Plantic Technologies to build German plant

The firm will set up a thermoforming operation in a newly leased factory in Jena, Thuringia, by the first quarter of 2009.

The German government will contribute up to 45% towards capital investment to develop the plant.

Investment in this first phase, before subsidies, is €1.2m (£971,164).

Once sufficient thermoforming volume is established, the second phase will include rigid sheet production, which Plantic said would “eliminate sea freight, streamline the supply chain and ultimately lower our production costs”.

The firm has already said that sea freight accounts for 12% of sales costs in Europe.

Plantic already exports rigid sheet material from Australia to European thermoforming contractors and to packaging producers for supplying brand owners such as Cadbury, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer in the UK.

Extruded Plantic materials manufactured at the new plant will not only be used for its thermoforming business, but also by other thermoformers and processors.

Plantic chief executive Brendan Morris said: “The European plant will allow us to deliver greater value to our customers, brand owners and thermoformers through improved local development capability, lower costs and greater service efficiency.

“Establishing Plantic’s European manufacturing operation is another step towards enabling our European customers to receive products with an even smaller carbon footprint.”

Plantic Technologies is confident about its long-term growth prospects, in spite of incurring a net loss of AUD5.6m (£2.6m) in the first half of 2008.

Sales volumes increased by 52% to 30 June compared with the same period in 2007.

The firm said it had a “strong order book”, mainly to fulfill orders from DuPont for the launch of the DuPont Biomax TPS brand of its injection moulding and resin sheet.

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