Progroup invests around 60 million euros in state-of-the-art corrugated sheetboard plant in Eisfeld – scheduled to start operating in the fourth quarter

In keeping with Progroup’s Green Hightech philosophy, in many areas the new plant surpasses the high requirements that need to be met to obtain a licence to construct and operate such plants. These include using a CHP plant (combined heat and power) which will supply the plant with power, heat and cold. The waste heat from power generation will be utilised either directly for heating purposes or for cooling using the absorption process.

But Progroup not only saves plenty of CO₂ in the production processes; top scores are also achieved in the product range. “Our Next Fibre® papers and Next Board® corrugated boards are renowned for much lower use of energy and raw materials and therefore for 50 and 15 per cent lower CO₂ emissions, and this is achieved with enhanced technical values,” emphasises Philipp Kosloh, Chief Operating Officer at Progroup AG.

In addition, Progroup will also be embracing its tried-and-tested packaging park model in Eisfeld. In this model, production and IT systems of commercially independent companies from the packaging industry are highly interconnected, which considerably increases flexibility and efficiency. This will enable Progroup to save the local environment around 10,000 truck journeys every year, which will considerably reduce CO₂ emissions by around 1,500 tonnes and produce a noticeable reduction in noise pollution.

“As a family-run company, we see our fundamental role as being to take responsibility and offer secure jobs with good career prospects,” stresses Philipp Kosloh. The new corrugated sheetboard plant will thus satisfy all the requirements for modern workplaces in production. Efficient filter systems will create a largely dust-free working environment and an innovative sound insulation system will produce a noticeable reduction in noise pollution, which means it will no longer be necessary to wear personal protective equipment. Regular exchange of air and conditioning of the fresh air will create pleasant temperatures in the production hall at all times.

The technology which will be used in the Eisfeld plant is state-of-the-art. The innovations include the one-man dry-end concept, a highly efficient high-bay warehouse with 11,000 storage spaces and three automatic storage and retrieval machines. There is also an IT-controlled flow of finished goods using electric stacker trucks. In the final expansion stage, the production facility will have the highest level of automation in the industry. “In our plants, which are optimised according to Industry 4.0, we use production lines which largely run themselves in automatic mode and automatically report any discrepancies in production to the operator using wearables that resemble smartwatches,” says Philipp Kosloh in summary.