Repla­cing plastic with paper from Lichtenau

From sushi to salad: corrug­ated board offers sustain­able packaging. Lichtenau is setting new stand­ards for the packaging industry. A local family business has set itself the challenge of repla­cing plastic with innov­ative packaging.

LICHTENAU - Sushi, tarts, pasta, fruit, veget­ables and various salads to go: food manufac­turers are focusing more heavily on sustain­able and fully recyc­lable packaging made of solid or corrug­ated board. Plastic packaging is out. Both trays and packaging lids are produced from corrug­ated board, thus using renew­able raw mater­ials. Even packaging with viewing windows can be disposed of in blue waste paper bins, says Andreas Bader, Managing Director of Wellpappe Auerswalde in Lichtenau.

And he would know, given that produ­cing packaging for direct contact with foodstuffs is one of the company’s main areas of expertise. Wellpappe Auerswalde is a leading manufac­turer of such packaging, including for baked goods such as meat loaf. While the man in his mid-60s doesn’t give away too many personal details, he and his brother are currently the fifth gener­a­tion to manage the company, which is part of the Schiet­tinger Group, and the handover to the next gener­a­tion is already underway.

Ever since Wellpappe was estab­lished in the 19th century, demand has increased drastic­ally. The Schiet­tinger Group, of which Wellpappe has been part since 1991, was founded in 1885 by Carl Friedrich Schiet­tinger in Göppingen in Baden-Württem­berg as a plain cardboard packaging factory with a printing press and litho­graphy service. The former cardboard factory in Brand (Upper Palat­inate) was taken over in 1914. The first offset printing press was put into opera­tion in Göppingen in 1935. The produc­tion of corrug­ated board started in Brand in 1960. The corrug­ated cardboard plant Wellpappe Auerswalde was founded in Lichtenau in 1991. The Display product group, which produces sales displays, was added in 2001. The produc­tion and office space in Brand was expanded in 2019.

“The complete recyc­lab­ility allows paper to be reused.” Andreas Bader, Managing Director of Wellpappe

Since 2020, construc­tion cranes have been back in action in Lichtenau. The building works at the former Lichtenau Display site, now referred to as factory 2 for Wellpappe Auerswalde KG, are almost complete. According to Andreas Bader, building work is planned for mid-2024 to the east of the Amtmannstrasse road.

The plan is to build a large bridge over the Amtmannstrasse that connects the two factories. The finished packaging will then be trans­ported to the new warehouse with over 40,000 spaces. Based on figures from the manage­ment, a high two-digit million invest­ment has been made in total. Bader doesn’t give a precise figure but it’s between 70 and 100 million euros. The new coating plant alone cost almost 15 million euros. The company is equipped for the future, says Bader.

This is because the larger produc­tion site now enables produc­tion processes to be automated, internal logistics to be stream­lined and speci­al­ities such as coated paper to be tailored to customers’ needs, he explains. New market segments outside of tradi­tional packaging can now also be tapped into. In partic­ular, the coating of paper and film for direct contact with foodstuffs with good, recyc­lable solutions and the resulting packaging for the food industry could make a signi­ficant contri­bu­tion to repla­cing plastic.

“The complete recyc­lab­ility of our solutions enables paper to be widely reused and so helps to achieve closed-loop recyc­ling,” highlights Bader, adding: The demand for products from Auerswalde has continued to increase following discus­sions about sustain­ab­ility, conser­va­tion of resources and repla­cing plastic. He doesn’t hide the fact that the packaging industry has had to battle a decline in sales due to the fall in consump­tion. “Despite this, we haven’t had to intro­duce short-time working yet,” adds Bader. Around 300 staff are employed at the Lichtenau site where various appren­tice­ships are offered, primarily in the technical sector.