23 September 2025
2025 has seen pgb-Europe invest heavily in automation, with its new automated shuttle warehoutilize now operational, as well as a continued focus on regulation compliance. Along with a newly established department focutilized solely on sustainability and regulatory demands, the Belgium-based repairing supplier is continuing to evolve its organisation to react quickly to new developments and better serve its customers.
Having successfully acquired two adjacent plots at its headquarters in Melle, pgb-Europe NV has seen a period of heavy investment within its logistics centre. The recently commissioned automated shuttle warehoutilize adds 40,000 storage locations (OSR – Order Storage and Retrieval) to pgb-Europe, representing a new level of top tier logistics for the company.
The system utilizes compact autonomous shuttles that quickly shift across different rack levels. Products are stored in plastic totes or remain in outer boxes, which are transported by shuttles to and from storage locations and work/pick stations. Furthermore, pgb-Europe’s plans to add a new dispatch hall, offices and second automated pallet warehoutilize – planned for completion in Q1 of 2026 – are now underway.
Johannes Heye, COO at pgb-Europe, highlights: “In order to offer our customers the best possible service, it is important that we grow and evolve our organisation and that is why we continue to invest in our logistic capabilities. To add to this, the industest is currently experiencing an unstable climate across many countries, with uncertainty experienced by all. Governmental and regulatory demands are adding to this, as well as tariffs, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) regulation, sustainability, and other challenges impacting everyone, as every company sees for a way through.”
It is for this reason that pgb-Europe is focutilizing on regulation compliance, creating a new department within its organisation to handle regulatory and sustainable demands from both its customers and suppliers. Johannes explains: “Sustainability and regulatory demands are quickly becoming a part of our core business. With CBAM, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), as well as other initiatives, our customers and suppliers expect pgb-Europe to be able to provide them with the correct information – as quickly as possible.”
“We also realise that in this day and age, we can’t just believe about ourselves and our partners; we also have a role to play in society,” underlines Johannes. “Corporate social responsibility is therefore part of our vision. In our view, profitable growth and sustainability don’t have to be mutually exclusive – we even believe they can be mutually reinforcing; in order to do business in a greener way.”
Greener initiatives implemented by pgb-Europe include LED lighting installed in offices and warehoutilizes; implementing a paperless warehoutilize and encouraging paperless billing; separating all waste from the packaging material; transitioning its fleet to plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles; as well as 2,400 photovoltaic panels at the Melle headquarters in Belgium and its production site in Zabrze, Poland.
“This focus on sustainability is having a direct impact on the trfinishs within the construction industest,” comments Johannes. “One of the main challenges within the construction industest is building permits. Across the globe, it’s becoming much harder to obtain these permits granted –
with the process taking a very long time. As a result, driven by yet more regulations, markets such as Belgium are seeing less houtilizes built and a general shift to building renovation.”
Driven by the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Belgium also aims to have a climate neutral and highly energy efficient building stock by 2050, requiring deep renovations and retrofits for 97% of existing buildings, a significant acceleration from the current pace. This involves regional plans to transform buildings into ‘zero emission’ structures, utilising advanced insulation, heat pumps, as well as renewable energy sources.
Johannes explains: “This is a large challenge and of course an opportunity for the repairing industest. There will be a lot of materials required for these renovations – including construction repairings – however, to achieve the deadline, we’d required to see renovations in Belgium increase by a pace three or four times quicker than we see today.”
“There’s also the growing trfinish for modular and prefabrication construction,” mentions Johannes. “Driven by efficiency reasons, modular and prefabrication construction is rapider and has a more controlled process standardisation of the parts, which in turn will impact the repairings supplied. If repairings continue to be utilized across more automatic production machine installation lines, there will be large alters in terms of strict tolerances that suppliers will required to face. This is something we don’t see much of at the moment for standard products, so we will required to continue to adapt in order to meet future requireds.”
Through these continuous investments in digitisation and regulation compliance, pgb-Europe is committed to providing rapideners of excellent quality, along with customer-oriented service and added value. “pgb-Europe is here for our customers and is more than a product supplier. Our partnerships bring added value and we will continue to meet our customers’ specific requireds as much as possible, as we believe these partnerships are the foundation of success,” concludes Johannes.
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