STIHL unveiled the latest addition to its Virginia Beach, Va., facility – a $25 million plant to manufacture guide bars for the company’s chain saws.
A dedication ceremony Wednesday, Oct. 10, was attended by dignitaries including Hanz Peter Stihl, chairman of the advisory board of STIHL’s parent company; Peter Mueller, executive vice president for operations and Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf
The U.S.-based guide bar plant allows STIHL to insulate itself from fluctuating currencies because it doesn’t have to import many parts. The guide bar plant is the eighth building on STIHL’s Virginia Beach headquarters, which covers 83 acres.
The American arm of the company has come a long way in 33 years. In 1974, STIHL began American operations with 50 employees in an industrial park area near the Norfolk International Airport. Today, it has nearly 2,000 employees in Virginia Beach.
The guide bar plant’s roof features about 60,000 square feet of vegetation. It employs only 34 people because it is heavily automated. Robots at the plant weld three pieces of steel together, paint the guide bar and test it for defects at several points along the manufacturing process. Over the last three years, STIHL has invested $160 million in the Virginia Beach facilities. The fact STIHL can manufacture so many chain saw components in Virginia Beach will be useful during disasters like hurricanes, Mueller says. “If you have a natural disaster, you have a big surge in demand” for chain saws, Mueller says. “Having our facility here, we can immediately produce them.”
Prior to the afternoon dedication ceremony, STIHL president Fred Whyte, Mueller and Stihl addressed members of the media. “Today we live in the most competitive business environment in history,” Stihl says. “Many companies rely on Third World countries for their growth. I’ve never viewed this approach as the only way to remain competitive.” Stihl believes innovation, a solid dealer network and unique marketing strategies are better strategies to building a company.
Whyte says since STIHL is a private company, it’s not beholden to shareholders who would put demands on the company and keep the focus on the short-term. He says the nationwide campaign touting the fact the company’s products can’t be found in big box stores arose out of the desire to put the company’s business philosophy in writing. “We finally decided to put it in print,” Whyte says. “We pretty much drew a line in the sand.”
STIHL will likely wait five years before introducing battery-operated products, Stihl says. “The battery technology isn’t good enough to work out in a place like a forest,” Stihl says. “The amount of energy you can store in a battery pack is small.”
Advancements from the automotive industry will likely drive better battery technology, he believes.
