Rittal Corp. has built a new US headquarters campus just outside of Chicago to better serve its US customers. Doors of the new location officially opened Thursday.

Rittal, a major data center infrastructure vendor, is the largest subsidiary of the Friedhelm Loh Group, based in Germany. It has 11 production sites, 64 subsidiaries of its own and 10,000 employees worldwide.

At opening, the campus has a Customer Center of Excellence, including a technology and training center. It plans to make an expanded showroom live in the fourth quarter.

Douglas Peterson, Rittal's US president, said the center in Schaumburg (a Chicago suburb) was expected to be fully operational by September. “The initial phase will include relocating the company's executives, sales leadership, marketing and product management staff,” he said.

The company said its move toward one of the most important geographic and industrial centers of the country positioned it to be closer to its North American customer base. It is part of the company's series of international expansion projects, other locations including China, India and Germany.

These projects also include a multi-million dollar upgrade to several production lines in Rittal's Urbana, Ohio, production facility. The project is meant designed to provide greater capacity in manufacturing the company's standardized products and systems for its North American markets.

The customer training center will be one of the focal points of the Chicago facility. It will provide expanded teaching resources, product-testing facilities and the large-scale product showroom.

"Getting closer to our customers in order to become their first choice is a significant goal now and in the years ahead,” Peterson said. “Moving to suburban Chicago with its proximity to one of the world's most accessible airports is an excellent step toward making those critical connections easier.”