Lawo celebrates expansion with topping out ceremony.
Company's ground floor doubled.
Together with the staff and many guests of honour, at their company headquarters in Rastatt/Germany on 18th September, Lawo AG celebrated with a topping out ceremony for their new building. New rooms, directly adjoining the current premises, have expanded the ground floor to double its size (from 3500 m² to 7000 m²). ‘Moving house’ will take place at the end of 2009. The additional space is mainly designed to achieve an even more efficient manufacturing process with a significant increase in capacity. The new part of the building also provides additional offices and demo studios. This current development is the largest expansion in the company’s history.
During a tour of Lawo’s headquarters, prominent guests of honour, including Ernst Pfister, Minister of Economic Affairs (Secretary of Commerce) for the German state Baden-Wuerttemberg, and Hans Juergen Puetsch, Lord Mayer of Rastatt, had the opportunity to find out more about this successful mid-size company, and to get an overview of mixing console development and manufacture.
In his concluding speech, Minister Pfister expressed how impressed he was by the innovative drive behind the family-owned company, and described the development of Lawo AG as a prime example of an economic success story.
Another great reason to party will come up soon after moving into the expanded premises: the Rastatt-based family enterprise was founded in 1970 by Peter Lawo, father of the present CEO Philipp Lawo, so a 40th anniversary celebration is in order for the start of 2010.
Lawo, with currently 160 employees at their Rastatt headquarters, develops and produces audio mixing consoles for the professional radio and TV sectors. Since the foundation of the company, development and manufacture have been based in Rastatt. The expansion of the facility is a clear commitment by the company to this location, and to the preservation and growth of jobs.
The vertical integration used in the manufacturing process – from market-orientated product development to the programming, construction and production of the completed product – ensures a high quality standard for the products by the use of test routines during every phase of the manufacturing process. Lawo always has put much value on continuously improving their products, and developing new features and designs. Lawo’s driving innovation was rewarded earlier this year with a silver award gained at the 2008 German Economy Innovation Awards.
Following the use of more than 50 mc² consoles during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, new events are on the horizon for 2010 – the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, and the Soccer World Championship in South Africa where, once again, many Lawo mixing consoles will be used to broadcast top-quality sound for TV viewers around the world.
