Hirsch Servo (Glanegg / Austria; www.hirsch-gruppe.com) has further strengthened its position in central Europe with the acquisition of EPS moulding facilities in Slovakia. The Austrian group has acquired all of Podolinec-based Polyform, which will give it a total of eight production plants, including the facility currently under construction at Cluj / Romania, as well as Polyform´s interest in a Slovakian joint venture with a German company.

After initially acquiring 49% of Polyform, which had sales of around EUR 5.5m in 2004 and holds a share of about 20% of its domestic market, a few days later Hirsch Servo sealed a deal with Germany´s Schaumaplast Relingen (Relingen; www.schaumaplast.de) to take its 51% stake in the joint venture Schaumaplast Polyform (www.schaumaplastpolyform.sk)

Founded in 2001, Schaumplast Polyform is also an EPS specialist, with sales of EUR 1m and seven employees in 2005. The company will be renamed Hirsch Porozell sro. General managers are the current manager Luboslav Lesko and Hirsch managing board member Peter Grabuschnig. Schaumaplast, which is German market leader for handicrafts supplies, also manufactures for the automotive and transport packaging sectors. It has six production facilities for moulded parts and packaging of EPS and EPP, including three in Germany and one each in the US (www.schaumaplast.com) and Poland.