Germany: Krones to bundle all brewery activities under the Steinecker roof

Krones, the world's leading manufacturer of filling and packaging technology, headquartered in Neutraubling, Germany, announced today to bundle its whole brewery business under a single roof.Beginning in April 2021, the newly founded Steinecker GmbH will offer all of the solutions and equipment required in a brewery, from raw materials reception right through to the finished product. The company’s portfolio will be supplemented by appropriate after-sales and service concepts.

Dirk Hämling will take over as Managing Director of Steinecker GmbH. He has been Head of the Breweries Business Line at the Steinecker plant at Krones AG since July 2020. Before that, he held various positions within the GEA Group for the last 15 years, most recently as Executive Vice President Application Center of the GEA Group.

"The spin-off does not mean that we are no longer part of the Krones family. On the contrary, we at Steinecker will continue to work very closely and cooperatively within the group," emphasizes Hämling. However, you get the opportunity to "work much more responsibly and with greater agility".

In 1875, Anton Steinecker founded in Freising near Munich, Germany, a company to supply the local brewing industry with brewing, filtering and storage equipment.Since 1994, Steinecker has been part of the Krones Group and in 2005, the company was totally incorporated and lost its independence. However, the name Steinecker was still used mainly for brewhouse equipment made by Krones. The spin-off of Steinecker now reverses the 15-year-old decision.

At present 450 people work at the Krones facility in Freising. Because the company remains a wholly-owned subsidiary of Krones AG, the existing employment contracts will be transferred to the new company - "including collective agreements of the trade union, existing works agreements and company pension schemes," as Krones assures.

The entire project planning and processing team, the engineering, production and erection/installation departments, plus the product development operation, will be represented at the facility in Freising. One major focus will first and foremost be on a sustainable, energy-efficient, CO2-neutral brewing process. The company’s own experimental brewing facility, the Steinecker BrewCenter, that was opened in 2018, offers a basis for developing innovations and upgrades of products used in the brewing process.

The company’s portfolio will be expanded to include two additional modules: Steinecker will also combine at one location all automation-related products and services and integrate control solutions like its own Botec F1 process control system – providing this service not only for breweries but also for clients in the dairy and beverage sectors. Furthermore, the company will offer appropriate after-sales and service concepts, precisely tailored to the requirements of process-technology systems.

Steinecker will continue to benefit from its can-do alliance with Krones, utilising the group’s international production, sales and service network with its over 100 sites located all over the world. When a beverage company will in future opt for a turnkey solution from Krones, the entire kit, comprising not only process-technology systems but also filling technology or utility solutions, will come from a single source as before.

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