Erema: Sales Drop, but Investment Continues

In a market environment that faces economic uncertainty, the Erema Group maintains its position as a leading provider of plastics recycling solutions. The Group's installed systems and components enabled the recycling of around 26 million tonnes of plastic waste worldwide during the financial year 2024-2025, which closed at the end of March with a revenue of 330 million euros. Economic and geopolitical uncertainty around the world continues to present challenges for the plastics recycling industry. Despite a decline in sales of around 13% compared to the previous year, the Erema Group has maintained stability and set an important strategic course for the future based on its strong market presence.

The technologies and solutions offered by the companies in the Erema Group mean that it covers the entire value chain of mechanical plastics recycling.  While the European market has been subdued, the Group experienced positive momentum in North America and Asia. Regulations such as the PPWR (packaging and packaging waste directive), which has come into force in the EU, also give a positive outlook in Europe, provided that competitiveness can increase again.

Recently, the Erema Group has noticed a reluctance to invest in the polyolefins post-consumer segment. On the other hand, demand for recycling solutions for production waste and bottle-to-bottle applications has remained stable. There is a clear trend towards implementing larger-scale machines in both the PET and PO sectors. The increasing industrialisation of these sectors requires solutions that are cost-effective and can be easily adapted to meet demand. The joint venture with Lindner Washtech has proven to be an important development in providing efficient overall solutions along the value chain.

The ongoing growth of plastics recycling can be seen not only in the established segments, but also increasingly in newer application segments involving chemical recycling, and fibre and textile recycling. Erema started up its first large-scale extruders for chemical recycling during the 2024-2025 financial year. The development of fibre-to-fibre recycling also looks very promising. At the end of the 2024-2025 financial year, the Erema Group completed a comprehensive investment programme spanning the last five years with a volume of 145 million euros. Erema has also strengthened its international sales structure by appointing Christoph Wöss as Global Sales Director in April. In future, the strategic focus will be aligned even more closely with the specifics of regional demand as well as market and customer requirements.