DE 
FAUN Viatec GmbH celebrates 25th anniversary
Grimma. The halls in Grimma's Bahnhofstraße industrial estate are bustling with activity. Bustling activity can be heard from everywhere and engines are humming. 25 years ago, there were only a few manufacturing companies that had found their place of work in the former premises of Chemie- und Anlagenbau Komplex.
One of the first tenants in Building 7.3 was FAUN Viatec GmbH, which opened a production facility and service centre for wet vehicles in the new federal states in 1992. At that time, the company still operated under the name FAUN Müller Umwelttechnik GmbH. It started with a team of 30 colleagues, many of whom are still on board today.
Just four years later, they entered the sweeping business and assembled sweeper kits in the halls. Why only assemble and not push ahead with own developments? Sweepers were not unknown to FAUN from the company's history and so an in-house design department was set up. In 1998, the first sweeper designed and manufactured in-house drove out of the hall gates and the success story of the still young FAUN Viatec GmbH took its course.
Today, the sweeper builders from the Mulde are a true hidden champion. In the meantime, a team of 130 colleagues works in Bahnhofsstraße and the demand and variety of machines have also increased, so that the team moved in 2007 and found a new place to work on 5,000 m² in building 48.2 - 48.4.
FAUN Viatec has developed into a specialist within the industry and is one of the leading suppliers in Europe. Around 300 vehicles leave the halls in Bahnhofstraße every year to sweep the streets of the world. The product range extends from small 4 m³ sweepers for inner cities to large 12 m³ vehicles on 3-axle chassis or special vehicles such as the TERRAJET, which is used for runway maintenance.
Development and research is a top priority for the sweeper specialists. New developments in recent years have been, for example, a special filter sweeper to reduce fine dust in cities or a hydraulic drive to reduce emissions. Who would have thought 25 years ago that sweepers made in Saxony would write such a success story for Germany and international markets. One more reason to celebrate this special anniversary. "In addition to all the very good structural and infrastructural conditions, however, it is the employees who make up our progress and success," explains Managing Director Helmut Schmeh. "We want to train our professionals ourselves from the very beginning. Finding good professionals with enthusiasm for our industry is not easy these days. In addition, we have to compete with the big companies, such as BMW or Porsche in Leipzig, for employees. But what sets us apart from the "big players" is that at FAUN young people have the opportunity to get involved intensively and put their ideas into practice. We don't do assembly line work, but individual work and building sweepers with enthusiasm.
FAUN Viatec GmbH is a company of the globally active KIRCHHOFF Group. The group of companies generated almost 2 billion euros in turnover in 2016 with its Automotive, Ecotec, Mobility and WITTE Werkzeuge divisions. The KIRCHHOFF Group currently employs around 11,500 people in 51 plants in 18 countries.
