Return to Duisburg

CLARK Europe GmbH moved to its new head office in the Businesspark Niederrhein in Duisburg-Rheinhausen, Germany, at the beginning of February 2014. The relocation from the traditional site of Mülheim an der Ruhr to the company's own, larger property in Duisburg emphasises the continuous growth and success of the forklift inventor. The relocation of the CLARK Europe head office was necessary to create new and extensive infrastructural opportunities for employees, workshop, assembly plant, training centre, new machine and spare parts storage. The new site also holds ready numerous improvements and significant potential for expansion and perfectly matches the requirement profile of CLARK Europe GmbH.

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The best conditions are hence created in order to further promote and develop the business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Optimum requirements and expansion potential

The relocation to Duisburg involves significant optimisations in many respects. "With the new site in Duisburg, we can cope with our increased order and service volume", says Rolf Eiten, Chief Operating Officer of CLARK Europe GmbH. The plant built in 1998 in the Businesspark Niederrhein is tailored exactly to the needs of an industrial vehicle manufacturer and holds ready considerable expansion options. Out of a total of 15,000 m² of working area, today only 5,000 m² are built on, "in contrast to the current site in Mülheim, we will then have expansion options which could extend to neighbouring properties", elaborated Rolf Eiten. The Businesspark Niederrhein is situated on the west side of the Rhine, right on the A40 motorway at the intersection of the Rhine route and the Ruhr area. Eiten goes on to say that great importance has been attached to the fact that the new operation base of CLARK Europe GmbH is still situated in the middle of one of the most powerful economic regions in Europe. An advantage of this is the immediate proximity to the international airport of Düsseldorf and container port of Duisburg.

Premises create greater efficiency and new opportunities

A big advantage of the new premises is the training centre, which is laid out in such a way that training courses and workshops can be carried out outside of day-to-day business and with a separate entrance. This permits full concentration on the apprenticeship and in-service training of the employees and training participants. The operating facilities in the workshop also make it even easier for us to meet the requirements for customised vehicle equipment. The existing paint shop also gives us the option of painting complete vehicles or individual parts for the first time. Another advantage is the direct access of the new machine warehouse to the workshop area and the availability of considerable storage space. For even better use of the space as well as more efficiency and faster access and storage times in the spare parts store, a state-of-the-art lifter system is used.

"Plans are also in place to accommodate the workshop plant for pre-delivery inspections and modifications at the Duisburg site, along with the administrative facilities", explains Rolf Eiten, "we want to continue organising our European spare parts store here and increase our stock of new machines. The construction of the company's own assembly plant is also still planned with a focus on electric machines for the European market. "We will act with a sense of proportion and pursue a step-by-step policy here", says Rolf Eiten, "the development and expansion of production capacities will proceed little by little." Conceptually, preparations have already been made for the construction of a CKD production line for 48 volt forklifts.

CLARK as a partner with future for the future.

"Thanks to a strong overall performance, we can look back on a successful 2013. This has been due in particular to the strengthening of our sales network. CLARK dealers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East now amount to 170 sales and service partners in around 58 countries", says Rolf Eiten. Both the continuous expansion of the sales network and the investment in the Duisburg site represents a clear signal of the sustainable, further expansion of the market presence of CLARK Europe GmbH. Constant planning and future security has therefore been derived for the sales and service partners, as well as for the customers. This again demonstrates the long-term development planning of the CLARK family company.

The new CLARK site (from 10.2.2014) from a bird's eye view. CLARK Europe GmbH purchased the existing property built in 1998 in the Niederrhein business park at the end of 2013