RKW group

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RKW SE
legal form Societas Europaea ( public company )
founding 1957
Seat Frankenthal GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Harald Biederbick (Chairman)
Roger Chantillon, Dr. Alexander Wansel
Number of employees approx. 3,000
sales 831 million euros
Branch Chemical processing industry
Website www.rkw-group.com
As of December 31, 2019

The RKW Group is a company with headquarters in Frankenthal (Germany). The company offers products in the areas of hygiene and agricultural films, films for the beverage industry and packaging for powdery goods. The company also supplies films and nonwovens for medical applications, for the chemical and processing industries, and for the construction sector. Around 3,000 employees at 19 RKW locations worldwide process 352,000 tons of plastics annually.

In 1957, Jakob Müller founded the RKW Group as Rheinische Kunststoffwerke GmbH in Worms / Germany. In 2019, the company was separated from Renolit SE as part of a reorganization of the shareholder structure . The company is owned by the founding family.

Service program

The RKW Group processes 352,000 tons of polypropylene and polyethylene per year. This results in films and nonwovens that are processed into a wide variety of products. The focus is on, for example, hygiene and medical products (e.g. baby diapers, foils for adhesive plasters), packaging for consumer goods, in particular beverage and industrial packaging (e.g. for packaging powdery goods), bags and carrier bags as well as high-tech foil products that are further processed industrially . The legally independent subsidiary RKW Agri GmbH produces films and nets for use in agriculture and in the construction sector.

Corporate development

In 1957 Jakob Müller founded Rheinische Kunststoffwerke GmbH in Worms. The aim was to concentrate on the development and production of polyethylene films and to drive them forward, while the sister company Renolit develops and produces PVC films.

RKW Petersaurach

By the mid-1960s, RKW initially expanded into northern and southern Germany with the Petersaurach and Echte locations . In 1966 the first foreign location followed with RKW Iter in Spain. At the end of the 1990s, the company began to internationalize, which continues to this day.

At the same time, RKW has repeatedly combined its international expansion with acquisitions that have expanded its know-how for special applications and technologies in the film and nonwovens sector. In 1998, the Belgian ACE SA joined the group of companies and with this company the first foreign RKW production facility for hygiene films and medical applications. RKW Sweden followed a year later and with it the own production of compounds and filled polyolefins. In addition to the acquisition of further production facilities in France and Finland as well as a sales location in the USA, RKW took over four locations of the former BP Plastics in 2002. In the period between 1998 and 2003, RKW's annual turnover has roughly quadrupled.

In the past ten years, the focus has been on expansion outside Europe, starting with the first location in the Far East. The RKW subsidiary in Vietnam has been part of the group since 2004. In 2009 the company started its first “greenfield project” and thus established its first production facility on the African continent in Egypt. In 2011, a further step in North America followed with the takeover of the US film manufacturer Danafilms, the most recent activity being the inauguration of the first location in China. The plant in Guangzhou produces films for the hygiene sector and is currently being expanded.

Another focus of the recent past was the expansion of the international presence in the field of agricultural films. In 2015 RKW took over Hyplast NV in Hoogstraten, Belgium . Two years later, the group invested millions in the product area and put new plants into operation at the Hoogstraten and Michelstadt locations. The relevant business area had previously been made legally independent within RKW Agri GmbH.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source of new packaging: https://www.neue-verpackung.de/66075/rkw-startet-nachhaltigkeitskampagne/
  2. ↑ Source EUWID wood and wood-based materials: https://www.euwid-holz.de/news/oberflaechen/einzelansicht/Artikel/neue-gesellschafterstructure-bei-renolit-und-rkw.html
  3. ↑ Source of online trade journal “plasticker”: http://plasticker.de/Kunststoff_News_21499_RKW_Hersteller_von_Kunststofffolien_und_Vliesstoffen_mit_neuem_Vertriebschef_in_Asien
  4. ↑ Source: Online journal "plasticker" http://plasticker.de/Kunststoff_News_13178_RKW_Gruppe_Folienhersteller_akquiriert_US_Folienproduzenten_Danafilms__Ausweitung_der_Praesenz_in_Nordamerika?div=&firmid=15213&start=10&anzeige=13&begriff=RKW and "Plastic Web": https://www.kunststoffweb.de/ki_ticker/RKW_Folienhersteller_expandiert_in_Nordamerika_t218195
  5. ↑ Source: Online specialist journal “Kunststoff Web”: https://www.kunststoffweb.de/ki_ticker/RKW_Folienproduzent_baut_erstes_Werk_in_China_t227983
  6. ↑ Source: Online trade journal "Plastverarbeiter": http://www.plastverarbeiter.de/17040/rkw-uebernehmen-folienmacher-biofol-film/
  7. ↑ Source: “EUWID Kunststoff” news agency: https://www.euwid-kunststoff.de/news/einzelansicht/Artikel/rkw-gruppe-investiert-hohen-millionenkosten.html/