German packaging and bottle machine manufacturer Krones AG announced a new, independent subsidiary has taken over all the company’s activities relating to plastics recycling.
Krones Recycling started business operations on July 1 with headquarters in Flensburg, a northern German town bordering Denmark. The new company will be managed by Dr Michael Gotsche, who was previously an advisor to a PET chemical recycling start-up in Germany called RITTEC Umwelttechnik, after spending over 25 years at BASF.
Krones’ CEO Christoph Klenk described the decision to create a recycling spin off as a ‘logical step’ which will allow Krones Recycling to ‘develop faster and in line with market requirements’.
Gotsche expects the company under his wing will be able to respond more quickly to changes in the constantly changing recycling market thanks to leaner processes and structures, he said in a statement.
"The newly founded company offers us the necessary flexibility and scope for action to be able to implement decisions in a customer-oriented, fast and optimised manner,” he added.
Krones Recycling decided to keep the Krones name to reflect a close connection to the Group, with which it will share global production, sales, and service networks.
"We know that our clients appreciate Krones' overall line expertise, which means they get everything from a single source,” Gotsche said. “They can continue to rely on this in the future. The worldwide sales and service network is also available to us without restriction,” he added.
Krones Recycling produces turn-key recycling factories as well as modules for sorting, shredding, washing, and decontamination. Its lines already process PET, PE, PP, and PS plastics worldwide.
The manufacturing heart of the Krones Group is in Germany, where it employs over 10,000 people in factories in Neutraubling, Nittenau, Rosenheim, and Flensburg, where Krones Recycling is based.
Assembly and development centres for the filling, labelling, plastics technology and process equipment are all located in Germany, but other production facilities all over the world manufacture certain machines and lines, such as from the packaging and palletising technology division.
The spin-off follows Krones’ acquisition of Netstal in February this year, when it absorbed 530 employees from cash-strapped KraussMaffei.
Krones posted 2022 sales of € 4.2 billion, surpassing € 4 billion for the first time after order intake surged 34% compared with the prior year.