EDITION 2015 - Felix Schoeller Group

FOCUSON
EDITIO N 2 0 15
F OCUS ON
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Contents
Editorial
03
E D IT O RIA L
04
F O C U S O N O U R M A RKETS
06
We have set the course for future success
CEO Dr Bernhard Klofat
08
Developing new strengths and generating
growth
CTO Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp
26
F OCUS ON S US TA I N A BILIT Y
27
Sustainability, trust and reliability
The values of our family business
28
Creating awareness of the need
for energy efficiency
Dr Markus Fahrentholz, energy management
30
Fit for demographic change
Future-proof structures are in place
10
Being close to our customers is what counts
COO Guido Hofmeyer
32
A proactive approach to health and safety /
The Top Job award is a commitment
12
One face to the customer – 24/7
Felix Schoeller Photo Imaging
33
Felix Schoeller Photo Award 2015
High-calibre entries from 65 countries
14
A diverse range of paper solutions for
digital printing
Felix Schoeller Digital Media
34
Going all out to achieve top performance
Felix Schoeller Group and Project 1
18
It’s a people’s business
Felix Schoeller Release
36
F OCUS ON F EL I X S CHO ELLER
37
20
Continuing our course towards growth
Stephan Igel, Executive Vice President
of Schoeller Technocell
The employees come up with the best ideas
Christian Wlotzka, innovation management
40
Technocell Dekor at Interzum 2015
Showcasing a comprehensive range of
solutions
I am a bus driver
Dr Annegret Knittel, QSU /
Lean Management Competence Center
42
Felix Schoeller News
In brief
Technocell Vlies at Heimtextil 2015
New brand promise
46
The Weissenborn mill has been part of
the Felix Schoeller Group for 25 years –
Congratulations!
22
24
51
P U B L I C AT I O N D E TA I L S
Dear reader,
This is the fifth issue of our company magazine FocusON.
Five issues have documented five eventful years and explored and explained the changes that the Felix Schoeller
Group has been going through.
Last year we looked intensively at megatrends in society, first and foremost the trend towards greater customisation. This included an exploration of the questions of
what challenges these megatrends present for our company and how we might respond to them.
This year, we have turned our attention once more
to issues that concern us at present within the company.
This is reflected in the cover of this year’s magazine with
its stylised Schoeller Turm, the tower that is our company
logo.
Over the last year, we took important strategic decisions that set the course for the Schoeller Group’s future
development. They include concentrating on our existing
divisions – Felix Schoeller and Technocell – with their
Photo Imaging, Digital Media, Release, Dekor and Vlies
Business Units, combined with the goal to drive continued growth in these businesses and put the Schoeller
Group on a more international footing. You will have the
opportunity to read the full story on the current status and
direction of travel of these businesses.
But other topics are also covered in sufficient detail:
in the FocusON Sustainability section we report on our
energy campaign and new power plant projects – acti-
vities designed to enable the Felix Schoeller Group to
deal with demographic change. We also report on the
company’s involvement in culture and sport, internal
issues such as ideas management and lean management,
the Weissenborn mill celebrating 25 years as part of our
company and other Schoeller news.
The Felix Schoeller Group will be 120 years old this
year. Looking back over those years, one thing that stands
out is our tradition as a long-standing family business –
something which we draw upon to give us the strength
and confidence to go forward into the future. The other
dominant feature is the fact that we are a modern specialty
paper manufacturer with the latest technology, a motivated workforce and clear goals and strategies to enable
it to meet whatever the future holds. A whole range of
different aspects combine to make up this picture. We
would like to tell you more about them in this issue of our
magazine.
I hope you find FocusON 2015 an interesting and inspiring
read.
With best regards,
Dr Bernhard Klofat, CEO of the Felix Schoeller Group
FOCUS ON
OUR
MARKETS
FO C U S O N
06
O U R MA R K E T S
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DR B E RNHA RD KLO FAT
2014 – we set the course for future success
Dr Bernhard Klofat – CEO of the Felix Schoeller Group
2014 was a successful year for the Schoeller
Group, a year in which the company not
only enjoyed financial success but also set
the course for its strategic development.
The future strategy’s ultimate goal is to
preserve the family business’s autonomy.
It currently focuses on the Photo Imaging,
Digital Media, Release, Dekor and Vlies
Business Units. They are set to expand fur­
ther and become more international, ad­
ding sales offices and production facilities.
The company currently has international sales
offices in the following cities: Pulaski, Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Prague and Sao Paulo. Others are in the
pipeline, including in Australia and India. The
internationalisation of our sales operations has
made a decisive contribution to the company’s
growth. Nevertheless, there is only a limited
extent to which market potential – especially
in the Far East – can be fully exploited solely
on the basis of exports from Germany. That is
why we are seeking to establish international
production facilities, targeting the growth markets in Asia, especially China, as well as North
America and Russia. We will be building an additional paper machine to produce decor and
nonwoven papers at our Mayak-Technocell
joint venture in Penza in Russia at the beginning of next year.
Business development and innovation
management to strengthen our innovative
capacity
To drive forward our company’s diversification beyond our existing business fields,
a business development team was set up
several years ago, tasked with exploring and
evaluating new areas of business. We will be
putting its work on an even more professional footing in the future. The business devel-
opment team’s key impetus comes from the
innovation management team, which acts
as a radar screen for potential business developments. The ideas and suggestions put
forward by our employees are evaluated
in a structured way by an innovation mana­
ger and, if the outcome is positive, they are
forwarded to the business development department for systematic processing. A survey
has shown that the company has significantly
increased its innovative strength over the past
two years. Many employees are participating
in the company’s forward development with
their creative ideas for new products.
Diversification involves many challenges
Our diversification into new areas of business has made the company more complex
and the challenges facing the organisation as
a whole have palpably increased. One way
of dealing with this increasing complexity is
to introduce a modern CRM (customer relationship management) system, which can be
used to systematically manage all the stages
of business from the initial contact with a
customer through to invoicing and delivery.
Another possibility is the complete overhaul
of our order processing system, a high-priority organisational project which will run for
two years. The increasing number of grades,
particularly in the Weissenborn mill, has led to
a huge increase in complexity. A project was
carried out there in conjunction with management consultants in the first half of this year,
which aimed to stop the complexity from
further escalating and to deal with it more
effectively.
New competencies to manage new
business activities professionally
At the same time as driving forward the
diversification of our business, we have also
developed new competencies within the
company. Our established key account management system is now backed up by glob­ally
oriented conventional sales operations. At
annual sales conferences, to which all the
staff from our sales offices worldwide are
invited, we promote the integration of our
internation­al staff into the German team and,
above all, foster an exchange of ex­perience
beyond the boundaries of the in­dividual business units. A professional marketing team
develops the market positioning of each
business unit, along with annual action plans,
which they implement in conjunction with
the business units.
On the shop floor, new procedures
have been introduced to augment the procedures that we have always followed to ensure continual optimisation of our production
processes. They include areas such as lean
management, statistical analysis methods
such as Six Sigma and Total Productive Maintenance. Quality management has been an
integral part of our corporate image for many
years and it is evidenced in our ISO certifications. We are also concerned with placing
our management competence in the compa­ny
on a broader base. To that end, we began
two years ago to provide training for all levels
of leadership within the company, including
supervisors and shift managers, on how to
perform their management duties. The objective is to develop a common understanding of leadership across the entire group.
The Schoeller Group is in a good pos­
ition. Based on 2014, which was a successful year in every respect, we can go forward
into the future strengthened and full of confidence.
›The Schoeller Group
is in a good position.
We can go forward into
the future strengthened
and full of confidence.‹
FO C U S O N
08
O U R MA R K E T S
09
HA NS - C HRI S TO P H GA L L E NKA M P
Developing new strengths and generating growth –
for us and our customers
Focus on Excellence – an interview with Hans-Christoph
Gallenkamp, the Felix Schoeller Group’s CTO
After a phase of restructuring in many areas
of the company, the Felix Schoeller Group
has now reorganised itself and set new
goals. Hans-Christoph Gallenkamp, who
has been CTO for three years, explains
at the key measures that are designed to
drive the Group’s stronger growth.
›We now have some breathing space and the
financial leeway to invest in our businesses.
The general direction of travel is firstly to
produce our existing products more efficiently and secondly to create capacity for new
products. Our goal is to bring our plant and
equipment up to scratch to deal with market
demands and that involves greater flexibility
and diversity and excellent quality.‹
Good progress has been made in recent
years with regard to operational excellence.
Lean management is a part of this. It is becoming stronger and stronger and penetrat­
ing deeper into more areas of the com­pany,
where it is becoming an integral part of
everything the company does (see also the
interview with Dr Knittel). Lean management
will be developed over the next months and
involve our employees and their experience
even more closely in the process. One of the
priority areas here is optimising the grade
changes. The increasing number of grades,
combined with decreasing batch sizes, is
causing significantly longer downtimes as a
result of grade changes on all the machines.
There is room for improvement here if the
processes and procedures can be optimised.
Another crucial goal for Gallenkamp
is to strengthen the traditional production
philosophy, which has been one of the Felix
Schoeller Group’s success factors in recent
years.
›We have lost something as a result
of our numerous new products. We have
had to develop and qualify many products
for new markets and new customers. That
means that almost every time we produce
something it is like a new act of creation,
in which instabilities and uncertainties in the
processes can always arise. We have simply
accepted this to date because supplying our
customers has always been our clear priority. But in the future we need to pay more
attention to constancy of process and recipe
and get our workforce on board with this.
Meeting our customers’ specifications is not
enough; we have to make them constant and
reproducible.‹
Process reliability has to be guaranteed
for new products too
The endeavour to achieve process reliability
applies not only to fully optimised products;
the company will start to work towards it
to a greater extent than before in the early
days of developing new products. ›Despite
the fact that the grade structure is becoming
increasingly complex, we have to be able to
manufacture the products on our machines
in a way that runs so smoothly we can do it
in our sleep. This goal has to take root in the
minds of everyone responsible – from the mill
manager or production manager through to
the shift supervisor. To achieve that, it is absolutely crucial that the production and R&D
departments work hand in glove. A product
will achieve good process capability only if
the R&D stage focuses on the production
stage, and if it does so with complete stringency throughout the entire process, from
the initial idea through to market readiness.
Alternatively, it has to be clear at a very early
stage in development if modifications to the
manufacturing technology are going to be
necessary. These modifications have to be
prepared at the same time as the product
development‹, says Gallenkamp. The newly
acquired process reliability will also ensure
the Felix Schoeller Group’s machinery – especially the extruders and coaters – gives optimum output.
Larger investment sums will be the way
forward for the coming years
Increasing financial leeway makes higher investment possible. The priorities are investments in asset maintenance, high-ROI investments and, above all, investments in business
expansion. ›Investment in business expansion
includes investment in paper machine 14 in
Günzach, which we want to carry out in October this year and which will give us additional
capacity for pre-impregnated products. This
will also include our new paper machine 6 at
our joint venture mill in Penza, Russia, where
production of decor papers and nonwovens
is scheduled to start in 2017‹, explains Gallenkamp. Investments in Weissenborn will
also be stepped up. The focus here will be
on slitting and on the infrastructure needed
to create sufficient production and storage
space.
A key component of the high-ROI investments is investment in energy supply. This is
linked to the company’s strategic plan to be-
›Our goal is to bring
our plant and equip­
ment up to scratch
to deal with market
demands.‹
come more autonomous in its energy supply.
Issues of interest here are the new power
plant in Neustadt (see the interview with Dr
Fahrentholz), the proposed new power plant
in Penig and the continuation of the energy
campaign. ›Here we have realised that it is
becoming increasingly difficult to find worthwhile issues‹, says Gallenkamp. ›Whereas at
the beginning of the energy campaign the
return on investment was markedly less than
a year, we are now happy if we see a return
on our investment within one to one-and-a-half
years.‹
Consistent investment in quality will also
continue to be prioritised. To this end, paper
machines 1 and 15 in Osnabrück and 19 in
Canada will be fitted with new or modified
head boxes this year (see interview with Mr
Igel).
The aim is to be able to achieve the future growth in sales planned for the Schoeller
Group with the existing machines. Gallenkamp does not envisage major investment
in new machinery in the foreseeable future,
with the exception of PM 6 in Penza.
When asked about the sources of innov­
ation and inspiration, Gallenkamp replied: ›In
the future, we intend to evaluate and consider using technologies that are already on
the market. Here the paper industry is not
so much a benchmark for us because most
paper machines in the industry – especially
in the graphic field – are very similar to our
old PM1: large, broad, high-output and producing mono-grades. That is not our world
any more. We now have one or more grade
changes a day, which would have been inconceivable in the past. We therefore look
to other high-end industries for our benchmarks or examples of best practice, such
as the automotive industry or the modern
chemical industry. Within the Felix Schoeller
Group, extrusion at our Weissenborn mill is
an example of best practice. This illustrates
the expertise that we have; it is now simply
a question of transferring it to other areas of
the company.‹
R&D as a development partner for
existing and new customers
By comparison with the German paper industry as a whole, the Felix Schoeller Group
invests far more money in research and de-
velopment. Whereas in the past R&D activities focused on product optimisation, they
are now taking a new direction: ›R&D is at
the beginning of each new product development, although the product ideas usually
came from the business units. However, we
are now realising that, due to the increasingly
close meshing between R&D and our customers, more and more product ideas are
emerging in the R&D department. And that is
how we see our R&D activities in the future:
closeness to the markets and the customer
in the form of joint development partnerships with our customers. The first projects
have already been successfully concluded‹,
explains Gallenkamp. ›Irrespective of where
the idea was generated, R&D is the executive
department that translates the product idea
into recipes and process capability. Product
ideas are developed into new products for
our customers and markets using a stage gate
process, in which everyone involved gets
around the table to make decisions.‹
In a nutshell, it can be said that while the
company has launched a number of initiatives
over recent years, it must not rest on its laurels about what has been achieved.
FO C U S O N
10
O U R MA R K E T S
Being close to our customers is what counts
Guido Hofmeyer, COO Felix Schoeller
The Felix Schoeller Division comprises
the Photo Imaging, Digital Media and Re­
lease Business Units. Although they each
have very different business models, they
have one thing in common: they set great
store by being close to our markets and
customers. We like to know as quickly as
possible what our customers’ concerns
are, what new trends are emerging in the
markets and what new challenges they
entail for us.
The Photo Imaging Business Unit maintains
close, candid customer relationships that focus
on long-term success. We now develop and
produce photo papers for virtually all leading
printing system manufacturers and suppliers.
We have in effect been doing this since the
company was founded and it is something
we have taken completely for granted for
many years now. We have had a close and
trust-based working relationship with some
of our customers for decades. Of course, we
have also acquired new customers. Especially
in the last two years, we have succeeded in
convincing new customers of the benefits of
our company and our products and services.
We believe that intensive key account man­
agement, very close links between all areas
of the company involved in the value-added
process and a high degree of transparency for
our customers have been the most important
drivers behind our lasting success. As well as
our conventional silver halide business, we
are also very active in developing and expanding our inkjet and dye sublimation paper
businesses. We believe both segments have
good growth prospects for the coming years.
The Digital Media Business Unit's business activities are different from those of the
Photo Imaging Business Unit. We develop
and produce specialty papers for many digital printing systems in eight different fields
of application. The business is far more
segment­ed and we orchestrate many more
different kinds of customer relationships than
the Photo Imaging Business Unit. We have invested significantly in the global expansion of
our business activities over the last two years.
We have launched a raft of new products and
stepped up our canvassing of the markets on
a global scale. We have expanded our market­
ing activities. We have succeeded in recruiting
highly competent new staff for our sales and
marketing teams and have opened new sales
offices in a number of regions that are important for us, especially in Europe­. We believe
our growth prospects for the coming years
are excellent and intend to capitalise on them
as much as possible.
The development of our product range,
combined with the expansion of our global
sales and marketing activities, presents us
with new challenges, of course. Processes and
systems, software, work procedures etc. all
have to be reviewed to ensure they are fit
for purpose and often have to be adapt­ed to
the new challenges. We have launched numerous projects and initiatives to help us to
this. A particular focus for this year is how
to deal with the increased complexity we are
confronted with. We are particularly looking
at our principal mill in Weissenborn near
Dresden. We have been working intensively
since the beginning of the year, in conjunction
with an external consultant, to identify and
implement appropriate measures.
The Release Business Unit concentrates on marketing release papers – either
uncoat­ed or with a PE or silicone coating. We
have hit our growth targets in the past two
years and believe we are in a good position
to continue to expand our business activities in the future – firstly through increased
international­isation in Asia and North America and secondly by developing new product
segments and expanding our silicone-coating
capacities.
FocusON 2014 reported extensively
on our Packaging Business Unit. It came as
a great surprise to many people that we decided against further expansion at the end of
last year. At the same time, we also decided
that we would continue to support the activity and customer projects we had already
initiated. The primary factor in the decision
against further expansion was the increasing
realisation that we did not envisage sufficient
growth in earnings for the coming years in
the business model we had selected. This
realisation came into sharper focus over the
course of last year and ultimately led to the
decision against further expansion of our ac­
tivities that came as a surprise to many people.
It is not possible to predict right now whether and how we might position ourselves in
this market in the future. We will definitely
continue to follow market developments
closely and review whether new and promis­
ing approaches emerge for us in the future.
Because one thing has not changed and that
is our opinion that the market for plastic/
paper composites is very exciting and has
good prospects for future growth.
Each year, the Felix Schoeller Division
has to achieve significant growth with new
products and customers, in order to be able
to meet the growth targets set despite the
declining silver halide photo base paper business. We have achieved our targets in recent years, but everyone involved will have
to continue to make great efforts to ensure
we continue to meet them in the future. We
have an outstanding team of colleagues and,
in conjunction with our customers and partners, we intend to consistently continue to
follow our chosen path.
11
GUI DO HO F M E YE R
›We have hit our growth
targets in the past two years
and believe we are in a
good position to continue
to expand our business
activities in the future.‹
FOCUS ON
O U R MA R K E T S
12
13
F E L I X S C HO E L L E R P HO TO I M A GI NG
One face to the customer – 24/7
Felix Schoeller Photo Imaging
The Felix Schoeller Group’s specialty photo
papers are marketed by two business units:
one of them, Felix Schoeller Digital Media,
deals primarily with a myriad of wholesal­
ers and printing businesses worldwide,
whereas the Felix Schoeller Photo Imaging
Business Unit is concerned exclusively with
major systems manufacturers with their
own brand. The question we are interested
in here is this: what can a customer expect
from the Photo Imaging Business Unit’s key
account management team? Hendrik See­
ger, head of the business unit, and product
managers Dr Dietmar Bunke, Dr Frank
Römermann and Ralf Michalek provided
some answers to this question.
Partnership with our customers is a
strategic goal
Hendrik Seeger is very keen to stress how
building a partnership with customers is a
very important strategic goal. He is convinced
that the key to his business unit’s success lies
in its complex relationships with its customers stretching back over many years. ›We put
together a dedicated team for each customer. That team defines specific goals for the
customer and pursues them systematically.
Responsibilities and contact persons are
clearly defined. Each customer knows who is
responsible for what and who they need to
contact. A dedicated contact partner ensures
that any customer wishes or ideas are passed
on internally and addressed. At the same
time, we ensure that the customer’s expert­
ise stays in that team. That is also a very important aspect for customers, one that we
hear about again and again. Because we also
sell ourselves as a development partner who
brings specialist expertise to a project. But
anything we develop for a customer is always
exclusive to that customer. The developments are protected by confidentiality agreements. We want our customers to feel secure in the knowledge that we are absolutely
impartial in this highly competitive market.‹
Dr Bunke focuses on the benefits of a
development partnership: ›It often takes one
or two years from an initial idea through to a
new development going into production. We
are involved in the process from the moment
a customer develops a new recipe for us to
use. That gives us the opportunity to make
recommendations about technical feasibility
and any points relating to cost. Both parties
benefit from that ultimately.‹
Ralf Michalek, who mainly looks after
Japanese customers, points out the cultural
aspect of this collaborative approach. ›Our
colleagues in the regional offices help us out
here. I can totally rely on the local team in
Tokyo, for example; in Shanghai our Chinese
customers know who to contact and our colleagues in Pulaski in upstate New York take
care of things in the USA. Above all they ensure that we have competent partners our
customers can contact 24/7.‹
A typical project for a Japanese customer
might begin, for example, with the question
of raw material availability. Not all materials
that the customer uses to develop a recipe
are necessarily available in Germany. So we
have to find a suitable substitute. Once the
recipe has been finalised, it is a question of
whether we can produce it and what levels
of productivity we can achieve – factors that
are a fairly major contribution to the cost of a
product.
To drive a project forward, constant discussions and consultations are an absolute
must. Particularly Japanese customers set
great store by the fact that all the members of
their teams are involved in the decision-making process. That means that ad-hoc changes
are taboo. The language barriers in working
with Asian customers are a further challenge
and mean that we have to work with great
precision to avoid misunderstandings.
›We combine very high technological expertise in product development and
production with cultural understanding.
Well-functioning relationship management
is very important to us‹, explains Dr Frank
Römermann, who looks after North Ameri­
can customers and is supported by his colleagues Bill Froass and Mark Ward.
A partnership with our customers that
goes deeper
As well as the contact partners in the business
unit, many customers find direct contact to
the production department and the people
responsible for production to be very important. This is particularly the case when
test runs are being carried out on the pilot
machines. A comprehensive test programme
has to be meticulously prepared before starting. During the test phase, customers can talk
to all the contact partners across the entire
Schoeller organisation. ›This gives them the
opportunity to see how they can put their
ideas into practice on our machines. We
practice here what we like to call an »open
book« or indeed »open mill« policy‹, Hendrik
Seeger explains. This close contact and close
interaction also engenders many new ideas, which are often put into practice in new
projects at a later date. That creates genuine
added value for our customers.
This level of intensive customer care is
time-consuming. One to one-and-a-half days
a week are set aside for video conferences
or face-to-face meetings with our customers.
But it is well worth it. Confidence is growing.
The customers know what they can expect
from the Photo Imaging Business Unit's key
account management team and they are not
disappointed.
FO C U S O N
O U R MA R K E T S
14
Dr E manuele Martorana
Impressive diversity – paper solutions for
a vast range of digital printing applications
Felix Schoeller Digital Media
Felix Schoeller Digital Media is one of the
Felix Schoeller Group’s business units that
are enjoying strong growth. It is known for
its openness to innovation and constant
striving to offer the digital printing indus­
try new, high-quality paper solutions. ›We
now offer papers for a total of eight appli­
cation segments in the digital printing sec­
tor‹, explains Thomas Leifert, who heads
up the business unit in conjunction with
Jörg Borker.
And the fact that this vast range of products
and applications is not yet complete is illustrated by the Felix Schoeller Digital Media’s
latest product: its sublimation paper S-RACE.
Quick drying, sharp line definition and
highly consistent quality: the winning
features of S-RACE, the new sublimation
paper
›S-RACE is targeting a market that has impressive growth prospects‹, says Dr Emanuele
Martorana, a member of Felix Schoeller’s research and development team and the new
product’s creator. ›Sublimation papers basic­
ally offer all the advantages of digital imaging,
such as customisation, small batch production
and many others. A market that has been
dominated in the past by silkscreen printing
is becoming increasingly digital, so that companies offering digital solutions have good
growth opportunities. For Felix Schoeller,
the opportunities are confined to the field of
transfer printing applications that use paper to
transfer the images. Nevertheless, the transfer printing market is currently at 500 million m², which is 50% of the digital textile
printing market.‹
Unlike other sublimation papers commonly available to date, Felix Schoeller's
paper has a microporous ink-receiving coating that has a new and innovative composition, giving the paper far greater air permeability and above all permitting significantly
shorter drying times. Areas of application
include textile printing but also printing hard
plastic-coated substrates such as metal,
glass or wood panels. ›It is when printing
onto hard substrates that S-RACE shows its
strengths to the full, particularly its sharp line
definition, because this application depends
on a reproduction of the image that is as
true to the original as possible‹, Martorana
explains. ›Other customers value the highly
consistent quality of our products. Our curtain coater is able to apply the ink-receiving
coating very evenly, both vertically and horizontally.‹ The new sublimation paper premiered during the FESPA show in Cologne in
May 2015, backed by an extensive PR campaign directed at 130 trade magazines. The
feedback from both the visitors to the trade
show and the media was very positive and
reaffirms that Martorana and the Digital Media Business Unit are on the right track. But
the business unit is just at the very beginning
and still has a long way to go.
15
Premiere at the Hunkeler Innovation Days
– JET-LINE sense, the new high-speed
inkjet paper
The business unit proved its capacity to innovate earlier this year when it launched its
new high-speed inkjet paper JET-LINE sense
at the Hunkeler Innovation Days in February
2015 in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The Hunkeler Innovation Days, which
began as a get-together for the industry
that was concerned solely with transaction
printing and mailshots, have blossomed into
an inter­nationally recognised forum for the
entire printing and media industry. Close on
6,000 trade visitors from some 50 countries
met in Lucerne to learn about the latest developments in digital printing and finishing.
The focus of the industry get-together was
clearly on inkjet printing. Cross-cutting insights included the recognition that digital
printing processes are gaining ground. The
image reproduction quality is improving all
the time and production times are speeding
up at a rate of knots.
›Wherever you go, high-speed inkjet
printing is the hot topic of discussion this year.
For us as manufacturers of specialty papers
who are constantly seeking to come up with
increasingly sophisticated digital printing solutions, this is a first-class forum to showcase
our company and our products. It gives us the
opportunity to talk to an interested audience
of trade professionals about the entire spectrum of our specialty papers as well as our
innovations in high-speed inkjet papers‹, says
Dirk Hörnschemeyer, the product manager
who presented the new papers at the Hunkeler Days. ›We were able to produce JETLINE sense – our new paper for high-speed
inkjet printing - just in time for this important
meeting of our industry. JET-LINE sense's
winning feature is its velvety feel combined
with a silk sheen. We developed it specifically for a wide range of applications, including
mailshots, brochures and transpromotional
printing. It is an uncoated, surface-treated paper that can be printed on both sides and is
available in grammages of 90, 115 and 130 g/m².
Asked about the market and its requirements, Hörnschemeyer replies: ›Until a few
years ago, you would only have found uncoated papers, possibly with a light satin fin-
THOMAS LEIFERT
ish, on the market. They were designed for
transaction printing and suited the prevailing
technology of the time. Today, we encounter significantly higher print quality that relies
on high-finish, smooth papers that have a
special feel. With our solutions in this market segment, we at Felix Schoeller help our
customers to generate added value with
our substrates. That enables them to access
new markets. The key edge we have over
the competition is that all our products offer
our customers not just innovative finishes but
also consistently high quality based on our
tradition as a specialty paper manufacturer
stretching back over 120 years.‹
Thomas Leifert describes the digital
inkjet market as follows: ›We compare the
market – in a simplified form – to a pyramid,
consisting of four levels: the tip of the pyr-
amid consists of the high-class high-speed
marketing applications – this is where we
supply our JET-SPEED®-master papers. The
brochure business is the market segment
that makes up the second level and we are
currently developing our range here. The
third level of transpromotional and mailshot
applications is covered by our JET-LINE
sense papers for high-speed inkjet printing.
The bottom of the pyramid represents the
transactional possibilities for which we have
devised our JET-LINE base papers. We aim
to offer the best solutions on the market for
all four segments.‹
E-PHOTO® papers are the clear winners –
guaranteed to show no sign of stress
whitening
FO C U S O N
O U R MA R K E T S
Jörg Borker
16
17
PAPER SOLUTIONS FOR DIGITAL PRINTING
Photo Retail
Small-format papers for home printing
or printing in retail outlets
Professional Photo and Fine Art
Papers with special characteristics (individual structures,
high grammages) designed to meet the highest quality
standards for professional photography applications
Wall Decoration
Photo Merchandise
Papers for a broad range of photo gifts,
especially photo books
In this segment we market not only poster papers
and canvas media, but also inkjet-printable nonwoven
wallpapers, which we showcased with great success
at this year’s Heimtextil show in Frankfurt
Sign and Display Graphics
Layflat bindings are enjoying increasing popularity and are frequently used in photo books.
This kind of binding allows both pages to
lie completely flat and enables double-page
spreads to be presented to great effect. Felix
Schoeller Digital Media has been developing,
producing and marketing papers for these applications – E-PHOTO® papers – for many
years now. However, when a layflat product
is handled a great deal, undesirable stress
whitening often appears on the book’s centrefold, impairing the high-quality image.
The Felix Schoeller Group joined forces
with the Papiertechnische Stiftung (PTS) and
together they set themselves the task of developing a method for quantitatively measuring
this attribute and making it possible to objectively and qualitatively compare papers used
for layflat photo books. The results of the test
appeared in an article entitled ›Weissbruchfreie
Druckergebnisse‹ (print results without stress
whitening) in issue 97 of the magazine Druckmarkt, which was published in June 2015.
The newly developed PTS test was used
to examine the stress-whitening behaviour of
the three main types of paper that are used in
photo books. The papers tested were a silver
halide photo paper, a coated photo printing
paper, and an E-PHOTO® paper produced by
the Felix Schoeller Group. The E-PHOTO®
papers emerged as the clear winner, showing
absolutely no stress whitening even after frequent use. They are followed by the coated
photo printing papers. Bringing up the rear
were the silver halide papers, which had the
poorest stress-whitening behaviour.
Large-format materials for commercial applications,
such as advertising posters but also film products
that are used as backlit, roll-up or pop-up displays at POS
Proof & Prepress
Media for proofing
and prepress applications
CAD & GIS Drawings
Commercial Printing
Papers for printing output from computer-aided design
and geographical information systems such as maps
Papers for commercial and industrial printing
applications, such as brochures, mailshots or flyers
FO C U S O N
18
O U R MA R K E T S
It’s a people business
Felix Schoeller Release
›Release liners have been
part of the Felix Schoeller
Group’s product portfolio
for a long time.‹
Creating closeness to our customers and lis­
tening attentively – these are the key features
of his day-to-day work, says Markus Weid­
lich, who has managed the Release Business
Unit for three years now. The business en­
joyed satisfying growth last year; that motiv­
ates him and, of course, his colleagues in the
sales team, product management and pro­
duction department. ›The »bestsellers« are
our release substrates and silicone-coated
release liners‹, Weidlich explains. Schoeller’s
papers are predominantly used in the graphic
art and adhesive tape sectors.
Weidlich sees the fact that the company offers customised solutions as the key to its
success. ›We have developed a toolbox that
customers can use to put together their own
individual solution for their specific applications‹, says Weidlich. ›Our integrated production system at the Weissenborn mill and
our silicone-coating facility at the Osnabrück
mill enable us to respond very flexibly to customers’ wishes.‹ Weidlich has been able to
convince new customers of these benefits
and also place more projects with existing
customers.
Release liners have been part of the Felix
Schoeller Group’s product portfolio for a long
time now. They were originally pro­
duced
in the USA at the Pulaski mill and primarily supplied as base papers and semi-finished
products to coating and silicone-coating companies in North America. When base paper
production and converting operations were
shut down in Pulaski, the future of these products was called into question. In view of the
many years of knowledge about products and
markets, a strategic decision was taken to
transfer production to Germany. Another decision was also made to extend the value chain
and invest in our own silicone-coating facility.
Extruder 6 in Osnabrück was rebuilt in May
2010 to accommodate this.
The path the Release Business Unit has
been following since then reaffirms the fact
that this was the right decision. But there is
more to do, Markus Weidlich knows ›We are
limited by the fact that we can currently only
use solvent-free, water-based silicone systems.
Our aim in the medium term is to be able to
offer other silicone systems as well. One of
the ways we hope to do this is by collaborat­
ing with other companies. The same applies
to two-sided silicone-coating, which ET 6 is
similarly not able to do.‹
The USA and Asia are the main growth
markets for release liners. ›We are well
placed in the USA due to our company’s
history, whereas we have not yet exploited
the full potential of Asia by a long way‹, says
Weidlich. ›We intend to continue growing‹
– that is the business unit manager’s clear
message. ›And we are looking to do this in
various ways. Firstly, we intend to step up our
efforts to provide our international custom­
ers with even more information about our
capabilities. To that end, we held an onboard­
ing event in Osnabrück on 20 May 2014, at
which we were delighted to welcome 28
participants from 11 companies and have
the opportunity to show them the business
unit and the mill. Secondly, we are open to
collaborating with other companies in order
to expand our competencies and therefore
the range of solutions we can offer our customers. We have also not ruled out making
our own investments in the growth markets.‹
The Release Business Unit is creative.
There are many ideas for new products that
are first of all tested on a laboratory scale
before they go into trial production. One of
them is casting paper for synthetic leather,
which would be a good fit for the growth
market in Asia. It will be interesting to see
how successful Markus Weidlich and his team
are in winning over new customers for this
promising product.
19
M A RKUS WE I DL I C H A ND HI S TE A M
FO C U S O N
20
O U R MA R K E T S
We are continuing our course
towards strategic growth
Interview with Stephan Igel,
Executive Vice President of Schoeller Technocell
Achieving growth in growth markets and
regions is the clear strategic goal of the
Felix Schoeller Group’s Technocell Division.
In an interview, Executive Vice Presi­
dent and Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Stephan Igel talks of success to date and
planned measures for the future.
Mr Igel, back in the spring the Technocell
Division announced its intention to rebuild
paper machine (PM) 14 in Günzach during
the fourth quarter of 2015. Is this another
key step on the path towards sustainable
growth?
Stephan Igel: This rebuild is an important
piece of the jigsaw that represents our strategic growth plan. Demand for pre-impregnated products in the wood-based products
industry has risen significantly. Overall, 2014
was a very successful year for the Technocell
Division. We were able to boost our sales
by 7% or 13,000 tonnes to 209,000 tonnes,
which made us one of the key drivers of
growth in the Felix Schoeller Group. The
pre-impregnated products that we market
under the brand name PRIP® played a large
part in that growth. To date, we have prod­
uced them exclusively at our Neustadt mill.
With the rebuild of PM 14, we are creating
additional capacity in the area of decor papers
within this key growth segment. We are also
strengthening our facility at Neustadt in the
Allgäu region which, with its three paper machines, is clearly focused on specialities and
small batch sizes.
But the rebuild of PM t14 is not the only
investment?
Igel: We have put together a very comprehensive investment package to enable us to
respond to all the challenges we are aware
of today that the decor paper market has
thrown up. This puts us in the fortunate pos­
ition of being able to respond to the constantly changing needs of our customers – which is
part of our corporate identity. An important
component of this package is the decision
to build a new paper machine – PM 6 – at
Penza, Mayak-Technocell’s production facility,
by 2017, which will double its capacity in
order to respond to long-term growth in
Russia. We will also be investing in PM 1 and
PM 15 in Osnabrück and PM 19 in Drummondville, Canada. These paper machines
will have new or modified head boxes fitted with the aim of improving sheet formation and profiles at low basis weights and
increasing machine and material efficiency.
Which regions do you expect to be the
strongest growth drivers over the next
few years?
Igel: Apart from Eastern Europe and Russia,
it will no doubt be the Middle East, India and
China, plus North and South America. If we
are to continue our international growth, we
have to expand our regional presence in these
growth markets. We believe our Canadian
mill, for example, has great potential. We are
anticipating robust growth in North America
over the coming years, due to two complementary trends. The first is dynamic growth in
the economy as a whole with the good prospects associated with it for the housing market. The second is that value-added activities
that were transferred out of the country in
the past are being brought back. That is also
true of the furniture industry.
What other developments and trends
can be identified?
Igel: The developments in digital decor printing will continue to occupy us in the near
future. Here there will sooner or later be a
number of market-ready applications in vari­
ous areas. We currently have two lines of
impregnable inkjet-printable decor papers
with different degrees of complexity in their
ink-receiving layers. This means we are well
prepared. But we do not expect significant
volume until the first industrial-scale digital
printers are operational. Then we will need
to convince our customers that one of our
specialty products is superior to standard
decor papers in price and performance. We
have also developed a very broad portfolio of
inkjet-printable substrates – for inkjet-print­
able PRIP and inkjet-printable nonwoven
wallpaper bases and also for different ink systems, whether water-based, solvent, UV or
latex. And, last but not least, in response to
the rising number of printed electronics applications, we have further developed our Inkjet
Dekor Premium range so that it is now ideal
for printing electronic circuits.
21
S TE P HA N I GE L
›We have put together
a very comprehensive
investment package to
enable us to respond to
all the challenges we are
aware of today that the
decor paper market has
thrown up.‹
FO C U S O N
22
O U R MA R K E T S
23
I NTE RZ UM 2 0 1 5
made of red core paper and customers could
take a close look at them and test them while
enjoying a light meal.
But it wasn't only the tables that included papers made by Technocell Dekor. Over
70% of the surfaces of the stand were made
from its decor paper. The R&D department’s
new focus was also explained to customers at
the show. The recently established, marketoriented R&D team presented its clearly defined R&D processes and impressed visitors
with its extensive analytical knowledge.
The fact that Technocell Dekor belongs
to the Felix Schoeller Group and what that
means in terms of the range of papers and
converting possibilities was also explained
to visitors to the stand in a separate themed
area. Visitors were welcomed into a trendy
living room featuring a range of different photo
products (posters, canvases, postcards and
greetings cards), commercial print products
(corporate brochures, catalogues), release liner
applications (various self-adhesive graph­
ics)
and creative wallpaper made of nonwoven
base paper. All these decorative and functional products were produced on one of the
Felix Schoeller Group’s premium papers.
This demonstrated exciting new perspectives
for many customers.
Technocell Dekor’s presence at this
year’s Interzum was groundbreaking in every
respect: the team was able to convince exist­
ing customers and new contacts alike of the
benefits of the company’s range of solutions
and give them the opportunity to experience
Solutions first: Technocell Dekor at Interzum 2015
Technocell Dekor’s comprehensive range of solutions is a hit
at the trade show
Some 57,500 trade visitors from 143
countries came to Cologne between 5 and
8 May 2015 to visit the over 1,500 exhibi­
tors that the organisers Messe Köln had at­
tracted to the exhibition halls for Interzum
2015. One of these exhibitors was Tech­
nocell Dekor, one of the Felix Schoeller
Group’s business units. Its overall aim for
the show was to go into more depth about
its brand promise: Solutions first. It achie­
ved this by refining its marketing concept
and presenting it in greater detail and with
more emotional appeal. A further aim was
to create themed areas to give customers
the opportunity to experience the busi­
ness unit’s range of products and services.
The general conclusion after the show: for
Technocell Dekor, as for numerous other
exhibitors, the show was overwhelming­
ly positive. The team enjoyed intensive
and promising meetings with existing customers and generated a great many valu­
able new contacts. It is anticipated that
there will be lively post-show business.
New brand presence gives Technocell
Dekor a distinctive identity
Even before its internationally important appearance at Interzum, the »Solutions first«
brand promise, which was launched in 2013,
had been refined to give the Technocell Dekor Business Unit a more distinct profile and
make it a stronger brand. More tightly focused market positioning, improved branding
and more easily understandable communication of the range of products and services
are intended to increase customer loyalty
and boost the brand’s emotional appeal. The
solutions arrow, which symbolically points to
the systematic path to a solution, was clearly visible as a multi-dimensional element on
the Interzum stand and on diverse commu-
nications resources. The new solutions logo
combines Technocell Dekor’s six ›solution
worlds‹ – Research Solutions, Paper Solutions,
Cost-Down Solutions, Colour Solutions,
Service Solutions and Worldwide Solutions –
into a graphic form designed to make a strong
impact on the customer. We focused on four
solution areas at this year’s Interzum.
An impressive arrangement of over 100
samples of coloured base paper underlined
Technocell Dekor’s competence and expert­
ise in colour development. Furthermore, a
large samples cabinet, the Technocell app
with its different colour tools, and a selection
of sample applications gave visitors an idea of
the high colour standard Technocell Dekor
has set itself.
The developments that the company’s
increasingly important pre-impregnated
prod­uct (PRIP®) has undergone in recent
years were explained in an easy-to-understand way through the PRIP® Story. The individual mile-stones illustrated just how highly
Technocell Dekor values this product. The
investment strategy adopted in 2014, which
was a customer-focused response to the
inter­national rise in demand, was explained
in detail. Numerous raw paper and application samples, which existing and potential
customers could examine and take away with
them, also demonstrated the differences between this pre-impregnated product and conventional decor paper.
Technocell Dekor also presented a new
product at Interzum. The coloured core
papers they have jointly developed with
Hans Schmid KG of Gronau were very popular with visitors. Not only were raw paper
samples and handy sample books on display,
but also one of the product’s popular applications: all the tables in the lounge area were
decor paper hands-on. In conjunction with
the entire team, Technocell Dekor will continue to work consistently in one direction:
the one that will fulfil the promise – Solutions
first.
FO C U S O N
24
O U R MA R K E T S
With passion for our customers
Technocell Vlies announces its new
brand promise: ›Living Nonwovens‹
A premiere at Heimtextil 2015. Schoeller’s
Technocell Vlies Business Unit announced
its new brand promise right on time for
the international home and contract tex­
tiles show in Munich: ›Living Nonwovens‹
is the promise and it combines the passion
behind this business unit’s products with a
focus on customer-specific solutions. ›Heim­
textil once more proved to be an important
communications platform for Technocell
Vlies. The show was the ideal place to pre­
sent our new brand promise and our new
products – especially our nonwoven lining
papers. With »Living Nonwovens« we have
found just the right appeal and have already
had a great deal of positive feedback from
customers and visitors. We can now build
on that‹, says Executive Vice President
Georg Haggenmüller.
Among the products Technocell Vlies featured at Heimtextil were the inline-coated
Nonwovens MetaTechc Evolution, papers
that are coated on the paper machine. They
have excellent dimensional stability and are
available in grammages starting at 75 g/m2.
The business unit also showcased Liner Tech
– its new nonwoven lining papers that meet
the requirements of the European fire classification standard. They are flame-retardant
and suitable for all interior applications, have
very good ink absorption and produce an
excellent colour image. Nonwovens for digital printing were also presented at the trade
show. This product, which Felix Schoeller’s
Digital Media Business Unit is now marketing
as INSPIRE wallpapers, is suitable for toner
printing and all common large-format printing
applications. Live presentations on a Xeikon
digital printing press gave visitors the opportunity to see for themselves the product’s
outstanding properties and the results it
prod­uces.
›These product developments illustrate
beautifully the passion and deep understand­
ing of our products that we put into our
high-quality Nonwovens; this is what enables
them to fulfil the broadest range of customer
specifications‹, says Haggenmüller. A broad
product portfolio, ongoing quality management, partnership-based solutions, personal
service and reliable production – all of that
is behind the simple promise: ›Living Non­
wovens.‹ With this brand promise and the
communications policy that goes with it – of
working hand in hand with customers to develop individual solutions – Technocell Vlies
intends to focus its activities even more tightly
than before on the regions and markets of
Eastern Europe and Asia, where there is still
a great deal of potential for high-quality nonwoven wallpapers.
25
heimtextil 2 0 1 5
FOCUS ON
SUSTAINABILITY
27
F O C US O N
S US TA I NA B I L I TY
Sustainability, trust and reliability
The values of our family business
After 120 years, the Felix Schoeller Group
remains a family business. It is this long trad­
ition and continuity that have made a last­
ing impact on the Felix Schoeller Group’s
self-image and its actions. As a result, fun­
damental decisions are taken with a longterm perspective in mind and on the basis
of sound strategies.
In 2012, the company’s leadership sat down
with its employees and developed new
corpor­ate guidelines, which also describe the
com­pany’s goals and strategies. All the Felix
Schoeller Group’s employees and partners subscribe to these guidelines. In key areas they go
much further than statutory requirements and
illustrate that Felix Schoeller is a medium-sized
family business that successfully combines dynamic growth with sustainable actions.
›Long-term success is more important
to us than short-term maximisation of profit.
The company has always demonstrated this
attitude in times of crisis, including those we
have gone through in the last ten years. We
know that our employees, with their commitment and expertise, are a major factor
in the company’s success. That is why we
do everything we can to save jobs even in
difficult economic situations. We count on
our employees and make sure that they can
count on us‹, says Dr Bernhard Klofat, the
company’s CEO. ›That is also the reason that
we maintain close relationships with our social partners. The works councils are involved
as early as possible in all developments and
decisions relevant to the company. Regular
meetings with the general works council’s
different committees foster close communication and we also involve representatives of
the IG BCE trade union in that communica-
tion process. This kind of true transparency in
action leaves no room for mistrust, but uses
the culture of discussion we have developed
together as a basis for forward-looking action.
This has allowed a way of working together
that is cooperative and based on a high level
of trust.‹
The Felix Schoeller Group also sets
great store by openness, cooperation and
trust in developing partnerships with its customers, combined with sustainable mutual
growth and conservation of resources. ›It
has been our experience over 120 years that
internal and external reliability and fairness,
along with the high quality of our products,
are essential factors in ensuring our business
partners are satisfied. They are also the basis
of our success‹, says Klofat, summing up the
company’s philosophy.
FO C U S O N
28
S U S TAI N A B I LITY
Creating awareness of
the need for energy efficiency
Interview with Dr Markus Fahrentholz,
head of energy management for the Felix Schoeller Group
When it comes to energy efficiency and
an awareness of the need for careful and
economical use of scarce resources, the
Felix Schoeller Group is a forerunner
within our energy-intensive industry. By
systematic­
ally rolling out our in-house
energy campaign we are optimising our
energy use. We are achieving a significant
increase in energy efficiency and fully ex­
ploiting all the technological options for
combined heat and power generation
in order to attain high levels of efficien­
cy. This is illustrated by our investment
in a gas turbine with a waste heat recov­
ery boiler at the Titisee-Neustadt mill.
Has the company set itself any other goals
within its energy campaign?
Dr Fahrentholz: The second overarching goal
of our energy campaign is to drive forward
the expansion of our combined heat and
power generation and heat recovery systems. Titisee-Neustadt illustrates how we are
going about that specifically. We have identified our mill in Penig, near Chemnitz, as a
further site for energy optimisation. We are
also planning to invest in a gas turbine with
a waste heat recovery boiler for this mill to
enable us to use heat to generate electri­city
before it is then used for the papermaking
process.
Dr Fahrentholz, Felix Schoeller has
launched an energy campaign with the goal
of saving 2% of total energy demand each
year, based on net production in square
metres. Are you making good progress?
What benefits does the investment in the
new gas turbine with waste heat recovery
boiler have and how have you implement­
ed the project in Titisee-Neustadt?
Dr Markus Fahrentholz: We are on course
to meet our targets. Our first target – and
also our top priority – is to reduce our total en­ergy demand by 2 % each year from
the 2012 baseline. This year too we will
be measuring our energy use very carefully.
That is an ambitious goal for a specialty paper
manufacturer because we need a constant
amount of energy and water. We have been
given a budget of around one million euros
per year to cover energy-saving measures.
However, the million euros come with the
condition that we have to see a return on
investment on the funds deployed within
a time frame of one to two years at all our
sites. The projects are developed and mo­
nitored by our colleague Carsten Schmidt.
He also manages the budget.
Dr Fahrentholz: We were faced with the
challenge of changing the way our TitiseeNeu­stadt paper mill generates its own electricity and driving down the high energy costs
associated with that. To achieve a significant
increase in energy efficiency and bring our
system in line with the latest technical standards, we dismantled one of the three existing
gas boilers and installed a gas turbine with a
waste heat recovery boiler and an auxiliary
firing system instead. We had to integrate
this system into our existing company grid
without interrupting operations and combine
it with the existing steam turbine to create
a single combined gas/steam turbine. Normally one and a half to two years would be set
aside to plan that kind of investment project.
We achieved it much faster in order to get
29
DR M A RKUS FA HRE NTHO L Z
›Our target is to reduce
our total energy demand
by 2% each year.‹
it finished before the new provisions of the
Renewable Energy Act (EEG) came into
force. Otherwise we would have had to pay
the EEG levy on the electricity we generate
ourselves.
What was the total investment and what is
the payback period?
Dr Fahrentholz: The total investment was
about €4.7 million euros. We are anticipating payback within two and a half years or
less. Just the electricity savings alone will account for over one million in the initial years.
Before we made the investment, we spent
a vast amount of money on electricity from
external suppliers. We are now able to fully
meet our own energy demand. The new
boiler can supply the mill with almost all the
steam it needs. The new gas turbine has a capacity of about 4.1 MW. Above and beyond
that, we are able to feed between five and
ten per cent of the energy we generate into
the public grid.
have already installed comprehensive energy
monitoring systems at Felix Schoeller’s Osnabrück and Weissenborn sites. They make
it possible to monitor all the energy flows.
We want to use this data to generate production-specific analyses in future and draw
conclusions from them about production,
performance and energy efficiency. We are
currently in the process of extending this system to the other remaining sites.
Where is there still room for improvement?
What signal does this investment send?
With this investment, management is sending
a clear signal that it intends to keep the Titisee-Neustadt mill running and it puts the mill
in a stronger position vis-a-vis its national and
international competitors.
Does the energy campaign have any other
goals?
We will only be able to achieve our goal of
being energy-efficient and being careful with
how we use resources if our messages reach
all our employees and we involve them in
our projects. Careful use of energy has to be
everyone’s mindset. People have to actually
want to do this; it will not work if it is perceived as an obligation.
The Felix Schoeller Group is participating in the Osnabrück district’s
climate change strategy
Osnabrück understood very early on that
climate change mitigation is one of the
key challenges of our times. It happens
at regional level too and is particularly
important there. All the key players and
dialogue groups in Osnabrück itself and
the entire district very quickly reached
a consensus that improving energy
efficiency and increasing the renewables
share could only be achieved through
a concerted effort on the part of all the
regional actors from industry, academia
and the scientific community, energy
suppliers and multipliers across the entire
What can you do to involve employees?
Our third overarching goal is to increase the
transparency of the energy flows and complete our data measurement. In doing this we
are seeking to sharpen awareness of the need
to continually improve energy efficiency. We
is a contact person responsible for this in each
mill: the energy officer. This is an important
way of supporting the collaboration between
headquarters and the individual mills. All our
facilities benefit from this network.
We are working actively towards raising
awareness of energy efficiency across the
entire workforce so that it becomes part of
everyone’s way of thinking, just as broke,
capacity utilisation level and speed already
are. We want everyone to realise that we
have set targets for energy efficiency and that
everyone has to do their bit towards achieving them. We provide information in the form
of handouts and posters, for example, about
these energy targets and about what each
individual can do to help us to meet them.
Close involvement of the workforce has set
us on the right track with all our initiatives. It
is definitely worth joining in.
Osnabrück region. The Felix Schoeller
Group has supported the initiative from
We have achieved certification under
ISO 50001 across the entire group, which is
a key requirement for receiving tax refunds
or reducing the levies we have to pay. There
the very outset and Dr Fahrentholz is on
its advisory board.
Read more about it at: www.osnabrueck.de
FO C U S O N
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S U S TAI N A B I LITY
31
F E L I X S C HO E L L E R DE M O GRA P HI C S TRATE GY
Fit for demographic change
A future-proof structure to keep us
one step ahead in recruiting the best talent
E
E
01
E A N D TA K
ER
ESP
O
Working hours
tailored to the needs
of older people
NS
IBI
LIT
02
YF
OR
TH
EI
OW
The company’s
attractiveness in
the competition
for skilled workers
and managers
N AR
Schemes allowing
older employees
to gradually scale
down
RANG
EMEN
07
T
EC
SP
RE
N
TH
O
RE
AT
ILT
U
LT
04
AS
BU
CU
KS
05
Training as a
key response to
the shortage of
skilled workers
IS
T
Personnel
development
schemes suited
to older
employees
Corporate health
management
scheme
T
O
F
AL
LO
AN
A
D
EN
06
03
EA
DE
C H INDIVIDUAL BUT ALSO GIVES A G R E AT
E FU T UR
E
R TH
T S FO
FELIX SCHOELLER
DEMOGRAPHIC
S T R AT E G Y
Organisation
and design
of work /
the workplace
A MANAGEM
Overall, the Felix Schoeller Group has developed a sound structure to address the future competition for the best skilled workers
and managers. ›We know that we can count
on our employees‹, says CEO Dr Bernhard
Klofat. ›As a family business, we depend to a
particularly high degree on the people who
work here and their know-how. That is just
one reason why we care so much about their
physical and mental well-being.‹
Healthy, skilled and motivated employees identify closely with their company and
are therefore a major factor in its success.
The Felix Schoeller Group’s corporate health
management scheme takes an integrated approach. It involves both remedying health
risks and minimising risk factors – both during
the working day and after work. The aim is to
provide a safe working environment but also
to raise employees’ awareness of the need
to be health-conscious and take responsibility
for their own health and safety. The company
does a great deal in this respect, but success
is only assured if each and every employee
also takes personal responsibility.
The company has gone to great lengths
to make sure we are quite literally fit for the
the Schoeller Group. ›The structural opportunity involves making use of the demographic change and at the same time proactively
managing the risks‹, says Hans-Christoph
Gallenkamp, the Felix Schoeller Group’s
CTO. ›Taking a proactive approach to the effects of demographic change will enable us to
steer the change process ourselves and avoid
the need for the group to simply react to it
at a later date. A comprehensive assessment
and reorganisation of our central structures
and those of the individual mills will give us
the freedom we need to meet any future
challenges that the market or the competition
might throw at us.‹
The aim is to actively tackle the risks of
demographic change – a shortage of skilled
workers, an ageing workforce and rising expectations – and to develop and implement
lean processes and procedures in organisational structures with adapted skills profiles
that are fit for the future. ›The Felix Schoeller
Group’s HR structure – and therefore its HR
costs – must be able to measure up to the
paper industry’s national and international
benchmarks that are acknowledged across
the industrialised countries. The aim has to be
to improve our competiveness‹, Gallenkamp
continues. Dr Klofat, the company’s CEO, is
convinced that addressing this issue will be a
process that must involve the mill managers
and works councils. He believes the process
will last for several years but thinks that it is
very important to start addressing the issue
in good time and set the company’s course
accordingly.
AR
TIV
R
The effects of demographic change will not
bypass the Felix Schoeller Group. Today, the
average age of the company’s workforce is
43.7 and by 2020 the number of employees
over 60 will rise from the current figure
of 77 to 210. To tackle the challenges this
entails, we have developed a demographic
strategy based on seven pillars of action.
future. That includes offering extra cover under
the company’s health insurance scheme,
which employees have been able to opt for
since last summer for both themselves and
their families. We have taken out a group
insurance policy as part of our preventive
health philosophy. The basic package consists
of cover for dental prosthetics, additional sick
pay and a prevention component. As an incentive to join the scheme, Felix Schoeller
will pay employees’ premiums up to the end
of 2015. About 1,250 employees have already taken up the offer with BKV, Schoeller’s
insurance provider.
A quite different contribution to the
health management scheme is the company’s
efforts to encourage exercise. As part of this,
a bike-to-work scheme called JobRad has
been launched: employees can lease a bike
or e-bike and save on income tax by having
the payments deducted directly from their
gross salary. In this way, they get to do something positive for their health and also save
money on the purchase of a new bike. More
information about how it works can be found
at www.jobrad.org. Over 300 bikes had already been delivered to our employees by
May of this year – a huge success.
Apart from the diverse range of offers
the company has put in place this year as part
of the corporate health management scheme,
management has also developed a strategy
for the HR structure of the future and already
presented it to the mill managers and works
councils. It looks not only at the risks that are
associated with demographic change but also
at the opportunities it presents. The idea is
to grasp those opportunities to future-proof
L
MP
OY
S
EE
PR
C
OA
FO C U S O N
S U S TAI N A B I LITY
32
HE A LTH A ND S AFETY / TOP JOB
A proactive approach to health and safety
You notice them immediately – the blue,
eye-catching display boards that greet employees, customers, suppliers and visitors to
the Felix Schoeller Group’s German mills.
They show the latest accident figures. ›We
want them to raise awareness about safety
among the workforce and everyone who visits
our mills‹, explains Rüdiger Bartholomäus,
safety officer at the Osnabrück mill.
The blue boards are just one contribution among many to health and safety in the
workplace. Others include the brochures
drawing attention to safe behaviour on site
that visitors can pick up at the porters’ lodge,
further information boards around the site,
safety precautions, a special system for submitting suggestions for improvements, along
with talks and training courses.
The figures on the blue display boards
speak for themselves and are meant to be a
reminder of how quickly something can go
wrong. But they also clearly illustrate that the
number of incidents in the Felix Schoeller
Group is relatively low. ›Our accident figures
have fallen in recent years and are below the
industry average. We are proud of that and
all the measures we have put in place are
designed to make sure things stay that way‹,
says Bartholomäus.
Health and safety is an integral part of the
Felix Schoeller Group’s corporate philosophy
The Top Job award is both a
commitment and a challenge
Receiving a Top Job award – the seal of
quality awarded to medium-sized companies
in Germany in recognition of their HR policies - provided proof last year that the Felix
Schoeller Group’s employees are all in all
very happy with their company. ›This result
endorses our policies but also motivates us
to continue improving‹, says CEO Dr Bernhard Klofat. The company’s response to the
results reflects this constructive attitude.
Apart from the measures we put in place
immediately following the evaluation of the
survey, we also hired academic experts to
help us to adapt the Top Job results this year
to the current work situation and, with the
participation of our employees, made them
more specific to each area of work. The conclusions we drew and activities resulting from
this are currently being implemented.
In recent years, we launched both centralised and decentralised measures to improve the working environment. Some of
them originated in the mission statement
we developed with our workforce. For example, a management practice that attaches
great importance to cooperative and employee-oriented leadership is a firm feature
of the Felix Schoeller Group. Managers up to
shift supervisor level attend special seminars
to support them in implementing this guiding
principle.
›We are constantly seeking to improve
and optimise our internal processes. The
Top Job award can help us with that‹, says
Rainer Höcker, the company’s HR manager.
In three years’ time at the latest, the com­
pany intends to have the renowned University of St. Gallen carry out another survey.
and an important component of everyday
working life. Our stated aim is to continually
improve and further develop both technical
and organisational health and safety measures
and to improve employees’ attitude to safety.
Each year, for example, specific targets are
agreed with the production departments with
the aim of completely preventing work-related accidents and health issues wherever possible. In addition, management should set an
example of safe behaviour and at the same
time motivate people – both internally and
also in their contact with customers, suppliers
and external visitors – to follow their example
and participate actively. These measures are
having a demonstrable effect.
33
F E L I X S C HO E L L E R P HO TO AWA RD
The 2015 Felix Schoeller Photo Award
takes on a new international quality
The second international Felix Schoeller Photo Award
receives high-calibre entries from 65 countries
The 2015 Felix Schoeller Photo Award
kicked off on 1 January with new Compe­
tition Rules. One of the aims was for the
award and its five categories to target pro­
fessional photographers even more closely
and the other was to increase its interna­
tional reach still further. On 31 May – the
deadline for entries – the conclusion drawn
was decidedly positive: both aims had been
achieved.
Dr Friederike Texter, Vice President Cor­porate
Communication with the Felix Schoeller
Group, sees the direction the second Felix
Schoeller Photo Award has taken as a consequence of the company’s actions: ›We have
always stressed that we wanted the Felix
Schoeller Photo Award to honour photo­
g­
raphy of the highest quality. That is why we
took the deliberate decision to tighten up the
Competition Rules to target professional photographers more closely. We also succeeded
in recruiting the support of Germany’s two
most prestigious photographers’ associations,
BFF and DGPh, both of which have inter­
national connections. Their endorsement of
our award enabled us to attract the attention
of professional photographers worldwide.‹
1,200 entries from 65 countries
One of the outstanding results of this year’s
Felix Schoeller Photo Award is the fact that
1,200 entries have been received from 65
countries. In 2013 there were 1,300 entries from 26 countries. Entries have been
submitted from every continent in the world
except Antarctica. The countries with the
highest number of entrants are Germany,
Austria, France, USA, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, India, Italy, the Netherlands and
Poland. The high level of participation from
Asian countries – including India, China, Japan,
Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, South Korea,
Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam – must also
be rated as a particular success.
With 200 entrants this year, the percentage of emerging professional photographers
has more than doubled. They are competing
for the Felix Schoeller Photo Award’s Emer­
ging Photographer prize, which has been
provided by Phase One, the Danish manu­
facturer of high-end, open-platform, me­
dium-format cameras.
Dr Texter believes the success expressed
in these figures is the result of two actions
taken: ›It is no coincidence that the number
of countries represented in the entries more
than doubled. Along with our collaboration
with the photographers’ associations, the fact
that we stepped up our international press
campaign meant that we reached professional photographers through print and online
media. We did some research in Asia that
enabled us to establish connections to pho­­­­
tog­raphers’ communities, who gave prominent publicity to our award. Our analysis of
the award website has shown that people
from over 121 different countries accessed
the site. That is phenomenal! In the emerging photographer category we developed a
well-targeted mailing list for international universities, enabling us to make contact with numerous lecturers who encouraged their students to take part in the award. Now we are
reaping the benefits of the work we put in.‹
›We are particularly pleased about the
high percentage of »repeat customers« from
the last competition‹, Dr Texter adds. ›All the
2013 award-winners – with the exception
of the winner of the Emerging Photographer
prize – submitted entries again this year, as
did over 70% of those who were nominated
for a prize. That demonstrates that we were
able to secure the trust of professional photographers and get a lot of things right first
time round. The jury is already looking forward to viewing and selecting the entries and
the Felix Schoeller Group is looking forward
to a superb exhibition!‹
The jury will have selected the nominat­
ed and prizewinning work in the different
categories by the end of August. The awards
ceremony and exhibition opening will take
place on 27 September 2015 at Osnabrück’s
Cultural History Museum. The exhibition of
all the prizewinning and nominated entries
will run from 27 September 2015 to 17 January
2016.
felix-schoeller-photoaward.com
FO C U S O N
34
S U S TAI N A B I LITY
Going all out to achieve top performance
Felix Schoeller Group and project 1
Often it is the little things that make all
the difference between very good results
and absolute top performance. This is an
insight that the Felix Schoeller Group and
the Project 1 team share. Because both in
paper production and on the race track
the same principle applies: only those who
constantly optimise their processes and
machines, understand their craft and are
confident that the people in their team are
putting their heart and soul into striving for
perfection, will ultimately be that decisive
second faster it takes to come out a winner
or that tiny modicum better that makes
paper into premium paper.
When tuning up a racing car or optimising a paper machine, perfect teamwork,
smooth-running processes for the hi-tech
equipment and maximum precision lead to
success. And, at the end of the day, people
are the main focus – both employees and
customers. ›It is the striving for perfection
and top quality, the way of working in highly
committed teams and a high degree of customer orientation that is to be found both in
our company and at tolimit. It is a winning
mentality, as they say in the sporting world‹,
Dr Bernhard Klofat (CEO) explains. From
now on the two companies will follow the
same path. On the one hand, with its Project 1 Porsche Carrera Cup Team, tolimit is
giving the Felix Schoeller Group a platform
on which to bring customers together, forge
new contacts and facilitate mutual learning.
On the other hand, the racing team will use
the Felix Schoeller Group’s premium papers
to convey emotions – whether for its annual
calendars, autograph cards, premium photo
gifts, large-format prints, sign and display media for branding purposes or canvas media for
wall decoration for use in hospitality events at
the race track.
The start of an inspiring partnership
It all started back in 2013 when the Technocell Vlies Business Unit organised the Global
Wallcoverings Association’s (IGI) Technical
Conference. tolimit put together an individu­
ally tailored social programme that had an
inter­national focus, appealed to both the ladies
and the gentlemen, and fostered communication among the participants. A tyre-chan­
ging contest, off-road buggy driving, a Formula
One driving simulator and a glimpse behind
the scenes of the most successful team in recent years in the Porsche brand cups were all
a great hit. As was tolimit’s input at our Sales
Conference, which took place a year later in
Lohne and where it once more became clear
just how much an industrial company with
several thousand employees can learn from
a racing team. ›We realised how stimulating,
motivating and inspiring it is to be in the company of special people‹, said Dr Klofat.
›In our capacity as the official premium
paper partner to the German Olympic team
in Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016, our experience
with getting customers and business partners
to join us and get to know our products at
a range of exclusive events in a deliberately
different, highly emotional environment has
already proved very positive‹, says Florian
Murrmann, Senior Vice President Marketing.
›Our customers become immersed in our
»best performance« brand promise in a completely different way, which enables them to
develop an even better understanding of our
principles of success and fundamental beliefs
about collaboration. We are looking to work
with the project 1 team to set up another
platform around »performance« – our brand
essence – which we can use to consolidate
and develop partnerships with our customers. We have already had positive feedback
across the board about the first jointly created events and paper products and that makes
us very optimistic about the future.‹
Felix Schoeller and tolimit are a good fit.
›We only work with partners who excel in
their field. And it is very important to us to
work with people who inspire us and whom
we can inspire‹, says Hans-Bernd Kamps,
founder and CEO of tolimit.
There are plans in the pipeline for the
Felix Schoeller Group’s employees to also
participate in this partnership. Concepts outlining how they can experience tolimit’s team
spirit for themselves are currently being developed.
35
F E L I X S C HO E L L E R GRO UP A ND P RO J E C T 1
FOCUS ON
FELIX
SCHOELLER
37
I NNOVATI O N M A NA GE M E NT
The employees come up with the best ideas
Interview with Christian Wlotzka,
head of innovation management
The Felix Schoeller Group’s innovation
management strategy relies on the creativ­
ity of its employees. Since 2012, Christian
Wlotzka has been head of innovation man­
agement, which is a department within the
group’s business development function.
He outlined for us what his job involves.
Mr Wlotzka, what position does inno­
vation management have in the business
development function?
Christian Wlotzka: The business development function is concerned with systematically identifying attractive new areas of business
and translating existing ideas into commercially successful products and services. This
includes analysing search fields, establishing
and maintaining external contacts and organising the innovation process.
My job as head of innovation management involves nurturing and maximising the
potential of our employees as well as systematically managing how we generate, collect
and assess ideas.
The innovation management team is
tasked with coming up with ideas for new
products, collecting and evaluating them
and systematically managing new areas of
business. On the one hand, it is about creating conducive structures that will facilitate
the establishment and development of innovation potential and, on the other hand,
about monitor­
ing the entire innovation
process – from the birth of a new idea, its
evaluation, and ultimately its translation into
commercial­ly successful products or services.
Who do the ideas come from?
Wlotzka: Every employee is welcome to feed
in their ideas. The ideas come from employees in quite different areas of the company.
Especially valuable ideas emerge when someone is able to link their specific knowledge of
the company with a new take on a particular
aspect of it.
Many ideas are submitted through the
FIT Plus ideas management system. Some
employees also request a meeting with me
to discuss their suggestions and I am happy
to support people in fleshing out their ideas
and making them more specific. Other ideas
emerge during workshops or other activities
involving employees. We have also set up an
interdisciplinary innovation team, which is
highly motivated in developing new ideas.
What exactly is the innovation team?
Wlotzka: The innovation team is part of a
project to build a culture of innovation and
foster innovation potential in our company.
It is directed at specific target groups with
a view to intensively nurturing potential innovators, who act as local beacons in their
departments. In this way, the innovation idea
is transported into numerous organisational
units and the new network that is created facilitates better information sharing across the
departments.
The innovation team consists of 14 colleagues; it is interdisciplinary and includes
representatives from 12 different departments in the company. This diversity is an
important factor because the different angles
from which the team members view things
generate a broad spectrum of new ideas. The
first team met on average one day a month
for 18 months to take part in training courses,
discussions and workshops, with team members being released from their normal work.
A new, second innovation team is currently
being set up.
Releasing colleagues from their normal
duties creates the free time and brain space
needed to think creatively and generate in­
novative ideas. Initially, the team was introduced to methods for systematically developing creative solutions, after which they
developed many creative ideas of their own.
How do you go about looking for new
business ideas? What media and commu­
nications channels do you use to acquire
information?
Wlotzka: Face-to-face meetings are needed to generate ideas, because they allow a
creative atmosphere and dynamic process
to develop. To harness the innovation po-
FO C U S O N
F E L I X S CHOE LL E R G ROUP
CHRISTIA N WLOTZKA
38
39
I NNOVATI O N M A NA GE M E NT
tential it is very important that all the ideas
are channelled into a systematic processing
procedure. Within the innovation team, we
have developed a process we use here by
which different methods have been combined to generate ideas. Another approach
involves defining search fields and setting up
search field matrixes. These search fields are
methodically analysed and reviewed against
predefined criteria, after which the findings
are documented. We use virtually all available media to acquire information. A lot of
information is of course accessible online, but
personal contacts, joint projects, trade shows
and seminars are also valuable sources of information.
cess, giving an indication of how mature and
usable an idea is within our company. Having
generated a shortlist of ideas, we examine
them again against a raft of different essential
criteria, such as whether an idea fits into the
corporate strategy, what entry barriers there
are for the market positioning envisaged, or
how attractive the idea is likely to be to the
market. The technical implementation cri­
teria are equally important and involve checking an idea to see if it is compatible with our
competences. All ideas that meet the criteria
at this point are forwarded to the business
development department, where they are
taken through a stage-gate process.
›Releasing colleagues from their normal
duties creates the free time and brain space
needed to think creatively and generate
innovative ideas.‹
No idea gets lost!
Wlotzka: Irrespective of where it originated,
each idea goes through the same process.
There is an assessment process in which
each idea is evaluated, prioritised and docu­
mented. The multistage procedure ensures
that new information is added to the new approaches that develop throughout the pro-
What kind of experience have you
acquired to date? Have you made any
adjustments to your approach?
Wlotzka: The experience with our innovation
activities thus far has been very good. Again
and again, I am impressed by the commitment, motivation and creativity of our colleagues. We have not made any corrections
to our course, but we have introduced some
optimisation measures. We regularly con­sider
and evaluate our measures and methods to
tailor them more closely to our needs. For
example, we have realised that issue-specific,
target-group-oriented measures are the
most efficient and that direct, face-to-face
communication and a culture of openness are
extremely important.
Are there any tangible results you can
talk about?
Wlotzka: Yes, definitely. During the course
of our activities we have screened hundreds
of ideas, of which 11 have to date managed
to clear all the hurdles to gain entry into the
stage-gate process. One idea has made it
through to product maturity: it is an inkjet
sublimation paper for textile printing, based
on a microporous coating, which was showcased at this year’s FESPA trade show in Cologne under the name S-RACE and is attracting a great deal of market interest.
FO C U S O N
F E L I X S CHOE LL E R G ROUP
40
LE A N MA NA GEMENT
41
DR A NNE GRE T KNI TTE L
I am a bus driver, not a taxi driver
Interview with Dr Annegret Knittel, manager
of the QSU / Lean Management Competence Center
Lean management in the Felix Schoeller
Group has been running for three years now
with Dr Knittel at the helm. The first Lean
Champions are – as planned – now back in
line management roles. Some of them were
able to use their experience as Lean Cham­
pions as a springboard for their career:
Stefan Müller, for example, is now converting
manager in Osnabrück and Markus Schaulin
is production manager in Günzach. Let us re­
view how the scheme is progressing.
Using Lean Champions to roll out the lean
management programme proved to be very
effective. The original idea was for the Lean
Champions to rotate every three years. That
is now happening and is proving successful.
The Champions take the concept of lean management into the mills. Dr Knittel coordinates
them. One of her main concerns is to ensure
that the transfer of information between the
mills and the central functions runs on lean
management principles. Another aspect of her
job is to instigate lean management processes
in the central functions too.
A range of different tools help to
implement lean management principles
A number of methodological tools have
helped to achieve a constant rise in acceptance of lean management. One such tool that
has proved to be very useful is the ›cockpits‹.
They are situated beside the individual machines and in other areas such as the engin­
eering and logistics departments, and display
to what extent the particular process or department is meeting key parameters. At regu­
lar morning meetings involving the production, engineering and planning departments,
the foreperson or shift supervisor talks about
the key performance data. Everyone can instantly see whether the process in question is
working properly (i.e. within the parameters
set) or not. Anything unusual is discussed, and
any decisions needed can be taken immediately because everyone who can and must be
a part of the decision-making process is there
on the spot. The benefits of the cockpits are
generally recognised and they are being actively used everywhere.
As well as the cockpit, other lean man-
agement tools are now also being used, as
Dr Knittel explains: ›We use lean management tools that are relevant to us quite intensively. Kaizen workshops, for example,
can be convened by anyone who needs the
help of colleagues to solve a problem. The
Standard Work tool helps us to standardise
work processes as much as possible. This
is about making sure all work processes are
carried out safely, efficiently and in compliance with best practice. With Andon we
have the possibility of getting information in
real time – through either visual or acoustic
signals – about deviations from the standard,
enabling all our employees to use a standard
procedure for rectifying these deviations. We
also use TPM. It stands for Total Productive
Maintenance and is a lean tool for involving
all employees in maximising machine availabi­
lity.‹ But 5S is the most important element
of most lean activities. ›We have used this to
create a clean and tidy working environment
in our production units, enabling us to spot
errors very quickly, without having to waste
time looking for important tools, etc.‹, says
Dr Annegret Knittel. The task now is to maintain what has already been achieved while
con­tinuing to inject new impetus.
Constantly driving lean management
forward and injecting new impetus
Dr Knittel understands that lean management
is an ongoing process that constantly needs
new impetus to keep everyone’s levels of
motivation high. A key way of achieving this
are the lean audits that are carried out in all
the mills at the end of each year. They involve everyone in positions of responsibility
in establishing whether targets have been
achieved; each department presents the
measures it has put in place to achieve targets
and looks at how lean principles are being
practiced in their day-to-day work processes.
»We are aiming to have
integrated the optimisation
processes into everyday
routines by the end of
the year.«
Dr Knittel analyses the results and carries out
a benchmarking exercise across all the mills.
The results are communicated to everyone
and the best approaches or departments are
defined as examples of best practice. Dr Knittel then organises internal lean study visits to
these departments. ›In this way we promote
a continual transfer of know-how across the
mills. In addition, the best-practice departments can compete for the TOP lean award
at the end of the year. That is a further incentive for our employees.‹
The Felix Schoeller Group’s participation in lean study visits to other best-practice companies has also boosted motivation.
They enable participants to expand their
horizons and see how other companies do
things. They see that some things work well
or better in other companies but that they
also share the same problems. This insight
is a real motivation for employees and inspires them to come up with new ideas that
are evaluated, tracked and implemented. To
date, 156 ideas have resulted from the lean
study visits, half of which have already been
put into practice. Some are still being processed and for others a decision was taken to
not follow them up any further.
With regard to motivating her colleagues
Dr Knittel says: ›I drive a bus, not a taxi. I pick
up anyone who stands at the bus stop and
wants to get on board. But I can’t pick each
person up from home. The acceptance for
lean management is getting better, but it also
very much depends on the individual man­
ager. It really is a management issue.‹
Tours of the mills led by the mill managers or sometimes the company management have also proved to be a valuable way
of gaining on-site information about progress
with the lean management system. The tours
are popular with employees and have a positive impact on motivation.
The central functions are also practising
lean management
In March last year, lean management was
launched in the central functions with the
target of introducing cockpits and 5S there
over the course of the year. ›In the central
functions we are working on optimising between three and five core processes. The
aim is to identify and eliminate wastage in
these departments too. We are aiming to
have integrated the optimisation processes
into everyday routines by the end of the year.
A lean audit will then also be carried out for
the central functions‹, Dr Knittel explains.
Six Sigma was launched in 2014 as a
major lean management component
Six Sigma is another lean management tool.
It uses analytical and statistical methods to
identify the causes of errors, rectify them
and minimise variations in production and
business processes. In 2014, a first wave of
›Green Belts‹ was trained. The aim is to use
the Six Sigma approach across all departments in the company.
Dr Knittel sums up what has been
achieved so far: ›We have still not finished
implementing lean management principles
and we never will because it is an ongoing
process. We still have a lot of potential to tap.
But the lean study visits have shown that we
are already keeping up with the best. There
are even some areas where we are already
outperforming the best-practice partners we
have got to know on our external lean study
trips.‹
FO C U S O N
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F E L I X S CHOE LL E R G ROUP
+++ FELIX SCHOELLER NEWS +++
Out of love for high-quality sports photos
A unique photo project to match a unique tournament
Football is passion. Football is emotion.
Their misery and joy, and their passion for
photo: Paralympics champion Sebastian
And how better to record that than with
the game are completely authentic. Time
Dietz.
high-quality sports photos? The Felix
and again, I have managed to create im-
Schoeller Group shares that belief and
pressive – sometimes even award-winning
About Jürgen Fromme
recruited a renowned German sports pho-
– photos, taken at just the right moment
›Multiple-award-winning and internation-
tographer for TSG Burg Gretesch’s Scotch
and with the right focal length and angle.
ally acclaimed sports photographer‹, is how
& Soda and Friends Cup. Jürgen Fromme’s
And with a bit of luck one of my photos
the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung described
impressive photographs captured tears,
will be up there with the front runners for
him in an article in their newspaper. The
joy and passion at this unique tourna-
the 2015 sports photo of the year.‹ Maybe
person they are talking about is Jürgen
ment for the under-nines age group.
it will be a photo showing Bayern Munich’s
Fromme, who was born in 1967 in Münster.
Jürgen Fromme and the Felix Schoeller
juniors cheering for FC Köln, who went on
He worked for seven years as a photogra-
Group share a love of high-quality sports
to win the tournament. Or the boundless
pher with the Westfälische Nachrichten
photos – it doesn’t matter whether it’s at
joy of the youngsters from Juventus Turin
newspaper in his home town before he
the Olympic Games or a youth football
after winning a penalty shoot-out. Or a
moved to the Sven Simon photo agency
tournament. ›High-quality photos and
photograph taken from an unusual angle
in 1990. Two years later, he and Ralf Ibing
high-quality paper form a symbiosis that
showing football in a whole new light.
founded the sports press photo agency firo.
thrills every discerning photographer‹,
Incidentally, the medals were pre-
His work has won the sports photo of the
says Fromme. ›I am so moved and fascinat-
sented by a sportsman who also has close
year award three times, plus other national
ed each time by how emotional the kids
links to the Felix Schoeller Group and
and international prizes, and has been fea-
are. Their responses are still so genuine.
shares its love for a high-quality sports
tured in numerous exhibitions.
43
F E L I X S C HO E L L E R NE WS
FO C U S O N
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F E L I X S CHOE LL E R G ROUP
45
F E L I X S C HO E L L E R NE WS
Specialty paper for printing smart labels
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research
invites the Felix Schoeller Group to Hannover Messe
to present printed electronics
Excellence and emotion on premium paper
Successful partnership with DOSB –
looking forward to the 2016 Olympics in Rio
Photo: BMBF/Leo Seidel
From idea to application, from print-
Mat and A3ple‹, explains Dr Wolfgang
pliance along the cooling chain for highly
ed batteries to complex systems.
In a
Schmidt, head of research and develop-
sensitive medication.
number of research projects the Felix
ment in this field with the Felix Schoeller
The labels are complex systems, con-
Schoeller Group has developed high-gloss
Group. One of the positive outcomes of
sisting of a sensor, analysis logics in the
papers with good dimensional stability as
the research projects is that it has been
form of a simple circuit, a display and a
a substrate for printed electronics. And
possible to further develop the special
power supply. Everything is applied in
just recently its efforts were rewarded
qualities of our p_e:smart papers. Their
consecutive steps to the specialty paper
Visitors to the German Olympic Sports
moments and to ensure they are in the
DOSB, we are able to share with our cus-
with two-fold success. First, at this year’s
extremely smooth finish means that they
using carbon, silver and conductive poly-
Confederation’s (DOSB) website can se-
highest possible quality to reflect their
tomers and partners values such as ex-
LOPEC, the International Exhibition and
can be used as an alternative substrate for
mers, as well as zinc and manganese diox-
lect their favourite sporting moment of
importance. With a diverse range of activ-
cellence and global fair play / teamwork,
Conference for Printed Electronics in
printed electronics in applications where
ide for the integrated battery. The labels
the month. The first prize in the compe-
ities, we demonstrate – and also increase –
which are firmly rooted in our brand
Munich, the EU-funded research project
films would otherwise be used. This has
are simple to make and can be disposed of
tition consists of five poster prints of the
the relevance of paper products that have
promise »Best-Performing Papers – World-
A3ple received a best demonstrator award
paved the way for further complex and
without putting any additional strain on
winning image on premium paper. This
a special feel‹, says Florian Murrmann,
wide«‹, says Murrmann.
in the projects funded by the public sec-
exciting applications such as packaging
the environment.
monthly competition is being supported
Senior Vice President Marketing.
The Felix Schoeller Group has been
tor category. Shortly afterwards, German
that incorporates printed electrodes that
by the Felix Schoeller Group, since 2013
Customers and top athletes alike were
the official premium-paper partner of the
research minister Prof. Johanna Wanka
produce flashing lettering or smart labels
the official premium paper partner of the
already thrilled with the photo prints on
German Olympic team since mid-2013.
honoured the BatMat project by inviting
like those developed by an international
Background: paper instead of film
German Olympic team.
Felix Schoeller’s specialty papers at pho-
The next Olympics – to be held in Rio de
the eight project partners to take part in
team with members from Finland, Portu-
In printed electronics several conductive
An individual photo gift was provided
tokina 2014. Olympic heptathlon medallist
Janeiro from 5 to 21 August 2016 – will
Hannover Messe and showcase the pro-
gal, Italy, France and the Netherlands as
layers are applied consecutively, with
by Felix Schoeller for each guest at the gala
Lilli Schwarzkopf, men’s Olympic luge cham-
be the second Olympic Games at which
gress that has been made in printed nickel
part of the A3ple project. Sensors print-
each layer being heat dried, sometimes at
ceremony at which the German sportsper-
pion at Sochi, Felix Loch, and Paralympic
the specialty paper manufacturer will be
metal hydride batteries – both primary
ed onto paper measure the concentra-
high temperatures. If the surface of the
son of the year award was presented in
discus champion at the 2012 games, Sebas-
working to record unforgettable Olympic
and rechargeable.
tion of gases or temperature. They can
substrate does not have dimensional sta-
Baden-Baden in December 2014.
tian Dietz, let us use their magic moments
moments on high-quality paper and in
›Printed electronics is an interesting
be used, for example, on stickers for pro-
bility and changes as a result of the heat,
›The Olympics provide an ideal plat-
for the design of our trade show stand and
doing so creating lasting memories for our
area that offers new applications for paper.
tective clothing to help firefighters and
it could compromise the 100% accuracy
form for us to use our specialty papers to
for personal autograph-signing sessions.
customers and partners.
We are learning to further optimise our
paramedics with rescue work in burning
of fit that is absolutely essential for print-
record for posterity special unforgettable
›Thanks to the partnership with
specialty papers in projects such as Bat-
buildings or to monitor temperature com-
ed circuits to work properly.
FO C U S O N
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F E L I X S CHOE LL E R G ROUP
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S choeller Technocell GmbH & C o. KG, WE I S S E NB OR N
Congratulations
to the Weissenborn mill on being part
of the Felix Schoeller Group for 25 years!
S teve W endt
Apprentice
»I started training to be a paper technologist
with Felix Schoeller just under three years
ago. I am delighted to have had this opportunity. During my training I have learnt about
all the processes from making the paper base
through to finishing and converting. I was able
to complete my training in the summer. I enjoy
working at Schoeller. The work is varied and
interesting.«
M argit B usch
Manager of the aqueous coating department
They were turbulent times back then at the
end of the 1980s. The fall of the Berlin Wall
meant that Felix Schoeller could collaborate
with the Freiberger Papierfabrik zu Weissenborn, which was situated in the former East
Germany and was the leading supplier of photographic base paper in Eastern Europe. The
two companies had in fact been in contact for
some time but things did not become specific
until 1989 when Walter Niemeyer, at the time
head of paper production in Osnabrück, and
Hans-Michael Gallenkamp, the then CEO of
the company and now chair of the advisory
board, began talks with representatives of the
former state-owned company (VEB FZPW).
The original goal to set up a long-term collaboration culminated in the acquisition of the mill
by the Felix Schoeller Group, the West German
specialty paper manufacturer. On 1 July 1990,
the Weissenborn photographic and specialty
paper mill became the first paper mill in East
Germany to be reprivatised. Twenty-­five years
on, the mill looks back over its unique biography.
›The Weissenborn mill is a success story
that we can all be proud of, especially the
mill’s dedicated workforce. We really must
congratulate them‹, says CEO Dr Bernhard
Klofat. ›Good technical and technological
conditions and the employees’ high level of
expertise, combined with an unwavering will
to succeed, were what made the mill able
to progress as it has over the last 25 years.
It is no longer possible to imagine the Felix
Schoeller Group without Weissenborn. We
have created a solid foundation for the future
here.‹
As part of the restructuring programme,
Felix Schoeller from the very outset set itself
the goal of meeting the high quality specifications of the company’s major international
customers and of bringing the Weissenborn
mill up to the standard required by the world
photo paper market. That also included
switching from the baryta-coated papers
that were still being produced and marketed in Eastern Europe to PE-coated photo
papers. The strategic goal was to develop
Weissenborn into a fully integrated facility
for photo imaging and digital media papers.
Over 300 million was invested in the mill to
achieve this. The milestones along the way
included expanding PM 4’s capacity, building
two extrusion coaters – ET 9 and ET 10 –
building two coaters – C 5 and C 6 – as well
as investing in a high-performance full-service
slitting facility and a high-bay warehouse. All
of that makes the Weissenborn mill the most
flexible and modern fully integrated facility
for high-calibre imaging products in Europe.
With over 700 employees, 200 of them in
the slitting facility alone, the mill is the main
supplier for the Photo Imaging and Digital
Media Business Units.
›You can look back over what we have
achieved together with great self-confidence.
The Weissenborn mill is not only fully integrated into the Schoeller Group, but is also
held in high regard by our customers and
the market in general as a result of its performance, the quality of its products and its
technological standards‹, said Hans-Michael
Gallenkamp back in 2000. Fifteen years down
the road, nothing has changed about this
assessment of the Weissenborn mill.
›I have worked in the Weissenborn mill for 34 years. In 1995, I was put in charge of the coating
department, which had 24 employees at the time. During this time, we succeeded in coating
HP grades on Coater 1. Production has grown steadily since then. Key elements of this success
were internal communication and the excellent collaboration with HP. I am proud that my work
has contributed to the coating department having developed so positively. Throughout all the
changes over the years, special attention was always given to employee training. Felix Schoeller
is a family company that attaches great importance to respect for its employees.‹
M arkus F riedland
QA operative and machine operator
in the extrusion department
›What fascinates me most about the work at Felix Schoeller is the varied production environment it offers and the fact that at the end of a
project you hold a high-quality product in your
hand that you played a part in creating. That is
why the start-up of our new extruder ET 9 and
the start of the extrusion process were especially exciting moments for me within the company. People who want to use their initiative
and take responsibility for helping to shape their
work environment very quickly feel happy at
Felix Schoeller. That is what it was like for me at
least when I started my job as a QA operative,
assistant and machine operator in the extrusion
department in 2000. Since then, Schoeller has
continually progressed and developed tech­
nically. That keeps you on your toes and means
your job is never dull.‹
U lli L andherr
Electrical, instrumentation and control engineer
›I began my training in instrumentation, control
and automation technology at the Freiberger
Zellstoff- und Papierfabrik in Weissenborn in
1979. I still work there in the maintenance
team as an electrical, in­
strumentation and
control engineer. After German reunification,
the strategic restructuring carried out by the
Felix Schoeller Group helped us to continue
the mill’s success story that had begun back
in the East German days. The employees’
ener­gy and motivation was the driving force
that helped to successfully navigate the difficult
times following the collapse of East Ger­
many.‹
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F E L I X S CHOE LL E R G ROUP
S choeller Technocell GmbH & C o. KG, WE I S S E NB OR N
T eresia Palm
Mill controller
A xel B ergmann
Mechanical engineering project manager
›After completing vocational training followed
by a university degree, I started working at
Felix Schoeller. The interesting work and super­b
working environment and colleagues quickly
banished the initial reservations I had about having a long journey to work. And, in fact, those
reservations disappeared so well and truly that
I have now been with Schoeller for 20 years
and I still enjoy driving to work. My experience
of working on the project to install the IR dryer
on Coater 1 in 1997 and the new slitting facility
in1998 made a huge impression on me – both
in terms of the engineering involved and the
opportunity to work with colleagues. Those
projects presented special challenges which
we tackled as a team. Today, my job includes
mechanical maintenance of the slitting facility,
coordinating rebuild or expansion projects and
maintaining all the cranes in the mill.‹
49
M atthias G r ö S S ig
Chair of the works council
›I started working at the Weissenborn mill as a trained master electrician on 1 September 1978.
Reunification presented a major challenge both for the company and for the individual employees.
But we got through it and today we once more have a workforce of over 800 – four times as
many employees as in 1993! The upturn and the positive developments that followed are the
result of appropriate investment in new machinery and constant technical progress. Back then I
would never have expected that I would now be signing so many offers of employment. If you
ask me what were the best things that happened in these last 25 years, I would, of course, say
these phases of expansion and staff recruitment. Anyone serving on a works council would be
proud of being able to play an active part in that kind of development. The fact that we have this
opportunity here to take an active role in developing and shaping what happens is the reason that
I still enjoy my job in this company enormously. The superb way we work together in the works
council in Weissenborn and the other German mills and the relationship with management that
is based on an attitude of social partnership and fairness are also reasons that I like working at
Schoeller. It was a good day for the Weissenborn mill when the Felix Schoeller Group acquired
it 25 years ago.‹
R ico C lausnitzer
Second shift supervisor in the slitting facility
›Even when I started with Felix Schoeller as a temporary
employee, I was immediately accepted as a fully fledged
member of the team. When I started in the slitting facility in 2009, I immediately felt that I had found a secure
job with excellent prospects. And that was true. Within
a short space of time, the slitting facility was expanded to
include more machines and more employees. After I had
learnt to operate the various machines, I became second
shift supervisor in 2013. A colleague and I are now an experienced duo, supervising a team of 60 people and looking after the machines. I am looking forward to the coming
years and to an interesting future with Felix Schoeller.‹
›I was with the company right from the beginning and I am proud of that. Last year, I celebrated 25 years of service. I was kept on after
the mill was acquired by Felix Schoeller and
given the opportunity to develop my career.
After I completed my apprenticeship, I moved
to the coating department, where I implemented and drove forward the technical controlling.
I successfully completed some further training
and then returned from parental leave to manage the mill controlling department. This demanding and varied job is one of the highlights
of my working life so far, along with the expansion of the coating facility and the decision to
produce inkjet papers in Weissenborn. I enjoy
working at Felix Schoeller. Recognition of the
social dimension of work is written large here
and I value that highly. If there are problems,
the company tries to find the best solution for
everyone concerned.‹
J ens I hle
Supervisor and trainer
›I began my career in 1982 when I became an apprentice at Schoeller. Since 1990, I have been
working in the papermaking department and since 1997 I have been a supervisor on PM 4.
In addition to that, I am also responsible for training paper technologists at our mill. In the 33
years I have been with the company, there have been many changes in how paper is produced.
I am thinking of the first time we produced coloured card and all the changes through to the
development of digital media papers and release liners and the major rebuilds to PM 4 that
entailed. Looking back, I would say that this time was very interesting and varied but sometimes
strenuous too. I have always experienced Schoeller as a family-oriented company with high
social standards for its employees.‹
G erd K lemm
Papermaker
› I was a papermaker for 50 years, 25 of those with Schoeller. I am very proud of that. And I am
equally proud of the fact that I was able to pass on my knowledge of the beater room to many
colleagues. When I think back on it all now, the time just seems to have flown. Now I have retired
and the next phase of my life is about to begin. I hope it will be just as exciting as my time with
Felix Schoeller. I really enjoy thinking about how we started to build the photographic base paper
mill here back in the late 1960s. It was a fascinating time and it was unknown territory for all of us.
After German reunification, I had the opportunity to get to know the corporate philosophy of our
parent company Felix Schoeller as well as new technology and production processes. Schoeller
invested a great deal in the mill and I photographed its evolution with my analogue camera so
that it would be recorded for posterity. I am really thrilled that a lot of my photos are now in the
Weissenborn archives.‹
PA P E R R OO M 1 9 6 0 / T HE M ILL TODAY
50
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S choeller Technocell GmbH & C o. KG, WE I S S E NB OR N
Fully integrated imaging facility
The year 1998 saw the start of the transformation of the imaging paper mill in
Weissenborn into the only fully integrated
production site for imaging papers in
the world. We call it our IQ site – which
stands for integrated quality – because
all the stages of production are located
here under one roof: from production of
base paper, through all the conversion
stages to slitting and warehousing.
Facts and figures
•800 employees
•1 paper machine (PM 4)
•Annual capacity: 105,000 tonnes
•2 extruders (ET 9, ET 10)
•4 coaters (1, 2, 5 and 6)
•Coater 6: the world’s largest coater
for imaging papers
•Reflection of the entire value added process
•Full-service slitting
•High-bay warehouse, capacity:
8,850 rolls
•Goods service centre
•Specialty: imaging papers
(photo imaging and digital media)
P U B L I C AT I O N D E TA I L S
PUBLISHED BY
Felix Schoeller Holding GmbH & Co. KG
Burg Gretesch
49086 Osnabrück, Germany
www.felix-schoeller.com
EDITOR
Dr Friederike Texter, Senior Vice President
Corporate Communications
Schoeller Technocell GmbH & Co. KG
COPYEDITING
Dr Friederike Texter
Graef Advertising, Osnabrück
Kuechler Communications, Aalen
PHOTOGRAPHY
Vogelsänger Studios, Lage
Michael Dannenmann (BFF, DGPh),
Düsseldorf
Jürgen Fromme, firo sportphoto, Dülmen
CONCEPT
Graef Advertising, Osnabrück
Vogelsänger Consulting, Lage
L AYO U T / C R E AT I V E D I R E C T I O N
Vogelsänger Consulting, Lage
COVER PRINTED ON
Felix Schoeller E-PHOTO® Matt 260 g/m²
PRINTED BY
M&E Druckhaus, Belm
Felix Schoeller Holding
P. O. Box 3667
Phone +49 541 3800 – 0
[email protected]
GmbH & Co. KG
49026 Osnabrück
Fax +49 541 3800 – 425
Web www.felix-schoeller.com
Germany