PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2016

CAPPING / CLOSURES 30 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 05/16 www.petpla.net Interview with Dipl.-Ing. Christian Krautkrämer, Managing Partner, Bericap Think global, work local by Alexander Büchler Hardly any other company in the closure cap industry works locally to such an extent without neglecting its global com- pany philosophy. We spoke with Christian Krautkrämer about rhinos, injection moulding machines, right weight, family, local markets and of course closures. A. Büchler: Mr Krautkrämer, here in Budenheim close to your headquar- ters, the 20 million year old “Buden- heim Rhino“ was unearthed. Accord- ing to Wikipedia, the “Rhino family“ is one of the most diverse and success- ful mammal species. Do I see an anal- ogy to Bericap here? C. Krautkrämer: When I think about rhinos, I can only say that they are extinct in today’s Budenheim and I therefore don’t see any reference to a successful family saga. A. Büchler: How have your father Günter Krautkrämer, your brother Alexander Krautkrämer and yourself structured the management of the company? C. Krautkrämer: First we are not alone. We have also non-family mem- bers running Bericap group. Respon- sibilities are split between members of the management team according group functions like marketing, pro- duction, finances, quality assurance, etc. and geographical responsibilities. Far more important than the division of labour within the family and the entire management team is surely the structure of Bericap. We support local decentralised management which are supported by group functions. A. Büchler: This means that many decisions are taken directly on site? C. Krautkrämer: At each site, we have local management which speaks the local language, knows the market and acts independently to a large extent – but always within group guidelines. The local management is responsible for their market and has to act accordingly. We have clearly defined short communication lines to keep the decision making fast. A. Büchler: What then creates the characteristic Bericap flair, if all facilities are managed in such an individual way? C. Krautkrämer: Local manage- ment has to act like if it was their own company, act like entrepreneurs. This keeps teams motivated and allows to react fast and flexible. Our people will do the best for the customer. Nevertheless we have defined Best practices and group key performance indicators (kpis) to keep the group developing in one direction. For exam- ple we measure group wide energy efficiency as a figure of Kwh/kg of material. In this way we can guar- antee our customers worldwide the same products and same services at best quality, but also adapt to regional peculiarities. A. Büchler: How do the company figures look like? C. Krautkrämer: In 2015 group revenue was €750m for 76bn screw caps. Altogether we employ 3,300 workers worldwide at 23 production sites. A. Büchler: With that, you are just below the score that your father predicted in the PETplanet Insider Interview in 2006. He foresaw a €1bn revenue target for 2016. C. Krautkrämer: If closures had still the same weight as 2006, we had passed the revenue of 1bln EUR. But revenue is only a figure, profitability, productivity and quality count. A. Büchler: Let’s stay with the family. In the same interview, he said: “Caps are central to my life”. How is that with you? C. Krautkrämer: I can’t escape my fascination of closures either. When I was only 14 years old, I was already going in and out of the Buden- heim facility here. I have worked in many Bericap facilities worldwide and at night at home, closures remain the topic of conversation. As such, I can only concur with that. A. Büchler: The main cost factor for closures is the material. The developments for light weight closures clearly save material. Is the HexaLite “Correct weight” is a trend today, weight reduction was yesterday”, Christian Kraut- krämer on today’s development of closures.