The UK sales team of German compounder and distributor Albis (Hamburg; www.albis.com) has moved into new premises, following the group’s 2019 announcement about closing down its UK manufacturing site in Knutsford (see Plasteurope.com of 01.11.2019). The sales operation has moved to another site in Knutsford, which Albis UK Managing Director Josephine Bagnall said would “provide a vibrant working environment for our employees and will provide a much-needed boost for us all, in these challenging times”.

Albis decided to relocate its compounding activities to sites in Germany once market conditions in the UK made it uncompetitive to continue manufacturing operations. A total of 115 employees had worked across a range of job roles, but not all were affected by the change. At the time of its original announcement, Albis had said UK’s decision to leave the EU had not been a factor in its decision to close down domestic compounding activity.

In other news, Albis has worked with French sports and outdoor goods retailer Decathlon (Villeneuve d’Ascq; www.decathlon.com) to develop a portable volleyball stand for the beach using recycled material from LyondellBasell (LYB, Houston, Texas / USA; www.lyondellbasell.com). The stand uses the latter’s “CirculenRecover” polymers, made of post-consumer plastics that are collected, sorted, shredded, washed, mixed and then compounded, converting mixed plastics waste back into HDPE raw material (see Plasteurope.com of 30.04.2021).

Hans Videler, marketing and asset manager at LYB, claims that the use of CirculenRecover polymers meant a reduction of up to 70% in CO₂ equivalent emissions versus the usage of equivalent fossil-based grades. “We are pleased that thanks to this material and our value chain collaboration with Albis and Decathlon, we have been able to bring another sustainable solution to life which meets end customer needs.”