Even in Guben they’d probably sweep up a single one of these little colourless pellets without a second thought. But in the right quantity and the right combination, the granulate of UNYLON Polymers AG is a high-value pre-product for a huge range of plastics and all kinds of textiles. Better known as nylon, this versatile material can do far more than its most famous use for ladies stockings suggests. From carpet fibre to athletic gear to plastics for the automotive industry, new applications are constantly being discovered. Small wonder then that polymer is a market with an unusually high growth rate. UNYLON Polymers in Guben manufactures Polyamid 6 granulate in a range of different viscous grades.
With this kind of commodity business success is not fine art – the difficulty is finding backers who will believe in you. The angels here came in the form of the Hamburg UNYLON AG, an investment company specialised in plastics and chemicals. In a two phase operation the company acquired a total holding of the enterprise and its production plant, known as Guben I + II.
The overall investment of around € 16.5 million keyed in by the Hanseatic merchants since 2002 is a sign of the confidence they have in the experience and expertise of the local workforce. Guben boasts a proud 45 year old tradition in the manufacturing of chemicals. Two thirds of the workforce have been with the company for more than 20 years. To date the plant employs around 50 people. But UNYLON Polymers manager Gerd Trommer sees room for further growth: “The site offers opportunities for expansion, including land for further production facilities. What’s more, the town itself warmly welcomes investment in the chemical industry which is certainly not the case everywhere in Germany.”
Gerd Trommer and his colleagues have already realised their major goal. UNYLON Polymers AG has succeeded in securing the future of the Guben production plant. A decisive factor in securing that future was financial support from the European Union with European Regional Development Fund financing to the tune of € 783,000 Euro phased over three years. Marcus Ernst, CEO of the Hamburg parent company UNYLON AG acknowledges the vital role played by EU assistance, “When we made our investment ERDF support played a major role in getting the project off the ground.”
Another key advantage was geographical closeness to the east European neighbours since Poland and other eastern European countries are the main suppliers of the raw materials used to make nylon. Other companies have production plants in Guben too, like LAUFARON which turns UNYLON granulate into fine nylon fibre. And an Italian polypropylene spinning company has recently set up a production works in Guben. With this kind of input Guben is gradually turning into a SME enterprise centre to rival Leuna. It’s already a town that never sleeps as production on the 18, 000 m2 of the UNYLON Polymers plant is organised in four shifts working round the clock 365 days a year. By now it’s the main plank of the local chemical industry with an annual output of up to 48,000 tonnes of granulate. And production is on the up and up. That’s an amount of granulate nobody can simply sweep away!
Gerd Trommer
Marcus Ernst
