available space, because due to the height, a lot of volume can be stored in a minimum footprint. In addition, there are no long distances to deliver or transport goods. Thanks to full automation, even large, heavy and bulky goods can be delivered quickly and efficiently from the system.