Treofan targets further growth

BOPP film maker Treofan said it ‘held its ground’ under difficult market conditions in the last fiscal year, maintaining its annual turnover of around half a billion euros while stabilizing profits based on an improved product mix and growth in premium segments.

Treofan CEO Peter Vanacker: ‘Our ambition is to be the global market leader for advanced quality solutions.'

According to chief executive officer Peter Vanacker, Treofan has made good progress in implementing its long-term strategy of providing innovation for technologically advanced applications at competitive cost.

Critical success factors, according to Vanacker, included restructuring efforts in the European organization, a recalibration of internal processes to better meet the needs of major brand owners, and a comprehensive refinancing including a capital increase of 35 million EUR by the group’s major shareholders. In parallel, Treofan invested a double-digit million in its asset base in Germany, Italy and Mexico.

‘We have initiated a turnaround, but a lot remains to be done,’ cautioned Vanacker. ‘We have been able to regain innovation leadership in important growth segments such as in-mold labels. We have managed to activate our close relationships with major brand owners much more successfully, and we have made good progress with regards to our cost structure.’

Price pressure remained strong, not least driven by new, state-of-the art assets in low-cost locations, providing a certain challenge given the age of some of Treofan’s own assets, Vanacker said. To offset this, Treofan will continue to pursue its strategy of differentiation through technologically advanced products. Vanacker added: ‘In parallel, we must continue to improve our processes and overall cost structure in order to further increase competitiveness.’

The coming year will be characterized by investments, and Treofan plans to put around 5 million EUR into research and development, 15 million EUR into upgrades of existing assets and 30 million EUR into a new production line in Neunkirchen, Germany.

Based on this, the company aims to grow aggressively in premium market segments, driven by developments such as the integration of additional functionality directly into films and the elimination of additional process steps such as lamination.

‘Our core strength lies in innovative solutions in technologically challenging segments, from in-mold labels to complex flexible packaging and separator films for high-performance batteries and capacitors,’ Vanacker said. ‘This is where we are going to apply our unique breadth of knowledge and experience from all types of applications – packaging, labels, technical and tobacco films – even more strongly, in close cooperation with customers and partners along the value chain.’

He concluded: ‘We continue to see a strong increase in capacities, along with a general lack of investment discipline in our industry. The development of raw material prices and, in particular, of the cost of energy in Germany – where we have our largest production site – remain uncertain. With regard to the latter, I can really only warn against Germany further jeopardizing its competitiveness as a manufacturing location.

‘Our ambition is to be the global market leader for advanced quality solutions. Customer understanding, innovation, portfolio management and related processes and assets at the highest level – these are the values that will define Treofan going forward long-term.’