GROHE Technologies
One step ahead
LIXIL’s plant network – quality & innovation
GROHE, as part of LIXIL, is a leading global brand for complete bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings. Five production sites contribute to the success of the GROHE brand, which has stood for premium quality and groundbreaking technological standards for over 85 years. Each site focuses on specific product categories and core technologies with the aim of achieving the highest quality, and each site’s history is part of GROHE’s success story.
Give me five: The GROHE production site network
The five plants manufacturing for GROHE span the globe. Let’s have a closer look at the plants based in Germany: At the Hemer production site, which specializes in brass, premium faucets, and cartridges, more than 2 million premium faucets are manufactured and shipped annually via the adjacent logistics center. The plant also produces substantial quantities of thermostats and supplies parts for the concealed Rapido SmartBox. In late 2018, new and enlarged laboratory facilities went into service as part of the new R&D center, which is also located in Hemer. Here, additive manufacturing with 3D metal printers has found its way into the research and development work and later into the manufacturing processes for Atrio Icon 3D and Allure Icon 3D.
The Lahr plant, located in the Black Forest, is LIXIL’s competence center for showers and shower heads. The 750 Lahr-based employees focus on plastic overmolding as well as PVD technologies and deliver product highlights such as SmartControl, Tempesta showers, Aqua Symphony, and Sense Guard to global markets.
Plant Lahr
Focus on installation systems in Porta Westfalica
At the Porta Westfalica site, installation and flushing systems are at the heart of production and development. Plastic injection molding is the core technology of the plant far north in North Rhine-Westphalia, which also manufactures the highlight product Rapid SLX. At the Porta Westfalica plant, 475 employees focus on installation and flushing systems and also create products like Nova Light and Skate Cosmopolitan.
In the mid 1990s, the Klaeng site in Thailand was added to the plant network for the GROHE brand, followed by the Albergaria site in Portugal in 1998. Today, all facilities are widely known as centers of technological excellence.
GROHE around the globe
Albergaria – the origin of colorful coatings
At the Portuguese plant in Albergaria, located not far from Porto and the Atlantic coastline, employees are dedicated to kitchen products and the colorful world of coatings. With a special focus on PVD, Albergaria is the home of every new hue and shade that eventually becomes part of the GROHE product world. GROHE Blue, GROHE Red, or Minta Touch are manufactured in Albergaria, as are the majority of GROHE brand thermostats.
Finally, the only Asian location of a production site for the GROHE brand is the Klaeng facility in central Thailand. Klaeng is not only the furthest plant from Germany, the home country of the GROHE brand, but also the largest of its kind and among the most sustainable plants in all of Southeast Asia. The plant in Klaeng has been manufacturing products in high volumes since 1995, and its high-quality zinc die casting process ensures a longer life for products that are used on a daily basis, such as fittings from the GROHE Eurosmart, Baulines, Eurostyle, or Concetto lines. Today, Klaeng is the production site with the largest workforce, counting 2,200 employees.
Plant Klaeng
Each of the five sites is committed to taking responsibility in the transition towards a cleaner, more sustainable future and feature resource-saving production technologies. Thanks to integrated thermal power units, for example, annual energy savings of up to 2,500 t CO2 in Lahr and 1,200 t CO2 in Hemer can be achieved.
At Klaeng, the extensive use of solar panels, innovative wastewater treatments, and efficient irrigation systems contribute to a minimized ecological footprint. All sites pride themselves with recycling rates of above 99 percent. Five sites for one brand – all working together towards the same goal.
