"We are convinced that the current time is ideal for investment," says Sebastian Schmidt, CEO of the AGC Interpane Group. "Once the current crisis in the German construction industry has been overcome, it will give us the opportunity to increase our market share, provided that the corresponding capacities are also available to our customers. Increasing digitalisation and greater automation of our plants are the technical cornerstones for us to continue successfully delivering sustainable products of the highest quality in the future. We are supporting the machine investments with numerous digitalisation projects in the Group."
International project business in the focus of AGC Interpane
Thanks to its international focus in the project business, the Group has only been affected by the slump in the German construction industry to a limited extent. In the midst of the current slump in the construction industry, AGC Interpane is therefore now implementing a broad-based investment programme.
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Several million euros are currently being invested in the modernisation and expansion of insulating glass production at the Belgern/Liebersee site near Leipzig - production volume is set to increase by 30 per cent in the future.
This is the next step following the commissioning of the new cutting centre a few years ago.
AGC Interpane
The expansion is already underway and, according to the management, there will be no redundancies despite the modernisation - on the contrary, AGC Interpane is constantly looking for additional employees, in particular to strengthen sales at the site.
Investments are also being made in upgrading the energy efficiency of the production halls in order to reduce energy requirements for heating and summer cooling.
New LSG system already proving its worth
Just a few weeks ago, the Group commissioned a new, state-of-the-art production line for high-quality laminated safety glass (LSG) at the AGC float glass production facility in Osterweddingen near Magdeburg.
Following an investment of over 10 million euros, up to seven 7m long LSG units have been produced here since the beginning of the year - the new plant has a total annual capacity of 5.5 million square metres of LSG.
And a new insulating glass line for the international project business was recently put into operation at the Lauenförde site. In addition, the production halls and holding company buildings there are currently undergoing energy-efficient refurbishment.
New ISO lines at the start of 2025
The start of production of further insulating glass lines is planned for January and February 2025. An ultra-modern insulating glass production facility will also be set up at the Nancy (F) site, where the entire cutting area was recently modernised.
In order to become even faster and more efficient, the site has been structurally merged with the Interpane site in Hoerdt. The new merged company will operate on the market under the name AGC Interpane S.A.S. in future.
Insulating glass production at the Austrian site in Parndorf is also being modernised and automated in order to serve the domestic market and the growing international project business even faster.
AGC Interpane / René Mueller Photographie
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In addition, following numerous investments in insulating glass and toughened safety glass production, capacities at the Malacky plant in Slovakia are being further expanded.
Renewable energy for greater sustainability
AGC Interpane is also investing heavily in the generation of renewable energy at its production sites. In the Osterwedding float glass production plant, "electroboosting" using renewable energy is already being successfully used to reduce CO2 emissions. This reduces the use of natural gas for process heat.
A two.58 megawatt PV system recently went into operation at the Bavarian site in Plattling - two further systems are planned and will help to make the products manufactured even more sustainable and reduce the company's own CO2 footprint.
AGC Interpane, like its parent company AGC, has been committed to sustainable construction for many years: The Group has now environmentally certified almost 90 per cent of its products according to Cradle to Cradle and has recently made detailed Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) available to architects and façade builders, planners and fabricators for almost the entire product range; the EPDs can be accessed digitally.
