Playmobil Parent to Convert Shuttered German Toy Factory into 100 MW Data Center Campus

The Horst-Brandstätter-Group, parent company of toy maker Playmobil, plans to build a high-performance data center campus on the site of its former factory in Dietenhofen in southern Germany, marking a significant repurposing of industrial land as demand for computing infrastructure continues to surge across Europe.

The campus is designed for 100 megawatts of capacity and has potential to expand beyond that level, the company said. Brandstätter will provide the infrastructure, while partners are expected to handle their respective applications partly on their own. The offerings range from simply providing space with appropriate grid connections to delivering finished computing power.

The initiative represents a new, independent branch within the corporate group dubbed Playmobil Digital. Construction and operation of the campus will be managed by a team with more than 25 years of experience in data centers and IT, the company said.

The Dietenhofen site offers favorable conditions for a data center. The Playmobil property already has a connection to a 110-kilovolt power line, and grid operator N-Ergie in Nuremberg has committed the corresponding network capacity.

The site had been Playmobil's only German factory producing toys until the summer. It was closed at the end of June, with production relocated abroad, resulting in the loss of 350 jobs. The Playmobil brand has been under economic pressure for some time, making the data center project a strategic pivot for the group as it seeks to leverage existing industrial infrastructure for the growing digital economy.