The start of the fiscal year 2020/21 was particularly challenging due to the first Corona lockdown imposed in Austria almost at the same time and the worldwide spread of the pandemic. Nevertheless, the development work and investments of the past years paid off impressively. Erema Group, which consists of Erema Group GmbH and its subsidiaries Erema, Pure Loop, UMAC, 3S, Keycycle and Plasmac, was able to continue its course of growth and can once again report a successful conclusion to the year. A total turnover of EUR 250 million represents an increase in revenue of more than 20 percent compared to the financial year 2019/20.
"In a year that has presented each of us with extraordinary professional and private challenges, we are particularly proud that we have succeeded so well in creating a safe working environment for our employees, in fulfilling our customers' expectations and in launching worldwide the innovations that we presented at K 2019," is how the year is summed up by Manfred Hackl, CEO of Erema Group GmbH.
Technological answers to increased quality demands
Around 7,000 systems supplied by Erema Group companies are currently in operation in more than 100 countries worldwide. The number of employees has risen to a total of 660. In technological terms, growth in all segments is based on the high quality of recycled pellets achieved using these recycling solutions. These systems make it possible to now use post-consumer recyclate for packaging in the cosmetics and food sectors, which is why recycling companies see their purchase as an important investment for the future. This can be seen, for example, in the increase of orders for Intarema TVEplus systems with ReFresher for the production of odour-optimised recyclate. The recycling capacity of these systems sold during the past fiscal year alone, is 250,000 tonnes per year.
In PET recycling, customers producing packaging for the beverage industry are increasingly deciding to go for Vacunite technology, which was launched on the market two years ago. Just recently, Belgian PET bottle and preform manufacturer Resilux announced that it will double its bottle-to-bottle recycling capacity. In addition, Erema's Vacurema technology is a process that is not only suitable for bottle-to-bottle applications but also for various other processing capabilities, such as PET to sheet, PET to fibre and PET to strapping.
All the recycling technologies mentioned above as well as Corema systems that perform recycling and compounding in a single step, can be equipped with a comprehensive QualityOn package for monitoring colour and MVR values. BluPort - the Erema customer platform - bundles digital assistance systems that support machine operators in quality control and boosting machine performance. "We have delivered a great deal of development work over the past few years. With the high level of quality we have achieved as a result, we are now meeting the precise requirements of the growing number of brand manufacturers who are committed to plastics recycling and the circular economy," says Hackl.
It is a similar picture with the in-house segment. With its subsidiaries Erema, Pure Loop, that specialise in shredder-extruder technology, and Plasmac, the Erema Group also offers in-house customers a wide range of machines for handling different requirements in the recycling of production waste. Also Pure Loop and Plasmac can now offer tests with customers' material using the respective machine types in the USA. At the Plasmac site in Italy, the manufacturing area has been doubled in the past fiscal year and a new demonstration centre for machine acceptance tests was also built.
Ideally equipped for the future
The company group is rounded off by UMAC (previously owned machines), 3S (development and production of core components) and Keycycle (planning, engineering and turnkey projects), which means that the Erema Group covers the entire spectrum of mechanical plastics recycling. Hackl states: "Over the past three years, we have invested almost EUR 60 million in the modernisation and expansion of our locations as well as in the consolidation of our customer service network, and the order situation is good. So we have a very confident outlook for the future."
