Groundbreaking ceremony for extensive plant expansion - DS Smith invests 34 million euros at Arenshausen site
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DS Smith, the leading supplier of sustainable, fiber-based packaging, has held a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of extensive capacity expansions and modernizations at its production site for recyclable packaging solutions in Arenshausen, Thuringia. The construction measures are part of the investment package announced by DS Smith at the end of last year totaling almost 120 million euros, which will be invested at the three sites in Arenshausen, Arnstadt and Nördlingen, primarily in capacity expansions and modernizations as well as improvements to the carbon footprint.
"With the groundbreaking ceremony, construction work will first begin in Arenshausen for the expansion of the production halls, before the machinery will then be expanded to include new processing machines in the areas of stamping and bonding technology. Once all the expansion measures have been completed, the plant's total capacity will be increased by over 50 million square meters of corrugated board per year. In addition to capacity expansions, the focus of the investments will be on increasing efficiency by further developing the level of automation in production," explains Holger Erben, Site Manager Arenshausen plant.
"We are extremely pleased to be able to start expanding our site and to meet our customers' increasing demand for recyclable product and shipping packaging. For decades, we have specialized in sustainable packaging solutions - more than 80% of the papers we process in Arenshausen are testliner papers, which means they are made entirely from recycled material. With currently approx. 270 employees, we are one of the largest employers in the region and can significantly strengthen the future viability of the Arenshausen site through the far-reaching mill expansion. The expansion of our production capacity will also create around 30 new jobs at our plant, which will be one of the most modern packaging plants in Germany once the construction work is completed," explains Jürgen Prinz, Cluster Director Conventional North, at DS Smith.
"The investments and modernizations at our Arenshausen site will enable us to further increase our performance and service to our customers and also support them in achieving ambitious sustainability goals, as the plant expansion will enable us to improve the energy efficiency of our plant in line with our sustainability strategy "Now. And Future." sustainability strategy, we will significantly increase the energy efficiency of our plant and improve our carbon footprint by 2,000 tons per year," concludes Uwe Väth, Managing Director Germany & Switzerland.
