The new headquarters in Mannheim begins to take shape, on the basis of lots of memories

By a long measure, the Cybergroup BeachCup in Ketsch wasn’t the only highlight of that summer weekend at the end of June. Shortly before the two managing directors Roman Weiss and Steven Baumgärtner were able to enjoy some sunny days in the sand at the BeachCup, just a few hours earlier they were digging the ground at the enormous construction site in Mannheim, out of which the company’s new headquarters will arise. The occasion for this was the foundation laying ceremony on Friday 22 June. It’s traditional for the owners of the new building to lay the first stone. This is in order to bring good luck to this step into the future that is so important for the whole company.

Of course, foundation laying doesn’t literally mean laying the first stone of the new building. Rather, this tradition often sees a box, or in this case a capsule, being placed under the new building’s foundations. This contains lots of different objects intended to tell future generations something about the building procedure and the period it was constructed in. This lovely tradition is also said to bring good luck and ensure the structure enjoys a long a life as possible.

It is also traditional that the first thing to go into the capsule is that day’s edition of the regional newspaper. And because the Cybergroup’s history is so exciting, and its range of services so broad, the time capsule was also filled with lots of different mementos. The managing directors therefore placed business cards in the capsule, as well as a small plastic bucket to symbolise the close connection to the global company that produced it, which is based in the Bergisches Land area of Germany. And of course, for a company selling promotional materials, classic bestsellers such as lanyards, ballpoint pens and USB sticks also had to be included. Last but not least, the other objects deposited in the capsule represented the Cybergroup’s most important clients and partners, who are such an important part of the company’s success and who helped make this next enormous step possible.

Although the ground-breaking ceremony was celebrated in fitting style three months earlier, on this day the two managing directors were alone on the site. The reason for this was the Cybergroup BeachCup that took place at the same time, and for which the rest of the team were already busy helping set up just a few kilometres away. But the photos show that on such occasions, grown men are transformed back into boys – So even in this small group, fun was guaranteed! At the same time, the managing directors had good reason to be proud of this large-scale project: €7m invested, 8,000 m² grounds with around 3,950 m² of warehouse space, 1,564 m² of office space, of which 250 m² of which will house a state of the art design lab, plus 270 m² of social areas. And by 2020, it will house around 100 employees, who will be working there together with Roman Weiss and Steven Baumgärtner, continuing the company’s success story.