Featured Articles
UK arm of German container manufacturer achieves turnover three times target - 07/04/2008
The UK subsidiary of a Baden-based business has reached an annual turnover of 3.5 million euros in its first five years, three times its original target.
Moeschle UK, a subsidiary of Moeschle GmbH, based in the Yorkshire city of Sheffield, in northern England, now handles around 10 per cent of the business of the multinational group, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of stainless steel special tanks and containers.
The UK subsidiary has now supplied more than 2,000 storage vessels, some as large as 4m in diameter and 20m long, to blue-chip customers in the food, beverage and light chemical industries.
Moeschle UK has benefited in particular from domestic tax breaks for breweries producing less than 60,000 hectolitres of cask-conditioned beer, introduced in 2002. These mean many such organisations, which previously had to rely on second hand equipment, can now buy the type of product Moeschle supplies new.
Since 2005, the company has provided storage vessels and brewhouse systems to nine microbreweries - Yorkshire has more organisations of this kind than any other region in the UK.
Moeschle UK, which employs three people directly and several contractors indirectly, manages the design, delivery and, if required, installation of products to a client’s exact requirements. The vessels are manufactured in a modern, fully automated Baden facility, which helps Moeschle avoid delays that frequently result from outsourcing some of the manufacturing process.
Andrew Wall, managing director, Moeschle UK, said: “One reason for our success is we’re highly specialized in what we do and have the benefit of many years’ product refinement and optimization work. Another is that there isn’t a company in the UK which can match our manufacturing facilities back in Germany.
“Our factory has its own dish spinning machine and cone forming tools, for example. As far as I know, no-one else makes their own dishes and cones. These are design details that take into account weight and pressure of the container’s content, in the case of dishes, and the extent to which the liquid resists the tendency to flow, in that of cones.
“We’re now looking to increase market share in areas where we’re not strong at the moment – dairy, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics – and where there’s potential for expansion. We’re also actively seeking out new customers in the Republic of Ireland, which is only 100 km across the sea from the UK.”
Founded in 1970, Moeschle GmbH pioneered the manufacture of stainless steel vessels for the wine industry in Germany, France and Austria. At that time, the use of this material for hygienic storage products was in its infancy, and the company gained a reputation for innovation and high-performance production technology.
The group now employs 135 people and, in addition to its Baden and Sheffield sites, has a manufacturing facility in Poland, mainly producing for Eastern European markets. The group’s turnover in the last full financial year was just over 30 million euros.
Mr Wall had dealt with Moeschle in Germany for a number of years in a previous job, before recognizing a market for a UK subsidiary of the group. With the help of accountants PKF in Sheffield and Barclays Bank in nearby Leeds, he set up an office in the former location during September 2002.
Explaining the benefits of the location, Mr Wall said: “Moeschle had a long-standing connection with Sheffield, as the bulk of its material came originally from the city’s world-renowned stainless steel industry.
“Now Sheffield is an excellent base for our UK arm. It occupies a central position in the country and there are good motorways, which make it possible to get an abnormal load literally to either end of Britain fairly easily.
“Another important benefit is the relatively low cost of living in Yorkshire. We need to run a lean and low-cost business, as engineering is such a competitive area. If we were based in south-east England, for example, our overheads would be much higher and our profit margins smaller.”
Statistics provided by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward show more than 30 German companies have invested significantly in the area during the last decade, creating or securing more than 4,500 jobs. Although the amounts invested have only been disclosed in about half the cases, Yorkshire Forward believes the aggregate amount involved to have been around €938m.
Among the top German companies to have put substantial money into the region during the period were Hamburg-based world market leading mail order distributor Otto Group, Freudenberg Nonwovens, Bonn-based confectionary giant Haribo, healthcare specialists B Braun, and Budenhiem-based plastic closure and dispenser suppliers Bericap Group.
Tom Riordan, chief executive of Yorkshire Forward, said: “It’s excellent to know Moeschle UK are succeeding so handsomely. The group is among a growing number of German companies which are benefiting greatly from investing in the Yorkshire region and I wish them continued success in their operations here.”
