Erema: Turnover climbs beyond 100 million euro mark

Erema (www.erema.at), the Austrian manufacturer of plastic recycling systems, ended its 2007/2008 fiscal year on 31 March this year, once again with record turnover figures. The figure for consolidated turnover achieved by the Erema Group, comprising Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H., Ansfelden, with its subsidiaries Erema North America Inc., located in Ipswich/MA, and 3S-GmbH in Roitham, reached EUR 102.4 million for the period from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008. With over 15 per cent growth compared to last year´s figures, Erema produced 290 complete recycling systems in the fiscal year, with approx. 50 per cent of the plants going to customers outside the EU. The number of employees has also risen to keep pace with this growth, increasing from 319 at the end of March 2007 to the current figure of 346.

This is now the fourth record year in succession for Erema, but the first to see turnover cross the magic boundary of EUR 100 million. This success was again reinforced by the further developments of the plant and process technologies which have improved both customer benefits and the price/performance ratio. One outstanding example of this is the launch of the new Vacurema Prime technology, a modular high-performance expansion phase for PET recycling. This technology makes it possible to produce recyclate suitable for food packaging with virgin PET grade viscosity (IV) levels in one pass, saving costs and energy as a result. The popularity of this technology is reflected in the fact that Erema was able to increase its turnover for Vacurema plants for polyester recycling significantly compared to the previous year. Further examples of improved customer benefits include the patented air flushing system on the classic Erema systems to address increased moisture content, and also the new high-performance package which offers considerably higher throughputs when processing polypropylene.

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"We expect a high level of consolidation for the next fiscal year," says Gerhard Wendelin, Managing Partner and CEO at Erema. He goes on to offer a more precise forecast: "If it does come to the worldwide slowdown in economic growth at some point this year, as now assumed by the economic experts, it is possible that the impact on the recycling industry will not be that harsh. An oil price that is already high and continues to increase may result in polymer prices for virgin material soaring even further. This would mean that the demand for high-quality recycling materials would then also increase. This, in turn, could have a positive effect on demand at Erema – anticyclical, so to speak, as our systems would then give an even faster return on investment than today for the owner." Wendelin has stated that the order books of the Ansfelden based mechanical engineering specialists are very well filled until virtually the end of the year.

Erema - Engineering Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen Ges.m.b.H., Ansfelden, Austria

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