Consumables
Klingele Paper & Packaging Group celebrates its 100th anniversary
Thursday 23. April 2020 - The Klingele Paper & Packaging Group, one of the leading independent manufacturers of corrugated board base paper and corrugated board packaging, is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Alfred Klingele, the grandfather of the current managing partner Dr. Jan Klingele, founded the company on 21 April 1920 together with his brother-in-law Emil Holfelder as Badische Wellpapierfabrik Klingele und Holfelder. In 1936, the site of todays Remshalden headquarters was built - the major customer Bosch had insisted on a Swabian supplier.
Today, the Klingele Group operates production sites in ten countries on three continents. The company’s anniversary is to be celebrated on a grand scale with business partners and associates from many locations, but the planned anniversary celebrations were postponed until the fall due to the corona crisis.
Setting the course for new markets and business segments early on
The Klingele Paper & Packaging Group owes its current strong position in the market above all to its courage to make groundbreaking entrepreneurial decisions and its culture as a family-owned company that is characterised by a high degree of innovative strength and long-term thinking and action. As early as the middle of the last century, Klingele ventured into new areas of business and ventured abroad: in 1961 it entered the paper business with the acquisition of the paper mill in Weener, East Frisia; in the same decade, Klingele made its first venture beyond Germany’s borders with its first equity investments in Spain. In 2006, Klingele joined forces with three other European family-owned companies to form the alliance of Blue Box Partners (BBP) to supply pan-European customers from a single source. Today BBP is present in 21 European countries, has 87 processing plants and eight paper mills, and with almost 9,800 employees is one of the top 3 in the industry in Europe.
In the last decade in particular, Klingele has also expanded into new countries independently through equity investments and acquisitions. In addition to Scandinavia, Spain and Great Britain, these included less established but promising markets: in Mauritania, the packaging manufacturer operates two production sites that meet the growing demand for inexpensive, robust and sustainable packaging specifically for the fish, food and beverage industries. In 2017, Klingele also acquired a stake in two corrugated board plants and a folding carton plant in Cuba. Reforms there are aimed at modernising local operations – a unique opportunity for the Klingele Paper & Packaging Group to contribute its know-how in a sustainable manner.
In addition to its international involvement, Klingele has also diversified its range of products and services considerably over the last 25 years: Through its four German corrugated board plants and its specialists in Wunsiedel and Villmar, the company offers the full range of corrugated board packaging solutions – from major orders for retail, e-commerce and industry to special and design packaging in very small batches. The range is supplemented by consulting services in the field of packaging processes and machines, but also by logistics services, shipping materials and accessories.
Success drivers innovation, family culture, customer proximity – and sustainability
To stay successfully on course, Klingele launched a comprehensive innovation offensive at the turn of the millennium and has since invested a total of around 400 million euros, mainly in modern machinery and an efficient and sustainable energy supply: Today, biomass and substitute fuels in particular, as well as photovoltaics, wind energy and biogas, make a significant contribution to the energy supply of Klingele’s operations, complemented by a whole package of measures to increase energy efficiency. In 2019, Klingele received the “World Corrugated Award” as the world’s most environmentally friendly company in its industry for its environmentally friendly and resource-saving strategy.
On this basis, Klingele believes it is well equipped for the future: “The climate protection debate and the frightening images of plastic waste in the sea have shaken everyone up – and now the world is looking for environmentally friendly solutions to protect our planet,” comments Dr. Klingele. With our sustainable, fully biodegradable products, which consist of a renewable and largely recycled raw material, we are already making a very good contribution to this. We believe our industry is well equipped for a better ecological future. In the future, we will be even more challenged than before to apply technology, expertise and a great deal of passion to make our business models more sustainable. This will be a challenge for the next 100 years that we look forward to”.