The Salewa/Operalp group has officially opened its futuristic new headquarters in Bolzano, Italy. The avant-garde building, whose shape recalls that of a mountain, is self-sufficient in terms of energy and CO2 free and is set to supply also neighboring companies with solar energy. The building comprises the offices of the management, a flagship store, a kindergarten for the employees' children, a huge climbing wall and other facilities to improve the staff's life/work balance, including a fitness center and a restaurant which is also open to the public. The company's new European distribution center meets the latest standards in logistics technology and is able to process not less than 45,000 items per day. The warehouse that is part of the complex handles storage and deliveries for all the group's own brands – Salewa, Dynafit, Silvretta and Pomoca – as well as those for which Salewa's parent company, Oberalp, acts as their Italian distributor, including Rip Curl, Speedo, Löffler and Flow. The whole investment was worth €30 million, plus €8 million for the robots in the warehouse. At the opening ceremony, which was attended by some 1,000 guests, Heiner Oberrauch, the group's president, said that the new headquarters was the first house he ever built with lower costs than originally expected. He pointed out that the project took advantage of the economic crisis to purchase certain materials more cheaply. A few days after the opening in Bolzano, Oberrauch made a great keynote speech at the European Outdoor Forum in Annecy, France.

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