ILLIG is on Course for Success!

Heilbronn, July 5, 2021. – The restructuring at ILLIG Maschinenbau in Heilbronn has shown results, and operational turnaround is in sight. After almost three years in a difficult market environment with reduced order volumes, the company can now look to the future with confidence during its anniversary year. The family-owned company’s thorough restructuring initiative succeeded in roughly halving losses from 2020 and is set to bring the company back to a profitable operational position by the end of 2021. The difficult situation, which had already begun making itself apparent over the course of 2019, was caused by customer-side investment reluctance worldwide. Politically motivated trade disputes, global discussions about plastic and packaging fueled by negativity, and the far-reaching effects of Covid-related lockdowns across the globe with severe disruptions in all logistics chains have created pervasive uncertainty.

Economic normality began to make a return after the first half of 2021. Mechanical engineering is starting to see rising numbers of orders again. Nevertheless, this is a clear signal to remain firm in pursuing restructuring measures to address the clearly defined challenges stemming from global market uncertainty, ongoing critical discussions of plastic and packaging, and the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking action early – With careful planning and determination

“We reacted to the situation early on, and at the beginning of 2020 we had already taken initial measures to compensate for declining sales and profit,” explains ILLIG CEO Carsten Strenger. “ILLIG is, and will remain, an outstanding mid-size mechanical engineering company with an exceptional team of skilled professionals who will continue developing groundbreaking technological solutions for our customers. The measures we initiated last year are now showing positive effects in 2021. We are more responsive to the markets and are now much closer to our customers. We will continue pursuing these goals. What still counts is to respond to customer demands emerging from global market realities with high flexibility and a strategic focus.”

ILLIG develops the customer-oriented solutions of tomorrow

With Circular Thinking, ILLIG supports the concept of the cyclical economy and pursues clearly defined sustainability goals: reducing, reusing, sorting, recycling and renewing. ILLIG tool, production and packaging systems are flexible on the material side. They use process-safe biodegradable plastics, recycled goods, plastic-cardboard combinations or post-consumer films, even including 100% cardboard applications. “ILLIG offers a comprehensive, mature and modular machine and tool program for producing virtually all types of sustainable packaging required today. Our service portfolio is fully centered on our customers’ needs. Thanks to this approach, as well as to the expertise we have acquired in the 75 years of our company’s history, we will remain committed to the ongoing development of these diversely usable technologies in the future as well,” remarks Carsten Strenger with full confidence in the next 75 years. “The next major development from our company is the industrial manufacture of packaging made from thermoformable paper using existing ILLIG production systems – another sustainable solution from the leader in innovation, and fully in line with current sustainability strategies in target countries.”