Schmalbach-Lubeca

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Former factory building, 2008

The Schmalbach-Lubeca AG was a traditional company of the packaging industry, its predecessor company in 1898 in Braunschweig (Schmalbach) and 1901 in Lübeck were established (Lubeca). One part merged into Impress BV in 1997 , other parts were sold. Beverage cans have been manufactured under the Ball Packaging Europe name since 2003 .

history

Schmalbach

Andreas Schmalbauch with the family name "Schmalbach", which was only changed posthumously in 1913 .

In 1898 Johann Andreas Schmalbauch (* 1851; † 1904) founded a tin goods factory for the production of a new type of tin for the preservation of asparagus , which was grown in the northern area around Braunschweig . The name change to Schmalbach, which the company founder applied for while he was still alive, was only recognized by the authorities after his death and thus became effective and then also applied to the company and its descendants. The reason for the name change was the fear that the name narrow-bellied could be detrimental to business for a company that also produces cans for food, among other things. The First World War increased the workforce to 500. At the beginning of the 1920s there was an industry crisis from which Schmalbach emerged stronger. In 1929 Schmalbach employed 3,000 people in eleven factories across Germany.

In 1935, the American Continental Can Company took a stake in JASmalbach Blechwarenwerke, and in 1937 the company presented the first beverage can in Germany: a bottle-like can with a conical lid and an opening closed by a crown cap , which was the then largest US brewery Schlitz Developed in 1935. However, this beer can is not yet on the market, as metals will soon be given preference to the armaments industry. In 1939 Schmalbach introduced the first welded tin cans made from black sheet metal (Sila cans) .

After the end of the Second World War , Schmalbach registered a patent for the first aerosol can in 1949 and in 1951 was the first manufacturer on the German market to start producing beverage cans for beer, this time with simpler cans made of three parts (bottom, body and lid) renounced the crown cap. They were initially made from black plate. In 1963, the ring-pull closure for beverage cans was introduced. In 1966 Schmalbach AG had 11,000 employees in 22 plants.

Schmalbach-Lubeca

In 1967 Schmalbach AG merged with Lubeca-Werke GmbH in Lübeck to form Schmalbach-Lubeca-Werke AG, which was then Europe's largest packaging group. This new group was z. B. located in Lübeck's Glashüttenweg with several production facilities. The Lubeca-Werke GmbH , was a packaging and weapons manufacturer. In 1969 the American Continental Can Company took over the majority of the shares. In 1973, the ironed, two-part beverage can was developed, in which the base and body consisted of one piece. Group sales doubled from 1969 to 1989, but the number of employees was halved to around 7,000. In 1985 there were only 1,370 employees in Braunschweig. In 1991 VIAG AG took over 51.4% of the shares in Schmalbach-Lubeca AG, which was split up in 1997.

The Schmalbach-Lubeca AG focused on the core business areas of beverage cans, White Cap closures and PET packaging. It took over the global PET activities of Johnson Controls Inc. and sold the metal packaging and rigid plastic packaging businesses. In 2000, AV Packaging GmbH (a joint venture between Allianz Capital Partners and VIAG's successor E.ON AG ) took over 97.3% of the shares. In 2002, the minority shareholders were compensated as part of a squeeze-out .

Ball packaging

In 2002 Schmalbach-Lubeca AG sold its business areas of PET packaging and white cap closures to the Australian company Amcor Ltd. and the remaining beverage cans business was taken over by the American Ball Corporation , making it the world's largest beverage can manufacturer.

Since April 1, 2003, the traditional company has been called Ball Packaging Europe . The head office (Headquarters) today in Zurich in Switzerland and was until mid-2012 in the German Ratingen housed. Today, lids for beverage cans are manufactured in Braunschweig, the “birthplace”.

Impress BV

In 1997, the Group's metal packaging business (cans for food and chemical / technical filling goods) merged with that of the French company Pechiney to form Impress Group BV under a holding company with private equity company Doughty Hanson & Co as the investor. Impress was one of the world market leaders in the metal end-user packaging sector. The company was the largest supplier of: fish and seafood cans (worldwide), aerosol cans (Europe and Australasia) and metal containers for paints, varnishes and coatings (Europe). Impress was also the second largest supplier of heat-processed canned food in Europe and Australasia. The main office of Impress was in Deventer, the Netherlands, the headquarters with the seat of the management in Paris (Clichy). Global sales in 2009 totaled around € 1.8 billion. The company employs around 7,600 people at 57 locations in 22 countries in Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Seychelles, Morocco and Korea. Impress BV was sold by Doughty Hanson & Co to the Ardagh Group in 2010 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 527 .
  2. ^ Directory of north German armaments factories with forced labor camps, entry: Lübeck, Lubeca Werke GmbH, Curt-Helm-Str. 17, handguns, weapons up to 2 cm, etc. on gegenwind.info
  3. ↑ Packaging in the 3rd Millennium , p. 34. (PDF; 1.1 MB)
  4. ↑ Formerly impressgroup.com on ardaghgroup.com
  5. ↑ Ardagh Glass takes over the Impress Group The new, expanded group will operate under the name Ardagh Group ( Memento of September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on interpack.com