KHS Group is investing more than EUR 11 million in a new hall for the barrier technology product center at its Hamburg plant. The building, covering around 4,300 m2, will be constructed on new factory premises on Hellmesbergerweg and is scheduled to start operations in spring 2027. Once the project is completed, all departments related to Plasmax coating technology will operate in one location. The company expects the new facility to improve production and organizational processes and create room for further growth in the barrier technology segment. As Kai Acker, CEO of KHS GmbH, emphasized during the official ground-breaking ceremony on May 22, 2026, barrier technology is one of the key growth drivers of the entire group. "Our barrier technology is one of the most important growth drivers behind the success of the entire KHS Group. Demand for our machines in the InnoPET FreshSafe series has increased fourfold over the past five years." Acker also added that the investment and expansion of the plant site are intended to secure jobs in the long term and clearly demonstrate the company's commitment to its production locations in Germany.
The Hamburg plant concentrates the resources of the PET technology competence center within KHS Group. For more than 50 years, systems and solutions for the beverage and packaging industry have been developed there, including stretch blow molding machines from the InnoPET Blomax series, InnoPET BloFill fillers and coating machines using Plasmax technology. In the InnoPET FreshSafe system, PET bottles are coated in the Plasmax process with a very thin, transparent layer of glass. This solution is intended to protect sensitive beverages against oxidation and carbon dioxide loss, thereby helping preserve taste, color and quality for longer periods and extending product shelf life.
Growing capacity for barrier technology
The two product centers responsible for stretch blow molding technology and barrier technologies manage key processes from development, through assembly and installation, to sales and commissioning. Until now, they have jointly used three production halls. However, particularly dynamic growth in the barrier technology area has meant that the current setup has reached its limits. As Dr. Joachim Konrad, head of the Large Machine Product Division at KHS, explained, the company intends to bring together all relevant departments in a new hall in order to increase process efficiency and production capacity.
According to KHS, centralizing operations is expected to deliver shorter transport and internal communication routes, reduce the workload on personnel and create better conditions for cooperation between departments. Konrad also pointed to the effect on the company's other plants, stressing that once customers choose the barrier system, many of them then opt for turnkey lines, which also translates into orders for other KHS sites supplying packaging technology, palletizers and other equipment.
Changes in assembly and preliminary testing
The new hall is also expected to change the way assembly is organized. Instead of building entire machines in one place, employees will be able to assemble individual modules in parallel at defined workstations. The modules will then be combined into a complete machine and commissioned. "This allows us to work on several modules at the same time, which can then be subjected to preliminary testing more effectively," Konrad said. "These adapted processes shorten lead times and machine occupancy time in the hall. This means we can deliver equipment to our customers even faster."
The changes will also cover the laboratory area, where KHS tests coated bottles and develops new coatings and coating variants. The laboratory will be equipped with a new paternoster system enabling the automatic storage and retrieval of bottle batches based on an assigned code. The company also plans to move the bottle storage and temporary storage area closer to the laboratory and production areas.
New building and energy assumptions
The new building will be erected on Hellmesbergerweg, on the expanded plant site directly adjoining the existing KHS location on Meiendorfer Straße. The facility has been designed as a classic reinforced concrete skeleton building with sandwich elements. Deliveries of construction materials are to be handled through the existing plant premises, so local traffic should not be disrupted by the construction work.
KHS states that the new investment will be completely carbon neutral. This is to be achieved through the use of green electricity, a rooftop photovoltaic system and a closed heating circuit with heat pumps and heat recovery from the cooling circuits of the coating machines.
Source: Salzgitter AG
