Soudal puts first column of plant of the future

Plant 5 should support the further growth ambitions of the Kempen specialist in silicone, adhesives and PU foams and will provide additional jobs. 

On the nearly 5-hectare site, Naessens Industriebouw and Vanhout.pro are building an ultramodern and fully automated production site of 20,000 m². Since Soudal for 100% is a family business, chairman-founder Vic Swerts did the 'first column setting' with his youngest grandson Andreas. Young and not so young together thus symbolized Soudal's baseline: "BUILD THE FUTURE". 

Dirk Coorevits, Managing Director Soudal and elected Trends Manager of the Year earlier this year: "Our baseline BUILD THE FUTURE can safely be taken literally. We currently have construction projects underway at 12 of our 23 production sites worldwide, mainly investments in additional production and storage capacity. Plant 5 is definitely the construction project that stands out in terms of investment, ambition and innovation. In this "factory of the future", large quantities of mastic will be mixed and filled almost fully automatically. The extensive automation means even less waste and less energy consumption. We have been manufacturing environmentally friendly systems for decades, and want to extend our green philosophy to our infrastructure as well. With a BREEAM 'outstanding' score, Plant 5 will serve as an example for the undoubtedly numerous other plants that Soudal will build worldwide in the future." 

The doubling of production capacity on Everdongenlaan is much needed due to years of continuous growth averaging more than 10% annually. Once the new site is operational, a first phase here will already include the production of hybrid mastics, of which Fix ALL is the best-known brand. Plant 5 represents an investment of 40 million euros and confirms a further anchoring of Soudal in the Kempen region. In addition, there will be a positive impact on employment at the Turnhout Soudal sites, which currently already exceeds 1,100 employees.