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From Home Furnishing Business
Koehler Group Expanding Complex to Include Innovation Campus
November 10,
2022 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry 
Construction work has begun on the new technology building that will become the innovation campus of the Koehler Group, known to the furniture industry for their Décor Paper Division.
The ground-breaking was rung in symbolically by the group’s COO Dr. Stefan Karrer and the management team of Koehler Innovation & Technology. The new functional building is being constructed on the factory premises at the Koehler Group’s headquarters in Oberkirch, Germany.
It is scheduled to be completed in late 2023 and will have a total surface area of 1,375 square meters. The new facilities will provide enough space for all Koehler Research & Development employees in one place.
In keeping with the motto “innovation through investment,” the new building will meet the highest structural and technical standards in order to create the best possible working environment for Koehler Innovation & Technology, the research and development arm of the Koehler Group.
In the process, the various laboratory areas will be merged and centralized to create synergies and boost the agility of the innovation and research division.
Dr. Stefan Karrer, COO of the Koehler Group, explains, “Concentrating our technology division in one building at one location will not only underline our sustainable corporate development, but will also significantly optimize the entire processes in our facilities. And what’s more, it allows us to create an environment where innovation can flourish. This will help propel us to pioneer status in the development of paper-based solutions.”
“Laboratories have specific requirements, such as precisely defined climatic conditions,” explains Michael Trautmann, corporate director central plant engineering of the Koehler Group. “The systems have been designed for the greatest possible energy efficiency using the very latest technology. For this reason, heat recovery systems and the use of heat pump technology are being incorporated.”
A modern and high-density laboratory environment will be created on the first floor and in the basement, while our analytics department is located on the first floor. Additional, flexible open workspaces outside the lab areas will be created on all floors.
The innovative workspace and laboratory environment will provide the perfect conditions for developing and analyzing the sustainable papers produced by Koehler Paper, as well as evaluating their recyclability.
These are the foundations for the development of sustainable, paper-based solutions for a circular economy, and this is what will give Koehler a competitive advantage. In a highly collaborative process between the laboratory, the technical center, and recycling partners such as the Koehler Paper factory in Greiz, pioneering products for the future can be created in this way – something which has already been proven by the innovative and fully recyclable Blue4est® thermal paper.