50^th anniversary of Benders

The Kritzkow production site

Fig. 1 On the rear side of the plant constructed in 1998, the outdoor storage area is located immediately adjacent to the highway to Berlin.

Fig. 2 The no-slump colored concrete is conveyed from the mixing unit to the roof tile machine.

Fig. 3 Occupied racks prior to being moved into the curing chamber, providing space for 48,000 Palema S and 36,000 “Mecklenburg tiles“.

Fig. 4 The second, final surface coating is applied to the roofing tiles.

Fig. 5 In-house innovation: a gluing machine prevents breakage and slipping during transport.

Fig. 6 Prior to packaging, the tiles run through the drying carousel for about 20 minutes.

Fig. 7 Ventilation tiles are still produced manually to a large extent.

Fig. 8 Kjell Schlichter (left), general manager and Ronald Winkler, director of production at the Kritzkow plant.

 In 2010, Benders, the roofing tile manufacturer, is celebrating its 50^th anniversary. Starting out in 1960 with a small used tile machine installed in Edsvära, Sweden, the business has evolved to a large group of companies that operates plants in Scandinavia and Greece (see BFT 07/09). In 1993, Benders Dachstein GmbH was founded in Germany and started selling roofing tiles nationally. 1997 Benders decided to build a new plant in northeast Germany that started production in 1998. This site serves mainly the German but also the Latvian, Lithuanian, Czech, Slovak and Slovenian markets.

The Swedish family enterprise entered the German roofing tile market in 1993. “At that time, the area/tile price was still higher than the transport cost, and the distribution of the tiles from Bråas, in the south of Sweden, was still financially viable. Growth progressed continuously during the first few years. In 1997, Benders had already sold 7 million tiles in Germany,” says Kjell Schlichter, general manager of the Kritzkow plant. In order to meet the continuously increasing demand and to retain its good market position, the company decided to build a new plant in Germany in the same year....