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 20 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. In the last couple of years electrification of group manufactured design radiators has become a growing activity in the plant. The Biache site is one of the largest within Rettig ICC and the only one in the whole of the French heating industry dedicated to a full range of decorative radiators and towel warmers. Production halls cover a surface area of 22 000 m² production area. In September 2004, Rettig extended into the neighbouring and vacant ex-Usinor production facility to site a huge logistics warehouse which covers a further 17 000m². 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. Today, production capacity is around 200 000 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 185. The warehouse ships to a fixed day delivery system well over half a million products every year within France 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 and more sophisticated paint cabins. 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. During 2011, intensive work began on the planning and implementation of the group wide BAAN LN ERP system and investment continued in the on-site certified R&D laboratory testing both hot water and electric products according to NF standards.
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