Bechtle expands in Karlsruhe for a capacity of 140 employees.

• Groundbreaking ceremony for modern office building
• Bechtle makes room for another 50 employees
• Ground-source heating and cooling and electric cars

The traditional turning of the sod ceremony marks the beginning of construction on the new office building for Bechtle GmbH & Co. KG in Karslruhe Oberreut, Germany. The new building was designed to meet the needs of the future-oriented, growing IT system house. The building is expected to be completed in March 2012 and will cost an estimated 4 million euros. For Bechtle Karlsruhe the move represents a new milestone in the 27-year history of the company. Present at the groundbreaking ceremony was Karlsruhe's mayor, Margret Mergen, who was also joined by Kadans Real Estate GmbH, the company responsible for construction of the new building. On occasion of the sod cutting, Karlsruhe's mayor remarked: “The few remaining property deeds still in possession of the city can only be granted to the very best businesses. Bechtle is one of these.”

Neckarsulm / Karlsruhe, 31 March 2011 – Bechtle remains loyal to the region, increasing its employment capacity with the construction of a larger office building. The property in Oberreut where the new building is to be erected stretches over 2,700 square metres and will provide room for some 140 employees. The four-storey building is designed to encourage direct communication between the different departments. “Not only does our new building comply with our needs for a new and modern office environment, replete with an improved communications infrastructure, it takes several ecological factors into consideration,” explains Richard Einstmann, managing director of 15 years at the Bechtle IT system house, and responsible for some 90 employees.

Green energy.

The new building will be equipped with a geothermal heating and cooling system to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels to a bare minimum. The ground source heat pump is an energy efficient method to ensure that the building stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The ground source cooling will also supply the building's IT with the required operating temperature. To go along with the ecological building design, Bechtle is also planning to take part in the project “Elektromobilität in Karlsruhe”, adding two electric cars to its fleet.

Pleasant working environment.

“Since we wanted to expand, we've taken the opportunity to have a building designed the way we want it,” explains Richard Einstmann. “We're very pleased with the location that we've chosen and are eager to move into the new office. We spend a great deal of time at the office, so it's important to me that people feel comfortable at Bechtle and consider it to be a pleasant working atmosphere.” The new building will be equipped with training rooms for up to 80 participants, flexible conference rooms for customer events and modern test environments for the development of custom-made IT solutions, in addition to standard office space, and its convenient location makes it easily accessible by car or public transport.

New landmark in company history.

The timing to set a new landmark in the company history couldn't have been better: in 2010 Bechtle Karslruhe enjoyed a very successful year, recording a turnover of approximately 40 million euros. Bechtle Karslruhe serves a number of regional SMEs and public sector customers. The south-west German IT system house has belonged to the Bechtle group with headquarters in Neckarsulm, Germany, for the past 15 years. Bechtle Karlsruhe was originally founded under the name Pazdera Computer Vertriebs GmbH in 1984 before being taken over by the Bechtle group. “We're living proof that a successful one-man business can be even more successful operating in a corporation,” says Richard Einstmann, who plans to continue to grow faster than the market average, while increasing the number of his employees.