The U.S. men’s handball team is chasing it’s first World Cup victory and Polykemi Group is opening a new own manufacturing facility in the USA. They are now working together towards joint success.
"Thanks to Polykemi’s commitment, we can make a determined effort towards the Olympics in Los Angeles," says U.S. national team coach Robert Hedin.
The family owned business Polykemi AB was founded in Ystad, in the south of Sweden in 1968 and the company has been very involved in the local handball club Ystads IF since the beginning. The club has teams for women, men, youth and players with disabilities, where the men’s team is the reigning Swedish champion, the women play in Sweden’s second highest league, and several of the youth teams belong to Sweden’s elite. Polykemi AB has always been an active and proud sponsor of the club and while now starting a factory in the USA, they are extending their sponsorship to support also the U.S. men’s national team.
"Polykemi’s support is incredibly important for our efforts towards the 2028 Olympics in the USA, which is our main goal. On the way there, three World Championships will be played, the first of which is in Sweden this January, and thanks to Polykemi’s support we will be able to gather the American players for joint training camps,” explains Robert Hedin.
Polykemi Inc. expands in the USA
Team handball is an intense, explosive, and eventful ball sport developed in Europe, it’s growing in Asia and has many successful teams in Africa and South America. The sport is also growing stronger in the United States, which has been represented at every Olympic Games in the USA and will participate at the World Championships in Sweden in 2023, in Denmark in 2025, and Germany in 2027 up to the Olympics at home in Los Angeles 2028.
"Polykemi’s support is very important for us to achieve our goal and we are delighted to be able to showcase their brand in the U.S. as they make a major push into the U.S. market. We are really looking forward to working towards a joint success," says Robert Hedin.
In early 2023, Polykemi Inc. will open its first manufacturing facility in the United States, in North Carolina. This means that the Polykemi Group has its own manufacturing units on three different continents. Like its parent company, Polykemi Inc. manufactures customer adapted plastic compounds, based on both virgin plastic raw materials, and high-quality recycled raw materials. They deliver the same materials to their customers, regardless of whether the materials are produced in the U.S., China, or Europe. The company has been present in the U.S. market for ten years, but is now making a major investment in the future. The same goes for the U.S. men’s handball team, which this year aim for their first World cup victory in history.
"There is a strong connection between Polykemi and the sport of handball. We are a family and a company from a city that is passionate about handball and it is with great pleasure that we welcome USA Team Handball into the Polykemi family ahead of the 2023 World Handball Championship," says Johan Hugoson, CEO of Polykemi Inc.
"I have been playing handball myself for almost 15 years and to have the opportunity to appear on the jerseys of a sport of such major importance to me, but so far quite small and unknown in the U.S., is very exciting. Getting the chance to launch our new factory in the U.S., at the same time as the U.S. national team is playing the World Cup in Sweden, was a once in a lifetime opportunity we couldn’t turn down. We look forward to a rewarding partnership where we both make good results in the coming years."
