An important milestone has been reached in the restructuring of Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH: JWell Machinery invests in the company and thus secures its future and unrestricted continuation of operations.
Bonn, 10.01.2024 – Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH, specializing in the development and manufacturing of extrusion blow molding systems, will be continued by JWell Machinery with effect from January 1st 2024.
All Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH and related entities have been sold to Jwell, except the Kautex Shunde entity, on which a deal is within eyesight. All material assets and the entire business operations of the mechanical engineering company have been transferred to the Chinese investor. As of January 1st 2024, the new company – Kautex Maschinenbau System GmbH – is taking over all duties of the old company. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase prices and the further terms of the restructuring.
JWell took over 132 employees of Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH and intends to keep on focusing on manufacturing production solutions at the Bonn sight, which remains the headquarter with focus on manufacturing, R&D and service.
Transfer agency installed and first adjustments in management
For those employees, not being transferred to the new company a transfer company was installed to further qualify them for new external job opportunities.This opportunity was well received and nearly all employees took this chance to make progress in their professional careers.
Kautex remains an independent operation within the JWell Group and is intended to be its Premium Brand. With the transfer into a new company and the right-sizing of the staff base, first adjustments within the management have already been executed. Julia Keller, former CFO and CHRO of Kautex left the company and was replaced by Mr. Jun Lei as CFO. Maurice Mielke, until end of December 2023 Global Director R&D at Kautex was promoted to CTO and CHRO. Paulo Gomes, former CTO of the Kautex Group decided to leave the company, effective on February 1st. Furthermore, former CIO, Robert Kubotsch, left the company.
Mr. He, president of JWell, expressed this highest appreciation for all employees for the focused and dedicated work over last month and making this deal possible. He stated that all together made his dream, which he already had some years ago, come true and to invest into Kautex and to merge Kautex and JWell to create the world market leader in extrusion blow molding.
Background: Self-administration in response to external developments
A multitude of exogenous factors forced the Kautex Maschinenbau Group to undergo a continuous global transformation process since 2019 with the aim of realignment. This was partly in response to the transformation in the automotive industry and the disruptive shift from combustion to electric engines.
The Kautex Maschinenbau Group has already successfully completed a large part of the initiated transformation process and implemented measures with positive results. A new corporate strategy has been developed and implemented globally. Furthermore, a product initiative was rolled out that enabled Kautex to establish itself directly as one of the market leaders in the new market segments of industrial packaging and future mobility solutions. Product portfolio and process know-how were successfully harmonized between the Kautex sites in Bonn, Germany and Shunde, China.
However, a number of exogenous factors have hampered and slowed down the transformation process since it began. For example, the global Covid 19 pandemic, the lockdown in China, the disruption of global supply chains and supply bottlenecks had a negative impact on the realignment. Further complicating the situation were rising prices due to inflation, political uncertainties such as Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and the shortage of skilled workers in Germany.
As a result, Kautex Maschinenbau GmbH, with its German production site in Bonn, has been in insolvency in preliminary self-administration since August 25, 2023.