Pfungstadt-based mail-order specialist for designer office furniture takes warehouse extension into service

TAKKT subsidiary Topdeq creates scope for further expansion

The TAKKT subsidiary Topdeq, a leading mail-order specialist for designer office furniture and accessories today inaugurated the extension to its central warehouse in Pfungstadt. The company now has sufficient storage capacity to offer more than 300,000 customers in Europe and the USA the same high level of service quality as in the past and to push ahead its regional expansion.

Old warehouse bursting at the seams
As Georg Gayer, Board Chairman of Topdeq parent TAKKT AG, pointed out at today's inauguration, Topdeq expanded its warehouse not only in response to capacity bottlenecks. In fact, the company has grown so quickly that the warehouse has literally been bursting at the seams for the past two years. "The extension to our Pfungstadt warehouse also means that we have made Topdeq's logistical heart fit for continued growth," Georg Gayer explained.

The new warehouse gives Topdeq the urgently needed storage capacities. The built-on area has a size of 9,300 square metres, which is almost equivalent to two soccer pitches. The extension accommodates 9,400 pallets, part of which are stored in the new, fully automated high bay section of the warehouse.

Largest investment in the history of the company
"We invested some 6.5 million Euro in the warehouse equipment. This makes the extension the single largest investment in Topdeq's history, even though the building itself is rented," said Christopher Kunz, Managing Director of Topdeq. The warehouse supplies customers in Germany as well as the regional warehouses in the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and the USA.

About TAKKT AG
Topdeq is a division of TAKKT AG, the leading business-to-business mail-order company for office, plant and warehouse equipment in Europe and North America. Headquartered in Stuttgart, the TAKKT Group generated sales of 824 million Euro in 2001 and employs just under 2,000 people. The Group operates in 19 European countries as well as in the USA, Canada and Mexico. TAKKT AG has been listed on the stock exchange since 1999 and is included in the SMAX market segment and the SDAX index.

The Topdeq-Group
Topdeq sells design-oriented office furniture and accessories in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France and - since last year - in the USA. The product range comprises about 2,000 articles, many of them designed by renowned designers such as Phillippe Starck and Sir Norman Foster. Apart from the exclusive product range, the company's concept is based on prompt delivery: products from Pfungstadt are delivered to the customer within 24 hours, if requested even on the same day.

Stuttgart, 13 September, 2002

Contacts:

Christopher Kunz
Tel. +49 (0) 61 57.1 59-2 74