Conveniently located between Hamburg and Bremen, the Xella site also has its own sand pit, granulate plant, and service center in addition to the Ytong plant. Occupational safety, energy efficiency, sustainability, and junior staff development have been the focus here for decades.  

At the Rotenburg plant, more than 90 employees work in three shifts, five days a week, around the clock. Around 1,000 m³ of AAC blocks, assembly elements and supplementary products such as lintels as well as granulates are produced here every day.   

Safety first  

For plant manager Herbert Wilcken, one thing is clear: safety has absolute priority on the 200,000 square meter site. As a result, Rotenburg has been accident-free for almost three years. Wearing safety equipment is compulsory on the entire plant site. In addition, there are safety measures in the production halls such as light barriers and traffic lights. In an emergency, the automated production process shuts down if someone gets too close to the machines and risks being injured.  

Energy efficiency and complete material recycling  

For more sustainable and cost-efficient production, the Rotenburg site has its own granulate plant, where offcuts from the company's own AAC production and delivered recyclable materials are processed and refined. In Rotenburg, therefore, not only stones and construction elements are produced, but also materials that ultimately find their way onto the market as cat litter, oil binding agents and insulating fill.  

Even the smallest demolition particles and the resulting dust are collected so that they can ultimately be recycled. None of what is needed to produce new building materials is lost. This approach is particularly important when using scarce raw materials such as sand. The plant receives several deliveries a day from the company's own mine in Waffensen, from which sand can be extracted for another 20 years. 

The plant also takes a sustainable approach to heat utilization. The waste heat from the autoclaves, which have a temperature of up to 190 degrees and are necessary for autoclaved aerated concrete production, is fed back into the production process and partly used to heat buildings. This not only makes ecological sense, but also economic sense.  

Service and future-oriented  

The service center for standard and system business is primarily responsible for order management, including logistics. Customer support, complaints management and the interface function between sales and production are also among the tasks of the approximately 50 employees. Both in the plant and in the service center, an average of 3-4 apprenticeship positions are offered and filled each year. Promoting talent in their training is an indispensable task for the respective teams in Rotenburg and an important investment in the future.   

In order to familiarize customers, trade visitors and business partners with the building material, the (new) products and the production, the plant regularly organizes so-called Builders' Days. This involves demonstrations, guided tours and training courses.  
And networking with local communities such as the town of Rotenburg, authorities, and industry partners also takes on an important role: For example, the Xella plant participates in the Rotenburg Industry Forum, the first meeting of which was also held at the Ytong plant.