Panattoni is developing a manufacturing plant for Fortaco Group. The centre will have over 34,000 sqm in Knurów.

Panattoni, the world’s most active developer, has launched the development of another manufacturing plant in the Silesia region. The developer is to provide a BTS centre in Knurów to Fortaco Group, the leading European strategic partner for international clients from the heavy off-road machinery and maritime industry sectors. The EUR 17 mln project will provide around 200 jobs and will improve the internal manufacturing processes at Fortaco. Savills advised the Fortaco Group during the leasing process.  Panattoni has already delivered 800,000 sqm of BTS space in the Silesia region. The vast majority of the buildings custom designed by the developer are factories and this type of building has become Panattoni’s speciality over the last decade. The next development in this region will be a factory in Knurów built to meet the needs of Fortaco Group. “The Fortaco Group factory is another step in the transformation of Silesia from a mining region into an excellent place to develop industries such as manufacturing. The potential of the Silesian urban area both in terms of its human capital and location is huge and it also benefits from additional investment enticements within its Special Economic Zones. It is therefore no surprise that demand for land and industrial buildings here remains high while the region itself is now the first in which Panattoni has completed the development of over 2.5 mln sqm,” states Marek Dobrzycki, the Managing Director at Panattoni. “Fortaco Group already owns eleven factories including two in Poland: in Wrocław and Janów Lubelski. Now the development of yet another has been launched. This demonstrates the huge potential the country holds for international manufacturers that want locations in Central Europe with excellent connections to the most important markets on the continent,” he adds. The new 34,660 sqm factory will allow the Fortaco Group to improve the efficiency of its manufacturing through streamlining. It is to move the same kinds of core processes involving steel preparation from different business locations to a single site. This will improve the company’s efficiency in serving its clients. For Fortaco, another undoubted benefit of its chosen location is how close it is to companies that produce and sell steel. This was one of the key reasons for its choice of Knurów as the site for its new project. Fortaco Group’s strategy and the market signals the company receives from its clients predict a further rise for the products that Fortaco offers such as vehicles for servicing warehouses, for container transport and the timber industry as well as excavators and construction machinery. “The contract for Fortaco Group to lease a new manufacturing plant is one of the largest transactions in Upper Silesia this year. We sought out a partner for our client to develop a highly specialised BTS building that would meet the precise demands required for automated production. I am glad that we were able to meet the challenge and guarantee that all the needs would be met for one of the market leaders in Poland from the mechanical engineering and maritime industry sectors,” says Katarzyna Pyś-Fabiańczyk, the director of the Industrial Services Hub at Savills. The location of the new factory will provide excellent connections within the Silesian urban area, including to the neighbouring cities of Gliwice, Katowice, Zabrze and Chorzów, and it will also provide easy access to the A1 and A4 motorways, which run to the country's southern, western and eastern borders as well as to the coast in the north. The Fortaco Group has been operating in the market for over 10 years, and currently employs 2,800 people worldwide. The company is one of the world's leading brand independent strategic partners to the heavy off-highway equipment and marine industries offering technology, vehicle cabins, steel fabrications and assemblies.