The Heinzel Group can again reflect upon a successful financial year in 2016 during which it was able to increase markedly both its production and trading volumes, and thus raise its consolidated sales revenues by 19.1% to Euro 1.76 billion.
At Euro 78.6 million, the 2016 operating result (EBIT) was below the Euro 94.2 million of the preceding year, which was influenced by high, extraordinary insurance proceeds. By contrast, despite lower prices, the group still emulated the strong operating income before special items result of 2015. Moreover, in view of full order books at the beginning of the year, the Heinzel Group also views the current 2017 financial year with optimism.
According to Kurt Maier, the Heinzel Group CEO: “The successful business result in 2016 represents further confirmation of our diversification strategy and underpins our most important decision during the year, which was the conversion of the PM10 in Laakirchen to containerboard production.”
With this investment of some Euro 100 million, the Heinzel Group has reacted proactively to the boom in packaging papers, which is driven by the increase in online retailing among other factors. In the late summer of 2016, preparations for the planned conversion work commenced and from autumn 2017, apart from 350,000 t of white magazine paper, the Heinzel Group location in Upper Austria will manufacture approximately 450,000 t of brown “starboard” paper.
An additional 250,000 t of this environment-friendly containerboard is being manufactured by Raubling Papier which is already well-integrated into Heinzel Group and possesses the know-how vital to the production of this type of paper. The supply of raw material for the new product will be secured by recycled paper specialist Bunzl & Biach which is another Heinzel Group company and has gained in importance due to the integration of Chiemgau Recycling, which was acquired together with Raubling Papier.
