ARENA RECYCLING
Europe´s largest plastics recycler goes broke / Individual units taken over debt-free / Jobs lost
It seems that the flagships of the European plastics recycling industry in the last decade were not quite ready for the new age. Following the “fragmentation” and final dissolution of the Swiss company Poly-Recycling AG (CH-8570 Weinfelden) – see Plasteurope.com 05, 2000 – the fate of the biggest European plastics recycling company, Arena Recycling BV (NL-5700 AV Helmond), has now also been sealed. The company declared itself bankrupt in June. Van Riet & Associees (PO Box 9907, NL-3506 GX Utrecht) has been engaged to handle the insolvency proceedings.
Arena was formed at the end of 1998 from the merger between Wavin Re-Use and the DSM subsidiary Reko (see Plasteurope.com 01, 1999), both of which were already relatively big names in the recycling business. The new joint venture had a capacity of around 100,000 t/y waste plastics. It seems, however, that two companies´ existing problems were not eliminated but compounded by the merger. The talk is of debts of some NLG 40m, apparently accumulated in just under one and a half years. The three owners – DSM (40%) and the Dutch disposal companies Edon and Rova Holding (30% each) – were no longer willing to bear the losses of the company, which had sales of some EUR 35m. As is often the case, the banks let Arena drop, and fate took its course.
In January 2000, a compound line (“No. 1”) was sold to Transmare Compounding B.V. (NL-6045 JL Roermond), which put the company into the black for a short period in the first quarter. The structural difficulties – high purchasing prices/reduced subsidies combined with lower market prices – apparently had not been overcome, howevr. Following the bankruptcy, the individual operating units – after being released from their debts – have now been taken over by various companies, in some cases with an appreciable cut in the workforce. The former Wavin sites of Lichtenvoorde and Helmond went to the plastics recycler Morssinkhof Plastics BV (Dieselstraat 11, NL-7131 PC Lichtenvoorde) and Europlastics BV (NL-3198 LC Rotterdam) respectively. The latter is a successor to film recycler Circle Plastics, which went bankrupt in 1999. The Reko stake was taken over in July by film manufacturer Paclan Belgium NV (Europark 2027, B-3530 Houthalen-Helchteren).
Arena was formed at the end of 1998 from the merger between Wavin Re-Use and the DSM subsidiary Reko (see Plasteurope.com 01, 1999), both of which were already relatively big names in the recycling business. The new joint venture had a capacity of around 100,000 t/y waste plastics. It seems, however, that two companies´ existing problems were not eliminated but compounded by the merger. The talk is of debts of some NLG 40m, apparently accumulated in just under one and a half years. The three owners – DSM (40%) and the Dutch disposal companies Edon and Rova Holding (30% each) – were no longer willing to bear the losses of the company, which had sales of some EUR 35m. As is often the case, the banks let Arena drop, and fate took its course.
In January 2000, a compound line (“No. 1”) was sold to Transmare Compounding B.V. (NL-6045 JL Roermond), which put the company into the black for a short period in the first quarter. The structural difficulties – high purchasing prices/reduced subsidies combined with lower market prices – apparently had not been overcome, howevr. Following the bankruptcy, the individual operating units – after being released from their debts – have now been taken over by various companies, in some cases with an appreciable cut in the workforce. The former Wavin sites of Lichtenvoorde and Helmond went to the plastics recycler Morssinkhof Plastics BV (Dieselstraat 11, NL-7131 PC Lichtenvoorde) and Europlastics BV (NL-3198 LC Rotterdam) respectively. The latter is a successor to film recycler Circle Plastics, which went bankrupt in 1999. The Reko stake was taken over in July by film manufacturer Paclan Belgium NV (Europark 2027, B-3530 Houthalen-Helchteren).
24.08.2000 Plasteurope.com [17212]
Published on 24.08.2000