REHAU Factory Construction Completed in Klaipėda Free Economic Zone
The construction of a REHAU micro cable pipe factory in the Klaipėda Free Economic Zone has been completed by Finnish developer YIT Lietuva. The plant will produce floor heating pipes and is expected to create around 100 jobs initially.
Finnish-owned real estate developer YIT Lietuva has finished building a nearly 20,000-square-meter micro cable pipe factory in the Klaipėda Free Economic Zone (FEZ). The project began in December 2020 after YIT Lietuva won an international tender launched by REHAU together with Klaipėda FEZ.
Despite COVID-19 restrictions and remote collaboration with German colleagues, construction was completed in 12 months, with first test products produced after just ten months. REHAU plant manager Giedrius Kaukas called it one of the fastest and most efficient plant construction and commissioning projects.
The plant is expected to create about 100 jobs in the current phase, with dozens more added later. The company has already hired and will continue recruiting security, production, logistics, quality, and maintenance specialists, as well as managers, electricians, machinists, and other workers. A quality laboratory has been set up, and initial employees are undergoing training at REHAU plants in Austria or Germany.
Klaipėda FEZ head Eimantas Kiudulas said the REHAU project is a great success story, implemented under extraordinary circumstances with deadlines exceeded. REHAU chose Klaipėda partly because it could deliver the project almost six months faster than other locations.
YIT Lietuva CEO Kęstutis Vanagas noted that despite complexities from the pandemic and supply chain disruptions, the project was delivered successfully and on time.
In November, YIT Lietuva announced a deal with Maltese investment company Hili Properties to transfer the factory building. Hili Properties will become the owner by year-end, and REHAU will lease the facility.
German polymer giant REHAU, a family business with over 170 locations worldwide and annual turnover of about €3 billion, selected the Klaipėda FEZ after a Europe-wide search, attracted by well-developed infrastructure and a solution that advanced the start-up date by nearly half a year.
