REHAU boosts edgeband services with state-of-the-art logistics centre

For over 50 years, REHAU has supported furniture manufacturers with its RAUKANTEX system, providing perfect edgeband solutions for their projects. Customers can choose from a wide range of services that make selecting and ordering the right edgeband convenient and simple. Now, REHAU has expanded its service & logistics centre in Visbek in Lower Saxony: Customers can now choose from even more stock items and lots of services related to edgebands. Stock items are shipped from the fully automated high-bay warehouse the same day they are ordered.

Since the early 1980s, the plant in Visbek has been a REHAU location for the production of edgebands and profiles for the furniture industry – initially only for industrial manufacturing. When the company started offering its edgeband range to carpentry shops 20 years ago, it became possible to obtain a standard range in small quantities through specialised dealers. With this step, REHAU enabled craftspeople to offer components at the highest quality and in current designs. In the years that followed, demand increased dramatically, and as early as 2007, a special service centre was established for the stock collection. Now, REHAU has made a large investment and again increased its capacity: The new, fully automated high-bay warehouse and additional service desks again expand the range of products and available services. Every order of standard stock items is picked immediately and shipped the same day. Thanks to the digital integration of production and logistics in the same location, customers enjoy quicker availability, more storage space, and greater speed along the entire production, picking and service chain.

“Made in Germany” for Europe

With its expansion concept involving the degree of automation, digitisation of all processes, as well as the most modern transport systems, REHAU has boosted its capacity for the product range of edgebands and furniture components. “This investment expands our possibilities significantly once again, so we can support our partners and customers even more efficiently from our service hub in Visbek – all across Europe, from the interior designer in Lisbon to the carpenter’s shop in Helsinki,” says Thomas Ponater, Director of Marketing & Sales Interior for the Interior Solutions division in Europe. “At the same time, the expansion clearly demonstrates our commitment to Germany as a business location. ‘Made in Germany’ is at once our quality promise and an affirmation of our roots.” The new logistics centre is also an important contribution in terms of sustainability: With optimised processes, the volume of truck transports for plant logistics is significantly reduced. This corresponds to saving around 62.5 tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year.

The expansion concept in Visbek not only encompasses capacity and the order process, but speed is also an aspect: “Production and logistics are so closely linked that orders of stock items received by 16:00 can be shipped the same day. That includes individual requests like edge width, cuts to lengths of one metre or more, a larger inner core, different coatings for machine processing,” confirms Lukas Bachmann, plant manager of the new logistics centre. This service saves customers money because they do not have to stock items themselves.

Edgeband variety and services for manufacturers

Whether worktop, kitchen cabinet or shelf: with the RAUKANTEX edgeband collection, manufacturers can produce furniture made to measure – in an enormous range of variants. With 2,400 colours and décors in over 200,000 different variants, the edgebands of the standard collection match the board and laminate collections of all leading manufacturers worldwide 100 per cent – and about 300 décors are added every year. With this bandwidth, REHAU keeps its promise: “The perfect edgeband for every requirement.” This promise covers not only decorative designs, but also the processing method. Depending on their needs, customers can choose from three variants: the perfect zero joint RAUKANTEX pro with its polymer functional layer, the base variant in the zero joint quality RAUKANTEX plus, or the classic adhesion promoter edgeband RAUKANTEX pure.

The REHAU services are as convenient as the collection is comprehensive. True to the motto “Any quantity, any length”, REHAU delivers RAUKANTEX pure and RAUKANTEX plus in lengths starting at 1 metre. Those wishing to use the functional and visually perfect zero-joint edgeband RAUKANTEX pro can order a minimum quantity of one coil. The edgebands are available in flexible widths as well. If anything other than the standard width is needed, REHAU cuts the edgeband to size individually. With a convenient online search tool, the right edgeband is easy to find – and customers can order a sample. The ordering process couldn’t be easier: REHAU works with local partners, where the edgeband or even pre-fabricated furniture components can be ordered and picked up.