Foundation stone laid for Progroup’s new corrugated sheetfeeder plant in Italy
Maximilian Heindl, CEO of Progroup, made it clear in his speech at the foundation stone laying ceremony how important the project is to the company's strategy: "Italy is Europe's biggest corrugated sheetboard market. It offers us – and our customers – very promising opportunities. Progroup's latest corrugated sheetfeeder plant in Cessalto represents another important milestone in our growth story. This fills me with great pride and joy." The new plant in the Veneto region will complement Progroup's corrugated sheetfeeder plant in Drizzona that has been operating since 2018. It puts Progroup in an outstanding strategic position to achieve long-term growth in Italy.
Around 60 new jobs
Progroup will create around 60 new jobs when it opens its state-of-the-art plant in the industrial zone within the community of Cessalto. The first corrugated board sheets should be rolling off the production line by mid-2025. The packaging park for Progroup's local partner Ondulkart is being constructed right next to the Progroup plant. This will enable Progroup to deliver its corrugated board sheets to the Ondulkart plant just in time via a direct link so that the Italian manufacturer can process them into packaging. CO2 emissions and freight costs will be saved by the two companies having closely interlinked logistics and production processes. This will create an extremely sustainable packaging park.
Trust as the basis for a long-term partnership
Vinzenz Heindl, joint managing director and partner of Progroup's parent company JH Holding, explains the importance of this close partnership with Ondulkart to Progroup's blueprint for success: "These long-term partnerships based on trust combine two production steps that follow one another directly: the manufacture of corrugated board sheets, and the production of packaging. This enables each of us to concentrate on the important challenges in our part of the value-creation chain: Progroup can focus on highly efficient production of the corrugated board raw material, and our partner Ondulkart can focus on creating the perfect packaging."
Emanuele Crosato, mayor of the community of Cessalto, believes this will have a very positive impact on the regional economy: "The significance of this investment can't be emphasised enough. It won't just have a positive impact directly by creating new jobs, but will also further enhance the foundations of the industrial structures that already exist within our local economy. The presence of reliable companies like Progroup is crucial to the wellbeing of our community. They not only support economic development, but also embody values like reliability and expertise."
Maximilian Heindl also underlines how important trust and long-term partnerships are to Progroup's sustainable business model: "Growth never happens by itself. To write a success story like this, you need partners and a deep level of trust. This is because our whole business model is geared towards doing business sustainably with a long-term approach: In our investments, the lifespan of our facilities and in our relationships with our customers and suppliers."
Photos: Progroup / Francesco Zanet
About Progroup
Progroup AG, based in Landau, Germany, is one of the leading manufacturers of containerboard and corrugated board in Europe. Since it was founded in 1991 in Offenbach/Queich, the company has been pursuing a consistent growth strategy which, in addition to technological leadership, is also based on the use of innovative and environmentally friendly production technologies. Progroup operates production sites in six countries in Central Europe. These currently include three paper mills, twelve corrugated sheetfeeder plants, a logistics company and a waste-to-energy plant. The company's second power plant is currently under construction at Sandersdorf-Brehna near Leipzig. With more than 1,700 employees, the company generated revenue of around 1.8 billion euros in 2022.
