Amerang, Germany-based plastic crates, storage containers and pallets molder Auer Packaging GmbH is continuing to grow.
Founded as a Bavarian family-owned and -run company in 1985, Auer has five production locations in Germany, with the most recent investment at its 50,000-square-meter headquarters site in Amerang.
Auer had previously been a part-occupier of a technology park but acquired the entire park and buildings on the site that were no longer required by an electronics company in 2014.
The first eight injection molding machines were installed in the first production hall at the Amerang technology park site in May 2015, and since 2016 those have been dedicated to in-mold labeled tubs in different shapes and sizes produced in clean room conditions.
Production in the second hall started in 2016 with 14 injection molding machines, enabling Auer to cope better with peaks in demand. Each of these machines can produce 500,000 containers per year, for an additional capacity of 7 million containers per year.
A third hall will finally bring Auer to its long-term aim of running a total of 35 injection molding machines in Amerang, all supported by a fully automated logistics center. Auer presently produces 35 million plastics containers per year and says investment in the use of robots and image processing cameras will contribute to continuing the trend increasing sales.
Auer Packaging reported 2016 sales of 85.5 million euros, up around 5 percent over 2015.
Customers include auto companies Volkswagen, Audi and BMW; electrical/electronics products producer Robert Bosch; automotive parts supplier Schaeffler; and truck producer MAN.
Company founder and CEO Robert Auer said of the 2016 growth, "The expansion of our production capacity at the company location in Amerang represents an important milestone for our further growth." He has also recently stated the Auer packing philosophy: "Beginnings must be created with courage, pursued with ambition and enriched by chance."
A particular 2017 highlight has been the receipt of two iF Design product design awards in March. These were for multicompartment assortment boxes in ABS with transparent click-closing polycarbonate covers and a stackable toolbox system available in two sizes and molded in ABS.
At Fakuma, the company will display a 120x100x100 millimeter single-piece high density polyethylene container, which could only have been produced on an extremely large molding machine and a smooth-surface HDPE clean room pallet supporting a large weight, labeled "1,500 kilograms."