A. Schulman GmbH (D-50143 Kerpen; www.aschulman.com) is opening up to the public at large and, for the first time for many years, invited the press to the company at the end of January. Marking the official inauguration of a new plant complex, managing director Otto H. Bruder gave an unprecedentedly frank presentation of the Schulman company as a whole, which ranks as one of the world´s leading independent compounders and distributors. Schulman has constructed a further production hall for compounds and a new warehouse at Kerpen, Germany, involving investment of EUR 15m. Compound capacity in Kerpen has thus been increased to approximately 60,000 t/y. The new warehouse building with a surface area of 10,000 m² has increased the company´s overall warehouse area to more than 40,000 m². The new plant is used primarily for the production of engineering compounds for a wide range of industrial sectors, and is equipped with state-of-the-art machinery from Coperion Werner & Pfleiderer, Azo and Kreyenborg. Schulman has 450 employees at Kerpen, who work shifts. Otto Bruder puts sales at approximately EUR 300m.

Schulman had 16,000 customers and 2,400 employees worldwide during the 2001 fiscal year (31.8). The company purchased 1.15m tonnes of granules. Sales ran at USD 986m, roughly half of which is accounted for by European business. Schulman has compounding capacity of some 500,000 t/y worldwide. Overall sales in Europe totalled 510,000 t last year (40% own production, 60% distribution) and are set to rise to some 540,000 t in 2002. Schulman also places special emphasis on marketing secondary plastics and is intending to sell some 30,000 to 40,000 t recyclate in Europe in the current year.

Reader Service: Company portrait brochure: ”The name you need to know in plastics”: PIE-No. 45541.