Wentus is part of the Irish Clondalkin Group and has been producing special plastic packaging for 50 years. With 275 employees at the Höxter location, sales of 55 million euros were achieved last year, according to the industry magazine Kunststoffweb.
There is a particular focus on the food sector. Hence the strong demand in Corona times. “People stayed in the home office, cooked themselves, the barbecue season started and often the vacation took place at home – we felt that continuously over the months,” says a press release from the company. Many of the Wentus products are used to make food last longer and to present it attractively. “The primary task of packaging is to protect a product. Plastic cannot be replaced by paper everywhere, ”says Wentus. Particularly with regard to product safety, it shows how the pandemic situation has changed thinking: At Corona weddings, there was again increased demand for packaged products for fruit and vegetables. “From our point of view, product protection and durability have the highest priority. The only solution can therefore be to promote the trend towards ever thinner and recyclable materials. This is the first priority of our development ”, says managing director Renz.
The mechanical engineer has been on board since November 2019. Much has changed in the company since then. In the past few months, the new management team, in which “new heads” and longstanding Wentus employees work closely together, has completely revised the Wentus strategy and coordinated it with the shareholder.
The prerequisites for the company are good: “Wentus, as a company steeped in tradition, has always built up a great deal of collective knowledge with its employees having a very low fluctuation, great vertical integration and a wide range of technologies,” says the managing director. Although part of a larger group of companies, Wentus is not managed like a group company, but rather as a medium-sized company. Short decision-making paths, excellent products, stable processes and a customer-oriented development department ensured growing business areas, for example in the area of so-called skin films, which wrap around the products “like a second skin”.
Four million euros are to be invested in Höxter in the coming year. Further extensive investments are planned for the following years. The money is to flow primarily into production facilities in order to be able to meet the upcoming needs.
New at Wentus is a team that takes care of the health of employees. Bike leasing, individual foot measurement, leadership training and ergonomic workplace design in production and in the office are offered.
Wentus films are widely exported, for example to the USA, Chile, New Zealand and Australia. “Our business is becoming more and more international,” says company boss Renz. That’s why the top management agreed to change the name of the company. Instead of Wentus Kunststoff GmbH it will simply be called Wentus GmbH from January 1st. The term plastic was “confusing and in need of explanation” for many customers, says the company announcement.
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