NKE Austria builds new headquarters

The first stage of construction of the new NKE headquarters, which will be located in the Stadtgut Steyr business park, comprises a 3 000-square-metre office block, a production hall with a floor space of 6 000 square metres and an automated high-bay warehouse. Environmental aspects were a high priority in new development: The office block is air conditioned and heated through groundwater using heat pumps, while a woodchip system provides heating for the production facility. The entire factory floor is covered with a green roof to create a comfortable climate for the factory personnel.

Because of NKE’s rapid expansion and the limited possibilities for further extending the existing facilities in Steyr-Gleink, the company management decided to build a completely new production site. The business park Stadtgut Steyr proved the ideal location for this venture. “Seventy percent of our employees live in Steyr and the NKE brand is closely associated with that city”, explains Managing Director Heimo Ebner, who runs the company together with Harald Zerobin since it was established in 1996. “In the Steyr business park, NKE has 35 000 square metres of building area at its disposal, which will ensure sufficient expansion capability well into the future.”

In addition to the larger premises, the managing directors are planning to increase employee numbers from the current 140 to 230 in the medium-term and to as many as 300 in the long-term. “We are looking forward to sales increases of well over 50 percent”, enthuses Heimo Ebner, who is expecting a doubling in turnover from 23 to 45 million euros for the current financial year. Reflecting this growth in sales, the number of apprenticeships is also set to rise. To this end, the company is planning an education and training centre to be built in cooperation with Austrian education and training institute bfi.
NKE offers both standard and special bearings for all industrial applications. In addition to product and application development, NKE also provides a full range of technical services and training. NKE’s products are distributed through 15 international representative offices and more than 240 distribution outlets in 60 countries.