INTERVIEW | NEWS
Mocom and Wipag merge; sights set on sustainability
Mocom CEO Jens Kaatze says merger will see plant closures in Europe as company integrates its mechanical recycling and compounding expertise to create a unified sustain- able materials business
Germany-headquartered technical plastics com- pounder Mocom an- nounced just before the Fakuma fair last month it is to merge with Wipag, also based in Germany and a sister company within the Otto Krahn Group focused on production of recycled compounds. The move is part of a
strategic plan to intensify development of products containing recycled content or that offer other broader sustainability benefits such as lightweighting, according to Jens Kaatze, who was appointed CEO of Mocom in May (taking over the role from Ian Mills) and has been CEO of Wipag since 2021. “The thinking behind this is quite simple,” he said. “We have two businesses that are producing and selling engineering plastics compounds. With a lot of our processes being similar and the markets being addressed the same, it is a logical step for us to merge these businesses and go to the market with one brand, which will be Mocom.” The aim of the merger is to bring together the best of both companies within a single organisation. “Mocom
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Above: A key element in Mocom’s business will be sourcing reliable end-of-life material suitable for engineered compounds
is focused on high quality compounds. It is very strong in the lighting area and has a strong background in polyamides and polycar- bonate,” he said. “Wipag is 100% mechanical recycling and is covering a broader value chain basically starting from scrap, even from end-of-life parts, and then bringing that into com- pounds. That is different to many other recyclers that you see because often they will stop after pelletising.” At an organisational level, the company aims to merge the two businesses by the end of the year. However, the process of consolidating specific expertise and streamlining production will take longer and will be implemented step-by-step. It will eventually see the combined group’s produc- tion capacity in Europe reduced from five sites
Right: Mocom CEO Jens Kaatze says merged business will have fewer but more efficient production sites
across Germany to three – the two Mocom plants at Hamburg and Zülpich and the Wipag plant at Gardel- egen, where it is currently expanding capacity for recycled carbon fibre reinforced compounds. The Mocom plant at Obernburg and Wipag site at Neuburg an der Donau will be closed at some point in the future. “In Europe we’ve got two things that we’re looking at. Number one is increasing efficiency,” said Kaatze. “We’re aiming at having three sites at the end of this process and having them focused on certain product groups and types of produc- tion, with Hamburg being more specialised and having the smaller lot portfolio backed by the
technical development, product development as well as the technology group that we have there. Zülpich is going to be for the larger lot sizes and Gardelegen will be the recycling spot.” Kaatze said that the need
for rationalisation in Mo- com’s home European market can largely be attributed to the compound- er’s history of growth via acquisition. He says this has left it with multiple smaller sites that do not necessarily provide the levels of utilisation and efficiency it requires today. This is not the case for its compound- ing operations at Changshu, in Jiangsu province in China, and at Duncan in South Carolina, US, which
November 2023 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 13
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