Pfalzgraf Cakery: New production facility for 80,000 cakes per day

The success story started with a coffee shop in 1964, which in 1985 extended its business to deep-frozen cakes and pastry. Today, Pfalzgraf Cakery supplies cakes and pastry to restaurants, hotels and caterers all over the world. Quality, traditional recipes and craftsmanship are the company’s ingredients for success. In 2009, the cakery’s production facilities were enlarged with a new 6,700 m² building and now another one is being built. 

The new 9,300 m² building will have production, technical, cooling, storage and shipping facilities. The building consists of two units under one roof: The 3-floor unit, 20 m wide and 70 m long, is being built by contractor Eugen Sieber with in-situ concrete and MEVA formwork. The adjacent unit (25 m wide, 87 m long, 1 to 3 floors) is contractor Nübel-Bau’s job. Its basement and columns are poured using the MEVA StarTec wall formwork.

High columns, long beams, large and high wall areas
The floors of the 3-storey unit are each 7 m high and the foundation is 2 m thick. Most impressing are the high columns and the long concrete beams 7 m above ground. Eugen Sieber poured these parts and the curved ends of the walls using his own StarTec formwork.

StarTec panels: Used hundreds of times without replacement
Sieber bought the StarTec formwork over 9 years ago and has used it for heavy-duty jobs in civil engineering and high-rise construction. The Panels (1,000 m² in total) have all been used 700 to 1,000 times, and Heinz Sieber is proud of saying that he has never had to replace a panel. An added benefit is the panels’ all-plastic facing alkus which, while often exposed to hard work, has always delivered a perfect concrete finish without the need for large repairs. The contractor cleans the panels and facing on the construction sites using a high-pressure cleaner.

Large areas poured with heavyduty Mammut 350 formwork
The large walls around the elevator and stair shafts were poured with the Mammut 350 formwork. By using large panels 3.50 m high and 2.50 m wide, 3 panels with only one height extension did the pouring job for cycles 7 m high and 7.50 m wide, saving the contractor much work and assembly time. The load capacity of 100 kN/m2 allows one to pour as fast as possible up to 4 m. Assembly for the shaft walls shown in part above, rebar and pouring was done in 4 days. The formwork was stripped the day after pouring.

Prefab parts and in-situ concrete
Apart from using prefab parts for the adjacent unit, contractor Nübel-Bau uses its own StarTec wall formwork to pour the 1.20 m high base slab and the high columns of the unit. Nübel-Bau bought the formwork some 15 years ago and has been happy with its performance and quality ever since.

“I have tried and used almost all systems, I stick to MEVA.”
Company owner Heinz Sieber has known formwork since the early days of market launch. “Of course, with so many innovations and developments in the formwork industry over the years, I have tried and used systems from many brands. Yet MEVA formwork is the only one that convinced me. It’s sturdy and reliable. I have become a fan. That’s why I have added the Mammut 350 to my inventory when I started work on this construction site.“