The gampertbrau brewery in weibenbrunn exudes the charm of the past. Their logo is adorned by a hunter with a woman’s beard, who is pleasantly cheering you on, and the brewery buildings, all built around 1900, are not very modern either.
Managing director christian hofner doesn’t seem to mind. He has to come to terms with the fact that 100 years ago, construction was done differently, which does not correspond at all to today’s requirements. For example, it is literally a feat of strength until the beer crates land in the trucks: they are stored in the cellar of the brewery. There they are stacked with six others to form a tower. Fully automated up to this point, but now it’s getting tiring: an employee transports the crate towers by hand truck. He uses the same one to bring them out again when they are needed, lifting them one by one onto a conveyor belt. From here they are loaded onto a pallet, which in turn lands on a truck or in the warehouse next to the office building. A lot of sweat, little efficiency, the nightmare of every management consultant.
"Operating the cellar in this form was certainly no longer appropriate even ten years ago", says christian hofner. Nevertheless, he has been working on the project for two or three years, calculating several possibilities. Until it became clear to him that there was no way around a new warehouse to replace the old one and the storage in the brewery’s cellar. Cost: 750,000 euros.
The magic word in the new hall, which at 500 square meters is about twice as large as the old one, is pallets. "Nowadays, you don’t move individual crates anymore, but pallets, which are then moved with the forklift truck." the calculation is simple: 40 crates per pallet, which in the future will no longer have to be handled individually. This is intended to speed things up and also protect the employees. "We want to make the work a little more favorable", says hofner and assures that he does not want to cut any jobs because of it. "We are already hoping that loading will be quicker and that we will save money as a result."
in addition, the employees have had to heave more and more crates out of the cellar in recent years. "In the past few years, we have been able to expand our sales area in the coburg and lichtenfels region and in the direction of hof." but above all, more and more bottled beer is being sold instead of kegs. A 50-liter barrel becomes five crates this way. "The traffic in the brewery courtyard has become rougher as a result", explains hofner. Eleven trucks and a semitrailer truck have to be loaded every day – if possible without waiting times. So far a utopia, but the shunting is added because the yard is a dead end. Since the old hall next to the office building is being demolished and gampertbrau is getting an additional exit to the B 85, the cul-de-sac will become a thoroughfare.
The excavators have been rolling in weibenbrunn for a week and a half; everything should be ready by the end of october. Earthworks are currently underway, the 16 by 33 meter shed is being built into the hillside. Heavy equipment arrives this week: a 60-ton drill is to build a bored pile wall that will prevent the neighbor’s garden from sinking.
In august, the most delicate phase of construction: the old warehouse is demolished. Heikel therefore, because the brewery then no longer has a warehouse. "We have a warehouse in kronacher strabe in weibenbrunn, which we can use in the meantime." this is circumstantial, but hofner has no choice but to hope that the construction of the new hall will not be protracted. "Everything has to be ready by the beginning of winter, nothing can be left standing outside."