07.14.22
Sonnenstraße 1
85551 Kirchheim-Heimstetten
Germany
Phone: +49 89 9003 0
www.hubergroup.com
Sales: $742 million (€704 million).
Major Products: hubergroup is an international printing inks and chemicals specialist. Within its two divisions, the company develops innovative, sustainable products and services to enable its customers first-class results.
The Print Solutions Division produces inks, varnishes, fountain solution additives, and printing aids for packaging, commercial, and newspaper printing. Main products include UV, water- and solvent-based flexo inks and varnishes, solvent-based gravure inks, conventional and UV sheet-fed offset inks and varnishes, coldset as well as heatset web offset inks, security inks, screen inks, transfer inks and fountain solution additives.
The Chemicals Division produces speciality chemicals such as resins, lamination adhesives, additives, and colorants in its facilities in India. In particular, hubergroup Chemicals concentrates on the customized manufacturing and development of radiation curing UV oligomers, polyurethane resins, polyketonic resins, adhesion promoters, modified rosin, laminating adhesives (2K PU systems), and pigment concentrates as well as alkali blue.
Key Personnel: Heiner Klokkers, chairman of the board and president Americas; Britta Hübner, CFO and chief transformation officer; Taner Bicer, president Chemicals Division; Suresh Kalra, president Asia; Dr. Dirk Aulbert, president Division Flexo/Gravure and president South & East Europe; Carsten Zölzer, president Division Offset & president Central & West Europe.
Number of Employees: 3,500 worldwide.
Comments: hubergroup enjoyed a solid year in 2021, with sales up slightly, particularly in the packaging segment. Heiner Klokkers, chairman of the Management Board at hubergroup, observed that the company’s emphasis on sustainability is playing a pivotal role in its growth.
“After the striking market decline in 2020, we have seen some recovery in 2021,” Klokkers noted. “Globally, the packaging market is growing in the areas of rigid carton, folding carton, and flexible packaging. The market has continued to move towards sustainable packaging, and we can see growth in mono-material packaging. Thanks to our sustainable portfolio, we were therefore able to stabilize our position. In addition, we successfully established our Chemicals Division, which was launched in 2020.”
Klokkers noted that hubergroup has continued to drive its sustainability strategy forward by launching diverse eco-friendly products.
“Sustainability is a major issue for us, which has led to various product improvements and innovations such as the enhanced recyclability of our products or our new HYDRO-LAC GA Oxygen Barrier Coating, which protects packaged food from oxygen and thus enables mono-material packaging,” Klokkers said. “Consequently, the packaging is easier to recycle and can be returned to the material cycle.
“We also relaunched our ink series RAPIDA ECO and have designed our processes even more sustainable which reflects in various Cradle to Cradle certifications,” Klokkers added. “Further highlights for us were the announcement of our sheetfed offset series MGA Contact, which is suitable for safe printing on the inside of food packaging, and the launch of our digital print folders.”
hubergroup also was actively adding new facilities that will extend its reach in Europe.
“We increased our production capabilities in Europe thanks to a new plant in Poland, and moved our headquarters to a modern office building. In this context, we have also invested a lot in our new, state-of-the-art lab facilities so that the conditions for analytical services are even better now. So, we have had a quite exciting year,” Klokkers noted.
Raw materials continue to be a major concern for the ink industry.
“The availability of raw materials as well as raw material, energy and transport costs continue to make for an extremely tense market situation,” Klokkers reported. “We expect the tense situation to continue at least until the end of this year.
What happens after that will heavily depend on the political circumstances.”
As for 2022, Klokkers said that the year started off well, but there are many challenges ahead.
“We started the year quite well,” Klokkers continued. “Especially in Europe, however, the outbreak of the conflict in the Ukraine is creating a tense situation. The tight commodity situation as well as the high costs for raw materials, energy, and transport will continue to be a major challenge this year. Thus, we expect further price increases to come up, even though we are working hard to minimize them by using our global supply network, examining other sourcing methods, and using alternative raw materials. To our customers, please be assured that we are working hard to deliver best products on time.”
85551 Kirchheim-Heimstetten
Germany
Phone: +49 89 9003 0
www.hubergroup.com
Sales: $742 million (€704 million).
Major Products: hubergroup is an international printing inks and chemicals specialist. Within its two divisions, the company develops innovative, sustainable products and services to enable its customers first-class results.
The Print Solutions Division produces inks, varnishes, fountain solution additives, and printing aids for packaging, commercial, and newspaper printing. Main products include UV, water- and solvent-based flexo inks and varnishes, solvent-based gravure inks, conventional and UV sheet-fed offset inks and varnishes, coldset as well as heatset web offset inks, security inks, screen inks, transfer inks and fountain solution additives.
The Chemicals Division produces speciality chemicals such as resins, lamination adhesives, additives, and colorants in its facilities in India. In particular, hubergroup Chemicals concentrates on the customized manufacturing and development of radiation curing UV oligomers, polyurethane resins, polyketonic resins, adhesion promoters, modified rosin, laminating adhesives (2K PU systems), and pigment concentrates as well as alkali blue.
Key Personnel: Heiner Klokkers, chairman of the board and president Americas; Britta Hübner, CFO and chief transformation officer; Taner Bicer, president Chemicals Division; Suresh Kalra, president Asia; Dr. Dirk Aulbert, president Division Flexo/Gravure and president South & East Europe; Carsten Zölzer, president Division Offset & president Central & West Europe.
Number of Employees: 3,500 worldwide.
Comments: hubergroup enjoyed a solid year in 2021, with sales up slightly, particularly in the packaging segment. Heiner Klokkers, chairman of the Management Board at hubergroup, observed that the company’s emphasis on sustainability is playing a pivotal role in its growth.
“After the striking market decline in 2020, we have seen some recovery in 2021,” Klokkers noted. “Globally, the packaging market is growing in the areas of rigid carton, folding carton, and flexible packaging. The market has continued to move towards sustainable packaging, and we can see growth in mono-material packaging. Thanks to our sustainable portfolio, we were therefore able to stabilize our position. In addition, we successfully established our Chemicals Division, which was launched in 2020.”
Klokkers noted that hubergroup has continued to drive its sustainability strategy forward by launching diverse eco-friendly products.
“Sustainability is a major issue for us, which has led to various product improvements and innovations such as the enhanced recyclability of our products or our new HYDRO-LAC GA Oxygen Barrier Coating, which protects packaged food from oxygen and thus enables mono-material packaging,” Klokkers said. “Consequently, the packaging is easier to recycle and can be returned to the material cycle.
“We also relaunched our ink series RAPIDA ECO and have designed our processes even more sustainable which reflects in various Cradle to Cradle certifications,” Klokkers added. “Further highlights for us were the announcement of our sheetfed offset series MGA Contact, which is suitable for safe printing on the inside of food packaging, and the launch of our digital print folders.”
hubergroup also was actively adding new facilities that will extend its reach in Europe.
“We increased our production capabilities in Europe thanks to a new plant in Poland, and moved our headquarters to a modern office building. In this context, we have also invested a lot in our new, state-of-the-art lab facilities so that the conditions for analytical services are even better now. So, we have had a quite exciting year,” Klokkers noted.
Raw materials continue to be a major concern for the ink industry.
“The availability of raw materials as well as raw material, energy and transport costs continue to make for an extremely tense market situation,” Klokkers reported. “We expect the tense situation to continue at least until the end of this year.
What happens after that will heavily depend on the political circumstances.”
As for 2022, Klokkers said that the year started off well, but there are many challenges ahead.
“We started the year quite well,” Klokkers continued. “Especially in Europe, however, the outbreak of the conflict in the Ukraine is creating a tense situation. The tight commodity situation as well as the high costs for raw materials, energy, and transport will continue to be a major challenge this year. Thus, we expect further price increases to come up, even though we are working hard to minimize them by using our global supply network, examining other sourcing methods, and using alternative raw materials. To our customers, please be assured that we are working hard to deliver best products on time.”
