Days after a management reshuffle announcement at KraussMaffei Group, which brought in Chi Zhang as the new CEO, the German machinery maker has announced another management change, this time at its Extrusion EMEA business.
Ralf Benack has been appointed as managing director effective Jan. 1, 2024. He is responsible for the extrusion business in the EMEA region and the global development of the technology.
Ralf Benack comes from Continental AG, where he worked for almost 20 years, most recently heading the tire management solutions business for commercial end users in EMEA. Prior to that, the economics graduate was responsible for sales and marketing of truck tires in the Asia-Pacific region as well as project management in research and development for tires at Continental.
The series of management changes is the aftermath of a troubled few years for KraussMaffei. In March 2023, the company announced the layoff of “several hundred” employees in Europe. The move was needed to shed expenses after the war in Ukraine, supply chain disruptions and transportation bottlenecks contributed to a loss of some $230 million in 2022, including a goodwill impairment of at least $108.6 million.
In the third quarter of 2023, KraussMaffei posted net losses of CNY 348.5 million ($48.9 million), according to the company’s official report from Oct. 24, 2023. Kraussmaffei posted net losses between CNY 640 million ($89.8 million) and CNY 920 million ($ 129 million) in the first half of 2023, according to an announcement dated July 15, 2023, posted on its investor relations website in Mandarin.
“During the reporting period, the company expects that its main business income will further increase compared with the same period last year, and its losses will increase further,” the announcement says. “The main reason for the increase in losses is the report of the company’s important subsidiary KraussMaffei Group Co., Ltd. of Germany, which incurred large losses during the period.”
Major losses were attributed to reallocation projects in Germany: moving the company headquarters and manufacturing plant in Allach to a new facility in Parsdorf, and moving the Hamburg factory to Laatzen. Delays and utilisation rates lower than expected have led to increase in expenses and decreased profits, the statement reads.
KraussMaffei’s report for the fiscal year 2023 is scheduled for publication on April 19, 2024.
At Fakuma 2023, KraussMaffei spoke with Sustainable Plastics about the bleakness of the current economic situation and the difficulties the industry has been facing over the past few years.
The company’s CEO during 2023, Yong Li, spoke of a ‘very challenging’ year when passing on the baton to Zhang.