Concluding the expansion project launched in 2017 and worth 82 million, Rimi Latvia will open a new expansion to the office in Riga, 161 A. Deglava Street, on 27 April. In total, seven separate stages or construction projects have been completed during the five years of the project, reaching more than 90,000 square meters after the expansion of the total area of the central warehouse and office space. The increase in the volume of premises has allowed an increase in the volume of logistics services and modernisation of the working environment, making Latvia the centre of the Rimi Baltic logistics chain.
“This is one of the most ambitious projects in the retail sector in recent years in Latvia and also the Baltics. In doing so, Rimi’s goal was not only to streamline logistics processes, but also to provide even more space and create a more modern and comfortable environment for Rimi employees. Solving climate issues has played a key role in expanding the logistics centre and also the office. In our case, this means reducing our CO2 footprint to meet our 2030 target for zero GHG emissions through a variety of integrated solutions we are planning to achieve with different complex solutions, such as accurate order planning, smarter and more compact transport application, sustainable and energy-efficient construction solutions and equipment, for example, a unique automated assembly system in the Baltics,” says Valdis Turlais, Chairman of the Board of Rimi Latvia.
The author of the new office expansion design is TEA (Thomas Eriksson Architects) – a Swedish company that also designed the interior of Rimi’s previous office, while the technical design and construction was carried out by SIA Newcom. The building is built of sustainable materials: it is built of wood on two floors, only the covering and floor are made of concrete, and special sound-absorbing wood-fibre panels made in Latvia are also used for interior decoration. The lighting is controlled by motion sensors, the building has automatic ventilation regulation depending on the CO2 intensity, automatic air temperature regulation depending on the time of day, etc.
The area of the new expansion to the office is 1,300 square meters. The office currently occupies a total of 9,000 square meters, with more than 450 employees calling it their workplace. The two-storey new expansion includes five meeting rooms and nine smaller meeting rooms, a study room, a children’s room, several workplaces and a quiet room, a sample storage room and a test kitchen.
The expansion project of the Rimi logistics centre launched in 2017 included several stages, the most significant of which was the expansion of the warehouse, which was completed in 2020. The total investment of the project reached 82 million euros, in 2021 an additional 5 million investments were directed towards the creation of a centralised kitchen and 4.4 million euros to a unique automated assembly system in the Baltics.
