NEWS
Bentley paves the way for the new Bentley Campus by tripling the size of its Hechingen Lotzenäcker location (in blue, the existing Bentley premises, marked in red the properties purchased from BEST)
The Bentley Campus becomes a reality: Bentley InnoMed purchases site of Best Freizeitmöbel GmbH
Hechingen November 23, 2023 +++ The rapidly expanding medical technology company Bentley purchased the entire site of the upholstered leisure furniture manufacturer Best Freizeitmöbel GmbH in Hechingen. The site is directly adjacent to Bentley’s existing company premises. Bentley CEO Sebastian Büchert and the Strobel family, owners of Best Freizeitmöbel GmbH, signed the corresponding agreement today.
With this purchase, the European market leader for stents is tripling its site, located in the industrial area between Lotzenäcker and State Highway 410, from 15,000 square meters to almost 45,000 square meters. The previous owner, Best, will gradually hand over the use of the site to Bentley until the middle of 2025. The parties to the agreement have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Bentley had already acquired a piece of property from Best in 2021, upon which it built the 5-story Bentley parking garage.
Bentley CEO Sebastian Büchert is delighted to have this expansion opportunity located right next door. This is due to Bentley’s plan to vastly increase its stent production. The site expansion will also meet the Company’s urgent requirement for new capacity. All other areas in the Company – from logistics to research and development – are also in need of space, which will now be a thing of the past. The foundation has thereby been set for the growth strategy in the years ahead.
“We know this situation all too well. Bentley’s dynamic business growth has always outstripped the available space. Our search for interim solutions has opened up new options for the future that we would never have dared to imagine before. So surprisingly, something good has come out of the roof fire misfortune experienced in May of this year. The fact that we have now been offered the option to purchase the Best site right next door in its entirety is a unique opportunity for us. We can finally leave our space concerns behind us. We intend to build a truly attractive and spacious Bentley Campus, where there will be room to catch some air between the buildings, and people can take a stroll when the weather is nice. We will start again planning from the ground up and create a very attractive corporate campus where we can all feel comfortable and enjoy working. I’m very excited about our plans,” says Büchert, who was recently named Entrepreneur of the Year by Manager Magazin and the auditing company EY.
The date for inaugurating the eagerly awaited new building in the Lotzenäcker industrial park has also now been set: June 7, 2024. More than a hundred workstations in this five-story building will bring some needed relief to the Company, which is currently bursting its seams. A very visible roof fire that occurred in May 2023 means that Bentley will not be able to move into the new building until June 2024 instead of the original move-in date of September 2023. To bridge this gap, Bentley has been renting alternative space from neighboring companies in the short term. In addition to this space, 30 containers were also needed to accommodate the rapid growth in the number of employees.
The old production buildings and warehouses on the Best site will therefore make way for the new Bentley Campus in the years to come. This will change the future face of Lotzenäcker business park in Hechingen as well as attract new employees. CEO Büchert plans to employ significantly more people by then to accommodate the Company’s dynamic growth. The architectural design of the future campus promises to be quite impressive.