Germany: Lloyd Werft Moves to New Premises in Bremerhaven Shipyard

Lloyd Werft (LWB) has given up its 97 year old administration building and moved to new premises elsewhere in the Bremerhaven shipyard. The move has taken place in stages and the final phase – the switch of remaining offices from the old administration building on Brückenstrasse 25 to the yard’s new administrative centre in Bückingstrasse – took place last Thursday and Friday and completed the shipyards internal re-organisation.

Lloyd Werft Managing Director Carsten J.Haake (44) praised the move from what used to be the laundry of the old Norddeutscher Lloyd​ (NDL) shipping company to the fourth floor of a new central administration building in the heart of the yard. He said it was “a big step forward on the road to a compact shipyard” and added that management hoped the concentration of all project and administration departments under one roof would mean “even more efficiency and optimal internal communications”.

The desire for concentration is not new. Over the past five years, the design, costing and purchasing departments of LWB have already moved bit by bit out of the old buildings into the new central facility, which is located between the yard’s two Kaiser docks. When the final move took place, only about 20 personnel in the finance, personnel and IT sectors were still working alongside managing directors Haake and Ruediger Pallentin in the ground floor offices of the red brick building on the Brückenstrasse.

Haake admits to “feeling a little sad at leaving this traditional old building”. He recalls that Norddeutsche Lloyd​ began to construct it as early as 1914. The first part of the building was completed in 1918/19 as a laundry for the NDL fleet. It was expanded between 1922 and 1928 because its washing capacities could no longer keep pace with the laundry demands of the NDL fleet and the steamships “Bremen” and “Europa”. Uniforms, bed and table linen were all washed and ironed there. After the end of WW2 however, new NDL yard operational structures meant that the laundry was among facilities no longer required. The main building was converted into offices.

For 60 years the management, administration and project departments of the NDL shipyard, and later those of the Hapag-Lloyd Werft GmbH worked in the building. For the last 27 years, since 1984, it has been used by the Lloyd Werft Bremerhaven GmbH, which managed to keep its independence after the collapse of the Bremer Vulkan Group in 1996. All that is now history, but the address Brückenstrasse 25 in the Überseehafen will be retained and the North Gate entrance to the shipyard will remain in operation for delivery traffic, at least for the time being. The heart of Lloyd Werft however will in future beat in the central administration building in Bückingstrasse – an address which had a fine tradition even in the days of the NDL.

Along with the offices, a variety of conference rooms have also been created in the new central building. For Carsten J. Haake there are many advantages compared to the old situation. Lloyd Werft currently has 430 employees, among them 40 apprentices and he stresses that “with a workforce of this size we are in a good position to face future demands”. Haake also sees sufficient space potential in the as-yet-undeveloped areas of the fourth floor of the new central building for future yard expansion.

[mappress]

Source: lloydwerft, August 31, 2011;