From Tholey to Europe

The foundation stone for the new logistics centre in Tholey, Saarland, was laid in a festive ceremony with Minister President Anke Rehlinger

The FRICKE Group had something very special to celebrate: on Monday, 8 July 2024, the foundation stone for the new logistics centre in Tholey, Saarland, was laid in a festive ceremony. Local politicians and partners, as well as Minister President Anke Rehlinger and Saarland's Minister of Economic Affairs Jürgen Barke, were also in attendance. The team brought the northern German FRICKE spirit directly to Saarland for the occasion.

More than just red sand

For a long time, the construction site webcam at the BAB1 industrial estate in the small Saarland town of Theley showed one thing in particular: Lots of sand - and rain. But in recent weeks, the picture of the derelict construction site has changed drastically. Now that the earthworks have been completed, the construction site for the new FRICKE logistics centre has really got going. Concrete foundations have been poured, 25 metre high supporting pillars are rising into the sky and concrete wall elements seem to be flying over the construction site every minute as if by magic.

So it was high time to celebrate the laying of the foundation stone for the largest construction project in the company's history with a festive ceremony. Site Manager Andreas, together with FRICKE's Head of Logistics, Dr Herbert Stommel, hosted a very special event. For Andreas, it was one of the first times that the Fricke family, Holger Wachholtz and many colleagues from Heeslingen, but also from all over Germany and the neighbouring countries, were able to see the progress of the project live on site.

Of course, in addition to internal company guests, partners from the region from local politics, business associations and neighbouring companies were also present. A special honour, however, was the commitment of the Saarland Minister President Anke Rehlinger and the Minister of Economic Affairs Jürgen Barke. The willingness to work together in Saarland not only delighted the project team, but also Hans-Peter Fricke, who in his speech once again explicitly thanked Minister President Rehlinger and local mayor Andreas Maldener for the enormous support we have received in Tholey since day one.

People have ripped the fur out of their jackets for us. […> I'm still amazed at how warmly we were received here and how uncomplicated the planning was.

Hans-Peter Fricke is grateful for the unprecedented willingness to cooperate on the part of everyone involved in the realisation of the FRICKE logistics centre in Tholey.

Amongst enablers

Anke Rehlinger was deeply impressed by our family business during the laying of the foundation stone. She was proud not only of our commitment to Germany as a business location, but above all to her federal state, the Saarland. The great importance of our choice of location for the small town of Theley, the municipality of Tholey and the entire federal state became more than clear in her speech.

There's no better way to start the week on a Monday like this.

Anke Rehlinger at the beginning of her speech.

The connection between Saarland and northern Germany was the defining theme of the foundation stone ceremony. Starting with the typical North German clinker brick as an invitation instead of a normal invitation card, it continued throughout the morning with the catering under the motto "Northern Germany meets Saarland" and the obligatory toast with a FRICKE Korn. Rehlinger also recognised that FRICKE, as a typical northern German family business, has an incomparable hands-on mentality:

We move in a circle of enablers.

Challenge accepted

The mayor of the municipality of Tholey was of course also one of the invited guests. Andreas Maldener, who provides the project team with advice and support by providing valuable contacts throughout the municipality and also in other ways, emphasised once again on the podium how glad he was that FRICKE had decided to wait and see despite the difficult times for such a construction project in recent years, instead of cancelling the entire project. In addition to the creation of up to 200 jobs in the first construction phase, which will increase to up to 600 when fully completed, the boost that our logistics centre will bring to the municipality of Tholey is an important signal for the entire region. According to Maldener, the attractiveness of a location for companies has an equal impact on the attractiveness of the region as a place to live and thus determines the development of the communities.

Our FRICKE Group's Divisional Board Member for Logistics had the last word. Dr Herbert Stommel was very confident right from the start. He responded to Hans-Peter Fricke's forecast that the first construction phase would go into operation as early as December 2025 with the words "Challenge accepted". With the project team from FRICKE, as well as construction company Bremer and our partner for intralogistics, psb, this is definitely achievable.

For eternity

Of course, the laying of the foundation stone is not just about speeches. To emphasise the ceremony once again, we moved from the tent with a glass wall, through which we could watch the wheel loader and crane work live during the speeches, to the edge of the construction site. A huge concrete block was waiting there with a time capsule on it, which will become our symbol for this huge step by the FRICKE Group and will stand the test of time together with our logistics centre.

Hans-Peter Fricke contributed a collage from 100 years of FRICKE. Anke Rehlinger and Jürgen Barke immortalised the Saarland in our time capsule with a pennant in the colours of the federal state, Andreas and Herbert brought in the official building permit, with which the whole project could really get started. Andreas Maldener recorded the day the foundation stone was laid with the local community newspaper and Kirsten Fricke provided the traditional watering of our new logistics centre with a FRICKE Korn.

By laying the foundation stone, we were able to bring a little FRICKE spirit to the community of Tholey. We look forward to welcoming many more colleagues to the site alongside Andreas and seeing how years of planning can become reality.

Are you interested in the Tholey project? Then read more about the plans in this article.