LENGERICH, Germany—Windmöller & Hölscher is set to celebrate its 150th anniversary in fall 2019 and management has announced that “Building the Future Together” is the motto responsible for driving significant directions in the milestone moment. Dr. Jürgen Vutz, chief executive officer of the machine maker, maintains:
- “Building” represents “our core competence as a manufacturer”
- “Future” expresses that “we are looking at tomorrow, as well as back at our past success story”
- “Together” speaks to the spirit of partnership
Vutz reported, “The highlight of the anniversary year will be the K 2019 trade fair in Düsseldorf, where W&H will present new machine generations, digital products and innovative solutions for sustainable packaging.”
In making the historical announcement, Vutz was joined by Chief Sustainability Officer Peter Steinbeck and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Falco Paepenmüller. The trio decreed, “W&H concluded 2018 with sales of around $1 billion (€895 million). The specialist for the flexible packaging market is continuing its course of growth seen in recent years. Its number of employees increased from 2,950 to 3,100 in the worldwide group. Internationality, the company cites new products on the future topics of digitalization and sustainability as growth drivers. In 2018, the company invested 8 percent of its sales in research and development.”
Vutz noted, “All business units—Extrusion, Printing, Converting and Service—contributed to record sales of the W&H Group. With an export rate of more than 90 percent, international positioning is another important success factor for the company.” In fact, the machine builder just recently expanded its international presence with six new sales and service locations in places like Poland and Asia.
In the past few months, W&H has expanded its headquarters through construction of a 107,600 sq. ft. technology center for machines for the production of flexible packaging. Its new Extrusion Technology Center was completed in 2018 and the new Printing Technology Center is currently under construction and will be opened later this year.
“At the Technology Center, customers can experience the entire value chain from extrusion to printing and converting,” explained Steinbeck. Paepenmüller added, “Software makes our machines smarter and more efficient through automated processes, error detection and quality assurance. By systematically building up our expertise, we maintained our technological leadership in this area as well.”
He continued, “In plastic packaging, the creation of a circular economy is a task for the entire industry. Our machines can already process recycled plastics today. At the same time, we are working in our Technology Center on how plastic packaging can be made more easily recyclable without losing its protective function.”