Back A Weidemann provides the wellness factor.

THERME EINS in Bad Füssing has been driving a Weidemann 1240LP since beginning of 2017. It is a compact and manoeuvrable machine that is employed in many areas behind the scenes.

People were drilling for oil in Bad Füssing in Eastern Bavarian already in 1938. However, the hope of finding oil was soon crushed. Instead, people found hot springs at around 1,000 m depth, which were recognised to have beneficial properties and were expanded in the years that followed. And so a large thermal bath came to exist in a small farmer village on the Austrian border in the 1950s.

In the second half of the 20th century, a flourishing spa facility developed that, in addition to THERME EINS, also opened up additional springs and thus brought about more spas and a number of hotels. “Today, the spa facility is playing a smaller and smaller role”, Verena Scheer, assistant of the THERME EINS director, knows, “Our customers today are interested in wellness and feel-good holidays. We have to modernise our long-in-the-tooth spa resorts respectively and re-align our offers”. Beside an adjusted programme with wellness massages and sauna offers, this also means the resort must be modernised. There is lots of work waiting for the eight-head technician team and the type 12 Weidemann.

When the THERME EINS was privatised in the year of 2016, some things changed. The turnaround of the spa facility into a wellness offering that had already begun really took off and many processes had to become more efficient. It previously took manual labour to bring the loungers to the sunbathing area in spring and to store them back in the cellar in autumn. The technical team was looking for a mechanical solution for such work and similar work. But the requirements for a new machine were not that simple, as it initially seemed: steep ramps to be driven on and a ceiling under 2 m in the underground garage. Furthermore, the machine should be able to drive in the background of the thermal bath, on narrow paths and tight turns. In the winter, it should be able to plough paths. So a compact, manoeuvrable and all-terrain machine with a low overall height and heated cabin had to be found. Thus the parties responsible in the technical team went the Weidemann dealer Stephan Schönberger. Already during their first visit the 1240LP with cabin caught their eye. “This is the one”, operator Daniel Rother knew immediately. Luckily, Weidemann had just equipped this established machine model with an optional cabin, which allows for comfortable winter service.

Other tasks of the 1240LP, which is now being used on a daily basis by two regular drivers, are the loading and dumping of goods, the transportation of decorations (e.g. Christmas lighting) and equipping the “Salzkammerl” (salt chamber) on the Saunahof with new brushwood. In 2003, a large Saunahof was opened next to the thermal bath, situated in an old Rottal farm from the 18th century. The farm was dismantled at its original location and rebuilt in Bad Füssing.

For the future, the Therme I operating company is still planning to acquire a rotary sweeper that can be used to remove the leaves that the wind regularly sweeps into the underground garage among other places. Thanks to the energetic commitment of the hot spring employees and the Weidemann 1240LP, up to 2,000 guests can enjoy the expansive grounds every day with 12 thermal pools in a temperature range from 28 - 42°C and the roughly 3,000 m² large Saunahof, while work is diligently done behind the scenes.