Liebherr Opens Expanded USA Headquarters

Liebherr USA, Co. recently marked a milestone when the company formally moved into its newly expanded campus in Newport News, Va. The facilities, which became operational in April, house employees who work in administration, finance, human resources, sales, information technology, marketing, product support and distribution for the nine different product units under the Liebherr USA, Co. umbrella.

The move, conducted with enhanced cleaning and social distancing measures in place to ensure the health and safety of the employees, contractors, and the local community, caps a journey that began in July 2018, when members of the Liebherr family, company executives and Newport News city officials broke ground for the project.

“Besides moving into a new facility which is a highlight for our employees who contribute immensely to our success in the US, what stands out for me the most, is the message that this $60 million investment sends to our customers,” said Dr. Torben Reher, managing director, Liebherr USA, Co. “Apart from investing in research and design for cutting edge technology, we have a long-term focus while looking at our business and the relationships with our customers. Thus, we want to grow together and our new site is the evidence for this approach.”

Liebherr opened for business in the United States 50 years ago on October 6, 1970. The existing four-story administration building dates to the early 1970s and was fully occupied, the company said. It will be retained and house employees of Liebherr Mining Equipment Newport News, Co. The move to the new campus comes as the company marks 71 years in business overall.

Approximately 500 people work at Liebherr’s Newport News campus. Many of them are now working in the new office, repair shop and warehouse facilities.
According to Reher, the new campus will help Liebherr better serve customers across divisions in multiple ways. The first is that it significantly increases production operations for concrete pumps and repair capacity for mobile and crawler cranes, as well as for construction equipment. “For example, we will now be able to do boom alignments for mobile cranes up to 750 tons,” he said. “Furthermore, the new shop will be a lot closer to our many customers in the Northeast region, which will lead to lower logistic costs.”

The new shop is also equipped to handle the growing numbers of Liebherr earthmoving equipment. “We experienced substantial growth in this area in recent years and have therefore invested in our internal infrastructure to keep pace with the demand,” Reher said.

The site also incorporates a new training center and workshop. “We will be able to expand our offerings in relation to training our in-house dealers and dealer technicians, as well as provide this service professionally to our customers,” said Peter Mayr, managing director of Liebherr USA, Co. “In our workshop, we will not only focus on pre-delivery inspections and standard repair work, but also recondition machines in bays allocated to complete this task.”

Twelve repair stations will be available for the earthmoving division – an increase from the eight currently available.

The new Liebherr warehouse provides a 50% increase in storage capacity. In addition, the warehouse also has a dual shuttle vertical lifting machine to increase small component picking speed and storage capacity. The receiving and shipping departments are separated to enable optimal material flow through the facility.

In the U.S., Liebherr provides sales and service on behalf of five separate companies in 14 locations and is supported by an independent distribution network which covers nearly 100% of the United States. Product units include Automation Systems; Aerospace; Appliances, which includes refrigerators and freezers, Components; Concrete Technology; Construction Equipment; Crawler Cranes, Mobile Cranes; Mining; Foundation Equipment; Gear Technology; Maritime Cranes and Tower Cranes.