On a total area of around 2000 m2, the family business has expanded and converted the customer center, administration and sales offices in its "Plant 1", upgrading them both structurally and in terms of energy efficiency. The entire administration in Plant 1 is now also connected to the company's own wood chip plant. The company celebrated the opening of the customer center with over 100 guests. In addition to the companies involved in the construction, representatives from the church and politics also attended.

40 trades were involved

Around 40 trades worked together for a year to create the new customer center with adjoining training room, office and meeting rooms and other usable areas, to expand the office space for administration and sales and to make the building more energy-efficient. The exhibition area of the customer center has almost tripled in size as a result of the conversion: the Munk Group has concentrated the most important products from all product ranges in one place on 540 m2 of exhibition space and offers comprehensive insights into the history of the company and the entire world of access and rescue technology.

Being close to the customer

In addition to the exhibits, the focus here is primarily on proximity to people: "We didn't build our new customer center simply to exhibit more products. This is where we will welcome our customers from trade and industry, as well as our trade partners and occupational safety and standards experts - listen to them, advise them from person to person and work together to find solutions that make work safer," says Ferdinand Munk, owner and Managing Director of the Munk Group, based in Günzburg and Leipheim.

The new exhibition

The fully accessible work platform in the exhibition also shows how individually customers of the Munk Group can configure their work safety solution: the platform has been equipped with a wide range of options, including emergency descent shaft and fixed ladders, as well as electric and manual extensions and an electrically folding, height-adjustable cage. In the exhibition, guests of the Munk Group can put exhibits such as the working platform through their paces directly on site: "Anyone looking for the ideal safety solution should go into great detail and seek expert advice. In our customer center, access and rescue technology can really be experienced - and that creates safety," says Munk.

The Munk Group's new customer center offers plenty of space for customer advice and special product experiences © Michael Öttl/Munk Group

Those who want to explore the entire product range on the spot will find modern touch displays in the exhibition hall: visitors can use them to browse digitally through the product range, find detailed information pages on all products and test the various online product configurators.

The new customer center also includes a 375 m2 training room and a room for testing and measurement technology directly adjacent to it. Ideal for the Munk Group's various seminars and training courses: "Whether it's about the latest standards and regulations, testing and maintenance of access and rescue equipment, or simply valuable practical knowledge: Thanks to the short distances in the customer center, we can incorporate the exhibits in our exhibition into our content at any time and also integrate the testing and measuring technology for live demos. This means we can now offer training guests a completely new experience with the full range of Munk expertise in one place," says Munk.

Energetically upgraded

With the new customer center, the Munk Group is taking ever greater steps towards CO2 neutrality: as part of the renovation and expansion measures, the company has not only completely renovated and enlarged the building, but also upgraded its energy efficiency. Among other things, the center was given a new façade and new windows and equipped with an intelligent, needs-based building management system: This regulates the room air and temperature in real time, thus minimizing unnecessary energy losses. "I am particularly proud that we have now also been able to connect the customer center and the entire administration to our wood chip heating system with the conversion, which means that we can already cover 40% of the total heating energy requirements at our locations from renewable sources. This brings us ever closer to our goal of becoming CO2-neutral without compensation measures and, with the latest measures, we have already achieved a transformation rate of around 30 percent," says Alexander Werdich, also owner and Managing Director of the Munk Group.