Yaskawa has started to build a new European headquarters in Allershausen, near Munich, Germany. The Japanese drives and robotics manufacturer is investing around €12.5m in the new building, which should be ready for use by August 2012.

The new headquarters, being constructed on a 14,000m² plot, will house central functions such as customer support, research and development, customer-specific system adaptation and logistics. It will also accommodate 50 new employees that Yaskawa expects to take on by the end of 2012.

Yaskawa wants the new headquarters to act as a showcase for its European customers. Yasushi Ichiki, Yaskawa’s general manager for corporate planning in Europe, predicts that a new showroom will be the highlight of the new building: “It will be impressive.”

The company has particularly ambitious plans for its robotics business. “We aim to double the number of Motoman robots installed annually in Europe, to over 6,000 by 2015”, says Manfred Stern (above), chief operations manager for Yaskawa Europe.

Yaskawa will continue to use some of the buildings at its previous site on the Kammerfeld industrial estate.