FRANCE – Germay-based ink and coatings manufacturer Siegwerk has reopened its Center of Excellence in France after completing affiliated modernization works.
The reopening of the site was marked by an official ceremony that was held at the end of May, in the presence of local authorities and the company’s employees.
Located in Annemasse, eastern France, the Center of Excellence is Siegwerk’s second-largest facility for packaging inks and coatings in Europe.
The modernization of this Annemasse facility, according to Siegwerk, indicates the company’s efforts to strengthen its French site to address the demands of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.
The company said the associated project commenced in November 2021 but had to be paused due to the global pandemic.
The revamping work mainly involved the renewal of the building’s facade, which now displays Siegwerk’s branding, and providing a large-scale overhaul to the company’s administration building, including the modernization of meeting rooms, offices and sanitary facilities.
Siegwerk’s vice-president of its Paper & Board EMEA and Liquid Food Packaging businesses Christopher van Laack said: “We are happy to finally present our new building design to our employees and partners here in Annemasse.
“Next to our headquarters in Germany, Annemasse belongs to our most important sites in Europe.
“By investing in our locations, we do not only keep our production and laboratory facilities up to date in terms of technology and safety, but we also give our buildings a modern look.”
The revamped facility has an annual production capacity of more than 25,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to 10% of the company’s total annual output.
The Annemasse facility is a modern technical center that features product production, testing, as well as research and development capacities, all under one roof.
Siegwerk has a total of 15 Centers of Excellence located across the globe that are used for manufacturing basic inks and coatings in a standardized process.
Early this year, the company partnered with Wildplastic and TU-Hamburgenters to improve plastic waste recyclability.
The collaboration follows successful trials, conducted at the end of 2022, that involved deinking the collected waste before entering the recycling extrusion process results to achieve better recyclability.
Siegwerk said that deinking packaging before regranulation keeps the packaging in the recycling stream and prevents the packaging inks from contaminating the recyclable components.
Wildplastic and the Institute of Circular Resource Engineering and Management (CREM) of the TU-Hamburg began a collaborative research and development project in 2021.
The project intended to study the feasibility of enhancing the quality of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)-recyclates from post-consumer sources.
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