Real estate portrait: Nagel-Group shows how contemporary working can look like
In a recent article, the Haller Kreisblatt reports on the remodelling of the Nagel-Group headquarters in Versmold. The redesign creates a modern working environment that promotes flexible workplaces, improved communication and sustainability.
André Pleines is convinced that good coffee is important for a successful company – to the delight of the staff in the offices of the Versmold-based Nagel-Headquarters. As ‘Executive Director Real Estate’, Pleines played a key role in the remodelling of the property on Friedrich-Menzefricke-Straße. And not only provided a high-quality coffee machine.
The eye-catching round building from the 1990s. photo: Jonas Damme
The property boss deliberately broke many rules that were previously taken for granted. And created a company headquarters with lounge areas, tea kitchens and even a small museum. A company headquarters in which nobody has their own desk. ‘This even applies to the Board of Directors,’ explains Pleines, referring to the Management Board, which also works remotely. During a short tour, he provides insights into the building, which offers 350 workstations with screens.
When the manager arrives at his workplace in the morning, the first thing he does is reach for his smartphone to book a workstation. Via app. The desks in the building are given unusual names such as ‘Botanic Gardens Singapore’. This increases the recognition value, explains Pleines. At the same time he also tried to design the building in a creative and appealing way rather than in an office-neutral way.
‘Every working day is different. Sometimes you have to work on something, sometimes you need fresh input,’ says André Pleines, explaining his approach. Thanks to the ‘Shared Desk Workstations’, the teams that are currently working on joint projects can always work together – or you can simply book a space with your favourite colleague. ‘The results are all the better.’
‘I am a great advocate of the new approach. Communication has suffered greatly due to corona. We wanted to improve that again. You always bump into someone here,’ says Pleines. Initially, the staff were still critical of the unusual concept. Today – after around ten months – it is pretty much accepted. ‘Above all, it is used because we offer many office variants: from quiet to loud.’ The advantages outweigh the disadvantages – even if you have to tidy your desk every evening.
Head of Real Estate André Pleines provides an insight into the Nagel-Group headquarter in Versmold. photo: Nagel-Group
The History Lounge creates cohesion
However, the reason for remodelling the headquarters was not just communication, explains the manager. ‘We didn’t build a special showpiece here. The entire project is being financed by the topic of communication alone,’ he says. ‘This has enabled us to realise a whole host of potential savings.’ Meaning above all: electricity and heating costs. Because individual offices became multi-use rooms, the employees moved closer together. ‘The office space has almost halved.’ At the same time, the company switched to LED lighting on a large scale and carried out energy refurbishments. Sustainability is an important issue for the property manager. Especially because the freight forwarding industry, with its many trucks, is always in the spotlight when it comes to environmental issues. Nagel is currently investing heavily in this area, in Versmold and at other locations. E.g., the com-pany has already purchased several electric trucks. Some of these are powered by the company’s own solar panels. Nagel-Group operates the largest rooftop solar system without feed-in tariffs in the entire Ruhr region. The mega photovoltaic area covers 13,000 square metres and produces two million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
Back to Versmold: an important meeting point for accounting, acquisition and logistics is the tea kitchen, or rather the coffee kitchen. ‘The coffee machine is here on purpose. The coffee is very good. That’s important,’ explains André Pleines during the tour. At a central location, employees run into each other and are allowed to take fruit or fruit juices and a free latte macchiato from the stylish fully automatic machine. A brief chat is not only possible, but also desirable. ‘Good communication is key,’ says Pleines.
A ‘telephone booth’ for quiet conversations. photo: Jonas Damme
Construction work is part of everyday life on the gigantic, more than ten-hectare Nagel site in the centre of Versmold. The cooling speciality has been growing steadily since the 1960s. The eye-catching glass tower was built in 1994. In 2017, the new office area began to take shape. The ‘History Lounge’, which catches the eye from Friedrich-Menzefricke-Strasse, is even younger. One of the vehicles parked in the small company museum is the ‘Büssing’. The lavishly restored lorry from 1939 is a real eye-catcher. Curious visitors can immerse themselves in the company’s history in the light-flooded rooms or take a seat at the historic desk of the former company director. There is also a table football table – which is very popular, as the tour shows. ‘We use the History Lounge a lot for events,’ explains Pleines. The Nagel jubilarians in particular are always happy to see the classic car.
And when they are given a tour of their former place of work, they quickly realise that not only the jobs of the long-distance drivers have changed over the past ten years, but also those of the people who control the business of the huge food forwarding company in the background.
The article ‘Nagel-Group shows what contemporary working can look like’ was first published in the Haller Kreisblatt on 18 December 2024. Click here for the article.
