New Customer Innovation Center, strong leadership and 70 years of innovation.
Kiefel GmbH is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year and is setting course for the future with targeted investments. Construction of the Customer Innovation Center Polymer in Freilassing is progressing and will be completed in the second quarter of 2025. At the same time, Kiefel is strengthening its management structure with the three new heads of technology, engineering and packaging and is consistently driving forward its strategic development. Kiefel’s latest machine solutions are also already enjoying initial market success.
Customer Innovation Center Polymer near completion
The new Customer Innovation Center Polymer (CIC) at Kiefel's headquarters in Freilassing specifically enhances the company's innovative strength and services in this area. Customers benefit from state-of-the-art machinery and laboratory capacities for the development and optimization of packaging solutions. Completion of this technology center is scheduled for the second quarter of 2025, and customers are already utilising the facilities to drive their projects to success.
The Customer Innovation Center gives customers access to the latest series machines from the Kiefel portfolio, which can be used for tool and product sampling as well as customer-oriented prototyping. The range of services is rounded off by specialized laboratory facilities that enable microscopic examinations, material and layer thickness measurements, punching force measurements and statistical analyses, and much more.
“We have stood for technological excellence for 70 years – by investing in another CIC, we are creating a first-class development environment, enabling us to bring innovations to market even faster,” explains Matt Sieverding, CEO of Kiefel GmbH.
Strengthening technological competence and management structures
Kiefel is also setting the course for the future with the appointment of new heads of division for technology, engineering and packaging in February.
- Sven Engelmann, Vice President Technology, is responsible for the Customer Innovation Center and the overall technological development of Kiefel's product portfolio.
- Bengt Schmidt, Vice President Packaging, will strategically develop the packaging division and continue to build up the global sales organization in this area.
- Dr. Bernd Stein, Vice President Engineering, is responsible for the implementation of efficient development processes and the continuous optimization of machine and tool solutions.
“With these reinforcements in our management team, we have gained very experienced players from the packaging and plastics industry with whom we can grow,” adds Sieverding. “The implemented investments and various strategic decisions made as part of our ‘ONE Kiefel’ future strategy are already showing success on the market, which is reflected by our order intake.”
Positive market response to new machine solutions
The machines presented at the Packaging Dialogue Days at the end of 2024 are in great demand. A current example is the successful installation of several of the new NATUREFORMER KFT 90.1 for a customer in France, where they enable efficient production of natural fiber packaging. There is also positive news in the area of tilting machines: The latest KTR 6.2 offers improved performance and is already being installed at the first customer sites.
Kiefel will present these and other innovations live at the leading K 2025 trade fair in Düsseldorf this October.
