Progroup on course for continued growth : construction of another paper factory and up to four corrugated sheetboard plants planned by 2021
Progroup is on course for continued growth and can reflect on a successful anniversary year. Sales increased in 2017 by 9.69% to around 804 million euros. This success is based on the consistent implementation of its Two Twentyfive strategy. With Europe’s fastest organically growing corrugated board manufacturer having started the construction of a new mega-corrugated sheetboard plant in Ellesmere Port (United Kingdom) back in October of last year and this month having started production in its latest corrugated sheetboard plant in Drizzona (Italy), Progroup is now announcing further expansion plans. With the construction of up to four more corrugated sheetboard plants between 2019 and 2021 in Central Europe and the start of the active phase of preparation for the construction of another paper factory for containerboard in Germany, which is scheduled to start production in 2021, Progroup is embarking on the intensive phase of its Two Twentyfive expansion strategy.
Progroup on course for continued growth
In the anniversary year in which “25 years of Progroup” were celebrated, Progroup was again able to record a successful year, as is demonstrated by excellent figures: Sales increased in 2017 by 9.69% to around 804 million euros following sales of 733 million euros in 2016. For the first time, the company managed to exceed the production capacity of one million tonnes of corrugated sheetboard within one financial year. The drivers of this consistently positive trend were a good economic environment, the new corrugated sheetboard plants in Plößberg and Trzcinica, but also the performance of all plants, the good sales performance, and not least the excellent cooperation of all employees.
Four more corrugated sheetboard plants between 2019 and 2021
Progroup is consistently pursuing its Two Twentyfive strategy. After the company announced the construction of two corrugated sheetboard plants in Italy and the United Kingdom at the beginning of 2017, the new corrugated sheetboard plant in Drizzona (Italy) will start production this month and the most productive mega-corrugated sheetboard plant in Ellesmere Port (United Kingdom) will start operating as scheduled at the end of the third quarter of 2018. This means that by the end of 2018 the production capacity for corrugated sheetboard will be approx. 3,000 million m²/year. In order on the one hand to retain and consolidate its cost leadership and position as one of the leading manufacturers of corrugated board in Europe and on the other to ensure that the company continues to be able to maintain the expected level of market growth and meet its customers’ requirements in respect of reliability of supply and the quality of products, between 2019 and 2021 Progroup is planning to open up to four more corrugated sheetboard plants in Central Europe. This increases the total production capacity to approx. 4,200 million m²/year.
State-of-the-art paper machine for containerboard
The increasing demand for consistently high-quality containerboard, owing to the growing production capacity for corrugated sheetboard at Prowell, is to be covered predominantly by cost-efficient and highly flexible production in-house. Progroup has therefore actively begun to make preparations for the construction of another paper factory located in Germany. The current thinking is that the start of production for the new, state-of-the-art paper machine is set for 2021 and, following a start-up phase, it will provide a further production capacity of around 750,000 tonnes of containerboard. Together with the two paper factories PM1 in Burg and PM2 in Eisenhüttenstadt, which are already manufacturing products in Germany, the total annual production capacity of containerboard will then increase from 1,100,000 tonnes to around 1,850,000 tonnes.
