Haas HQ Grows with Its European Business

2008-11-29 8:43:53

At the end of October, the staff and management of Haas Automation Europe N.V. joined with more than 350 customers, journalists, business partners, and local and regional dignitaries in celebrating the official opening of the company’s recently extended Zaventem (Brussels)–based head office, showroom, and service centre.

Peter Hall, Haas Europe managing director, presided over the opening ceremony, and Haas Automation general manager Bob Murray from the company’s US head office was present. Those corporate leaders welcomed special guests from the American Chamber of Commerce in Brussels and from the US embassy in the Belgian capital.

In his speech delivered to an international audience of delegates from 26 countries, Murray expressed confident enthusiasm about the future of Haas Automation on the European continent, a sentiment that was echoed by the representatives of 40 European Haas Factory Outlets (HFOs) who attended the event.

“Haas Automation continues to grow its sales and support infrastructure here in Europe,” said Murray. “We are looking forward to the next few years as a time to consolidate our strong position and increase our market share.”

Acknowledging current economic realities, he continued: “Haas has always done well during tough times because we build productive, reliable CNC machine tools that help our customers make a profit. Our local HFOs and the service and support operations they provide give our customers peace of mind.”

HAE moved into its regional headquarters facility in Zaventem in 2004. Since then, its business in Europe has flourished. The building extension brings total covered floor space to more than 8,300 m² and includes new warehouse, spare parts storage, and training areas and additional office space.

A glass atrium joins the new, architect-designed extension to the existing building. Total investment in the project has been in excess of €3 million.

Haas Automation, the world’s leading CNC machine tool builder by unit volume, announced earlier this year that 2007 was the most productive year in the company’s history, with CNC machine tool production exceeding 13,755 units.