After three months of planning, the Birkenstock Group has started building its new plant in Pasewalk.
As a company spokesman said on Tuesday, earthworks have started in the Berlin-Szczecin industrial park so that the foundation stone can be laid in August 2022.
The shoe manufacturer based in Rhineland-Palatinate wants to invest around 100 million euros in Pasewalk in order to significantly expand production.
The costs are now about 25 percent higher than originally planned because of the enormous increase in construction and raw material prices.
"It is the largest investment in the company's history," said the spokesman.
Birkenstock wants to produce sandals with an orthopedic footbed in Pasewalk on the 20 and 11 motorways.
Production is scheduled to start in the second half of 2023 with 400 to 500 people.
The first employee for the technology department has already been hired.
A total of around 1,000 jobs are to be created, it said.
The search for production employees is to start intensively in 2023.
According to the Birkenstock Group, it has 5,500 employees worldwide and 16 locations in Germany.
The company is best known for sandals and shoes.
In Pasewalk, people are proud that such a global lifestyle brand is settling, said Mayor Sandra Nachtweih (CDU).