Based in Munich but with facilities world-wide, rail braking systems manufacturer Knorr-Bremse says it is driving future growth with a focus on development, project management and sales, as well as on the administration of its global operations.

Knorr-Bremse is currently investing 90 million euros in a new development centre in Munich (this will open at the end of 2015) and a further 100 million euros in ‘state of the art’ infrastructure development, bringing the total recently invested by the company in future-proofing its manufacturing sites and production facilities world-wide to more than 1 billion euros.

The expansion programme, which began some 10 years ago, involves grouping facilities in the northern part of the Munich site in order to ‘leverage synergies and enhance cross-divisional communication’.

It will also transfer the production and assembly operations and production-related services of its Rail Vehicle Systems division from Munich to other group locations.

Due to be completed by mid-2017, this will see some 300 jobs transferred to manufacturing sites in Berlin and Budapest, as well as in Suzhou and Nankou in China.

Knorr-Bremse has 2,500 employees at its Munich site, 5,000 in Germany and about 25,000 world-wide.