Michael Mehnert appointed new Managing Director in the BEKUM Group
Berlin (Germany) / Traismauer (Austria), 29 September 2016: BEKUM is paving the way for a new generation in the BEKUM Group. The family company, managed by its owners for over 55 years, is known throughout the world as a pioneering and technological leader in the blow-moulding industry with high quality standards.
Dipl.-Ing. Michael Mehnert (34), youngest son of the company’s founder Gottfried Mehnert, joined the family company in various functions after successfully studying mechanical engineering in Aachen. In spring 2016, Michael Mehnert was appointed Managing Director of BEKUM Maschinenfabrik Traismauer GesmbH (A-3133 Traismauer; www.bekum.com), with the aim of supporting the long-standing Managing Director Dipl.-Ing. MBA Johannes Schwarz in the management and development of the company.
A new generation to secure the future
Michael Mehnert recently assumed company shares of the BEKUM Group, so that he now functions as shareholder, beside Gottfried Mehnert, thus allowing the company to remain fully in family ownership. Gottfried Mehnert founded BEKUM 55 years ago and has built up the company group. His inventions (such as ring surface calibration, dual machines, advances in co-extrusion) have crucially shaped the extrusion blowing industry and are currently used in almost all blow-moulded articles in the world, for which he received numerous awards (including the Federal Cross of Merit, Plastics Hall-of- Fame Lifetime Award). The new generation in the BEKUM Group was introduced with the share transfer to Michael Mehnert, who would like to preserve the qualities of the company while also setting new directions: “Our common cause is to lead our medium-size family business and its more than 300 employees into a successful future. At the same time, our production relocation to Traismauer was an important step in making BEKUM even more competitive. Other steps will follow as we continue to invest in the company and in innovations. I see it as my job to conserve the qualities of BEKUM while simultaneously bringing fresh momentum to the company.”
K 2016: Retrospective and outlook
This year’s exhibition stand at the K2016 in Hall 14 C03 will also present the company within the context of the new generation. Thus in exhibiting the BA90 from 1958, we are showing one of the first extrusion blowing machines to be constructed by Gottfried Mehnert. It represents the history, tradition and continuity of the company. Next to it, the EBLOW 37 reveals a step into the future. Here BEKUM is deliberately choosing another path with the innovative closing system, so as to achieve better handling, higher energy efficiency, but above all advantages in the processing method for various plastics.
