Expanding stretch film manufacturer Eurofilms SA has come a long way since it launched its production plant in Olawa, Poland, in 1999.
The Warsaw, Poland-based processor has grown rapidly, adding two cast stretch film lines to triple its capacity as it expanded its customer base chiefly in Poland but also in Germany.
Today, the young company, which recently installed its second Battenfeld Gloucester Cast 2020 stretch film line at Olawa, is looking to grow through acquisition or by extending its present product range, according to President and Chief Executive Officer Grzegorz Kedzierski.
Eurofilms is capable of turning out 60 million pounds of linear low density polyethylene stretch film and more than 16 million pounds of PVC shrink film per year. The company also distributes biaxially oriented polypropylene film.
Poland's domestic market absorbs around 70 percent of the company's sales, with the remaining 30 percent going to Germany.
Eurofilms has added more than 100 customers in the past year.
``It is our philosophy to serve not just a few major customers, but to win as many new customers as possible, including small ones,'' said Kedzierski. The firm now has 580 different customers.
By 2003, Eurofilms was so successful it needed to double its capacity. At that time it was the first processor to buy a Battenfeld Cast 2020 stretch line.
With a second such line now operating and business booming, Kedzierski said the company already is considering investing in a third line.
The compact, lower-cost Cast 2020 lines are designed to produce film of about 61/2 feet to nearly 10 feet wide at speeds of up to 1,837 feet a minute.
Vienna, Austria-based Battenfeld Gloucester Europe GmbH has sold eight of the Cast 2020 production lines in Europe over the past 2½ years, according to the company's new sales director for Europe, David Finnemore.
Finnemore predicts there will be stretch film market growth in Europe of around 6 percent annually during the next few years.
Eurofilms is part of Poland's Ergis Group, a leading maker of PVC films, pellets, panels, plastic-coated textiles and vinyl wallpapers.