Laying of the foundation stone on Meisenstraße

With a ceremonial laying of the foundation stone, construction work on the new company building for sister companies Avanis GmbH and KTI Distribution GmbH at Meisenstraße 79a in Bielefeld has now begun. The highlight of the short ceremony was the placement of a time capsule in the building's foundation. It contained good wishes from the staff, lucky charms, mementos, a newspaper from November 29, and a 1-euro coin. “So that there is always money in the house,” as Avanis Managing Director Paul Kaiser said in a short speech. In his speech, he also referred to the company's lucky number “three.” Three years will have passed from the initial idea to the completion of the building. It will be the third home for KTI and Avanis. And finally, according to Kaiser, it is certainly a good omen that the cornerstone was laid on the 333rd day of the year.

Hans-Jürgen Franz, district mayor of the Mitte district, conveyed the best wishes of the city of Bielefeld and expressed his hope that the construction would proceed without complications or accidents.

Representing the construction company RRR from Lage were architect Volker Ens and site manager Thomas Behrens-Kley. They predicted that the building would be completed by August 2020. After the time capsule was buried, the two managing directors, Paul Kaiser and Thomas Passlack, raised a glass of sparkling wine with the guests and friends of the company present to toast the new building and the future of the companies. As specialists in the field of active network technology, both companies supply customers throughout the German-speaking region with switches and media converters as well as products for Industrial Ethernet. Avanis is also a long-standing expert in the field of WLAN planning, analysis, and equipment.

Avanis managing directors Paul Kaiser (left) and Thomas Passlack immortalize a time capsule in the foundation of the new company building.

This is what the new building will look like (from left to right): Thomas Behrens-Kley (construction manager), district mayor Hans-Jürgen Franz, Thomas Passlack, Paul Kaiser (both Avanis), and Volker Ens (architect) present a visualization of the new building for the Avanis-KTI group of companies at the groundbreaking ceremony.