Biache |
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The site was founded in 1956 at Biache-St-Vaast in the North of France for the manufacturing of pleated radiators. Over the last 15 years production has been broadened when a range of decorative radiators was added in the early 1990s . Weld-on towel warmer manufacturing also started in the early 1990s and production was then further expanded in 1996 with the absorption of additional weld-in production volumes after the closure of the Segré facility. The Biache site is one of the largest within Rettig ICC. Production halls cover a surface area of 22 000 m² production area. In September 2004, Rettig extended into the neighboring and vacant ex-Usinor production facility to site a huge logistics warehouse which covers a further 17 000m². Today, production capacity is around 300 000 pieces/year with pleated radiators, decorative radiators and towel warmers adding up to give 13 000 different products per year. The Biache plant is certified according to ISO 14001 and employs 190. Originally the plant served principally the French market but after Rettig’s purchase of the old Blue Circle Heating businesses in early 2000, the Biache plant has been truly internationalized and is now producing for all Rettig emitter brand serving customers throughout Europe and beyond. After the Rettig acquisition in 2000, a Euro 10 million investment program was launched in modernizing the plant with the arrival of automatic brazing ovens, a new anaphoretic painting plant. Additionally, Biache serves as Rettig ICC’s logistic centre for France with a storage capacity of 80 000 products. It distributes products made in the Biache plant and also other products made in the other European Rettig plants for distribution in France. Significant investment has been made in renovating the warehouse, installing the racking and creating 3 loading docks. In June 2005, a conveyor was implemented between the production site and the warehouse. In the summer of 2008, the BAAN software upgrade made it possible to introduce a bar-code scanning in the warehouse. This is already leading to real benefits in productivity and efficiency in both warehousing and shipping.
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