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As the Vollmann company continues to enjoy ever-increasing success in the lampholder market, it has become clear that the company now needs to expand
Land dispute with town seems to have been settled amicably
Gevelsberg. (GP) The wrangling which has been going
on since the end of 1988, now seems to have been sorted out once
and for all: at a private meeting on Wednesday evening in the town
hall the members of the committee for employment and economic development
unanimously agreed to recommend to the main committee and council
the sale of approximately 7,000 m2 of municipal commercial land
to the Vollmann company. This manufacturer of Edison lampholders
would like to expand its operations at the business park In den
Weiden, on Rosendahler and Gewerbestrasse; the company would like
this expansion to take place as quickly as possible, so that the
new premises can be up and running by the end of the year.
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Axel Vollmann (centre) explains the production
processes and procedures to the municipal committee for employment
and economic development during their tour of the company's
premises. (Photo: Sauerborn) © Rundschau
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Otto Vollmann GmbH und Co. KG is simply bursting
out of its seams at the company headquarters on Rosendahler Straße.
Planning and property negotiations have therefore been taking place
with the town since the end of 1988. A family-owned indoor tennis
court right next to the production operations proved to be just
as controversial (political circles demanded that this should be
added to the production area) as the fact that a private Vollmann
dental practice housed in the new premises would also profit from
economically subsidized land prices. If the company's latest plans
are agreed by the council, then a 715 m2 narrow-aisle warehouse
projecting eleven metres above street level (and 4 metres below),
a 1,750 m2 production hall and a 425 m2 dispatch warehouse will
be constructed along Rosendahler Straße. The dental practice and
an apartment will be housed in the building made from gas-aerated
concrete and surrounded by greenery.
In the meantime a new Vollmann production process
has been patented.
At their second meeting, the new committee for economic
development took the opportunity to inspect the Vollmann production
site. Axel Vollmann was delighted to provide information and, on
a final tour through the "on-site chaos" of the production facilities
(Vollmann), attempted to convince the politicians of the urgent
need of a company expansion.
Following a large-scale fire in 1984, the (under-insured)
manufacturer of lampholders was forced to trade under a new name
and focus all its efforts on growth. The company was so successful
in these endeavours that they soon outgrew the new premises which
they had moved into in 1985 and which were 50% larger than the previous
ones. This success was firstly due to an overall boom in the market
and an excellent level of orders from other countries (55% for the
export market, 75% of these for the European market, other customers
were based in the Middle East, the Far East and Australia), and
secondly to a newly developed production process. Vollmann is able
to sell primarily halogen lampholders with an integrated reflector
in the face of virtually no competition. The company patented the
product and hopes in return to receive a 20% federal subsidy for
machine investment and personnel development costs.
Currently, 82 employees across 5 floors are involved
in the manufacture and sales of around 1,500 different products
(in 1985 the company had 64 employees; the workforce is expected
to rise to 105 in 1995). Forty five home workers are also involved
in the daily production of 150,000 lampholders: less and less are
being made from porcelain and Bakelite (duroplastic), more and more
are being manufactured from high-temperature resistant thermoplastic.
Since 1985, Vollmann has succeeded in almost doubling its turnover,
achieving 14 million DM last year.
Final assembly, quality control and warehousing
are to be moved to the new premises. This means transporting goods
over the road. Axel Vollmann does not consider this to be a problem:
around 15 Europallets, the equivalent of only one large lorry load
per day.
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Overview 
