French household equipment manufacturer SEB (Ecully; www.groupeseb.com) is moving ahead on restructuring plastics processor Emsa (Emsdetten / Germany; www.emsa.com), which it acquired in 2015/16 – see Plasteurope.com of 26.05.2016. The German company is set to expand its garden activities with planters in particular, as SEB CEO Thierry de La Tour d'Artaise said at Emsa’s 70-year anniversary festivities.

It was for this purpose that Michael Christoffer was in 2018 given the newly created position of Emsa’s head of garden business. This area had previously been part of managing director, CFO and personnel manager Sebastian Moebus’ responsibilities, who has now left the company. According to a company spokesperson, Max Harrysson will be the sole managing director of Emsa going forward, as there are no plans to fill Moebus’ previous position.

SEB intends to strengthen Emsa’s garden product range with plastic planters and the “Esteras” composites product line, mainly in France, but also in other European regions such as Italy, Scandinavia and Spain. The French manufacturer is also implementing a new strategy with individual online shops for group brands such as “Krups”, “Rowenta” and “Moulinex”, among others. It is not known whether Emsa will be included in this move.

The French group is currently investing around EUR 15m in plastics processing at its plant in Pont-Evêque / France, south of Lyon. By 2020, two new warehouses and a hall for injection moulding machinery are to be added to this site. Once the expansion has been completed, the injection moulding activities along with 160 employees currently located at the neighbouring and somewhat outdated Saint-Jean-de-Bournay facility will be moved to Pont-Evêque.