HDo you have to go through 40-ton trucks? The path to the world of sought-after lightweight construction halls leads through Büdingen over a narrow state road lined with trees and meadows, accompanied by a lively flowing stream, past an alder swamp and into a town of 900 people. At the first major intersection, the visitor must turn left and through a residential area – then drive onto a gravel dirt road with bushes on the side. Up here? If it weren't for the encouraging sign, the visitor would doubt his navigation system and Google Maps at the same time. After a little more than 100 meters, an open factory gate and a small parking lot appear high above the roofs of Wolferborn.
Markus Zeiger receives with a yellow safety vest on his body and one in his left hand. No one is allowed to walk across the Röder Group premises without a high-visibility vest. There are reasons for this: the property doesn't offer a lot of space, but there is a lot of heavy goods traffic on a kind of circuit between the factory halls. “We are very cramped here,” says Zeiger, who works as sales manager and authorized signatory, frankly. The company founded by Heinz Röder has been based in Wolferborn since the late 1950s and began operations on this site a few years later. It was previously used as a chicken farm, which may explain its location. Over time, the tent rental company of old has developed into a manufacturer with customers around the globe. The location has 180 employees.
In the same company as Evonik
In the meantime, the company was even listed on the stock exchange as Röder Zeltsysteme und Service AG. And even analysts who were used to big city hotels when evaluating Röder shares had to travel to this small district of Büdingen, as Zeiger says with a smile. Ten years ago, the RAG Foundation took over Upper Hesse and incorporated it into its holding company RSBG in Essen. In this construction, the Röder Group is ultimately a sister company of the Evonik Group. Röder has subsidiaries in France, Great Britain, Spain and Turkey and has a total of 600 employees, as Zeiger says.
The company is not alone in the market. There are three providers in that corner of the eastern Wetterau alone. HTS Tentiq is based in neighboring Kefenrod and Heinz Röder's HR-Structures GmbH, which was only founded in 2021, is located in Grebenhain. He is considered a shining light in the industry and continues to work even in his advanced retirement age.
Counteracting the tense housing market
Since Russia's attack on Ukraine and in view of the flight of hundreds of thousands of people from countries such as Afghanistan and Syria, Turkey and Eritrea, they are all experiencing a kind of special boom: many cities and districts want to have lightweight halls to accommodate refugees. This also and especially applies to the Rhine-Main metropolitan region up to Marburg, because the housing market is no longer offering much, or landlords do not want to give up their apartments for refugees.
The district administrator of the Wetterau district, among others, knows this. That's why Jan Weckler (CDU) had lightweight construction halls set up in the former Ray Barracks in Friedberg in the fall, along with containers with kitchens on the one hand and toilets and showers on the other. Röder delivered it. Rosbach, for example, would also like to acquire such a hall. As the meter-long aluminum profiles on the factory premises and in a production hall suggest, lightweight halls initially consist of a framework made from similar aluminum parts. For example, they are available as pagodas with a footprint of three by three or four by four meters, as Zeiger says.
There are halls and tents for so-called flying construction as a quick solution. They went through a shortened and restricted approval phase, but would still have to comply with building regulations. And then there are those for permanent use for which a building permit is required. Röder provides the statics to enable a longer service life after approval.
Lightweight construction hall for sports car manufacturers
The layperson has little idea what is encompassed by the term lightweight hall. Röder built an interim gymnasium in one place to free up the school gymnasium that was occupied by refugees. A well-known sports car manufacturer had a chic little building built by the people of Upper Hesse for a trade fair. If you like, you can integrate screens into the facade or have solar cells glued to the roof. If you don't want to heat with oil or diesel, you can also get a heat pump. Last but not least, lightweight halls are available in giant format with 21,000 square meters. Röder built a building of this type for an online retailer at Leipzig Airport as a transshipment warehouse.
As Zeiger reports, the profitable company delivers a three-digit number of lightweight halls throughout the year. He does not quantify them more precisely. The common model as an emergency shelter like in the Ray Barracks for 75 people measures 10 by 50 meters. It takes them a good week to produce the parts in Wolferborn, as Zeiger says, and assembly takes just as many days. Regardless, it depends on the equipment. When people, like in Friedberg, live there even in the cold season, it is not possible without insulating panels made of rigid foam and sheet metal and not without an insulated floor. Röder delivers on a turnkey basis – i.e. with interior walls and doors, with tables and chairs, with beds and sanitary facilities.
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