NÖN: On May 29th of this year, American parent company Worthington Enterprises Inc. Norway’s Hexagon Composites announced the establishment of a joint venture with ASA. Were there any changes in the management team at the Kienberg plant as a result?
Timo Snoren: The joint venture includes our Kienberg site Worthington Cylinders GmbH and our two subsidiaries Worthington Industries Poland in Słupsk and PTEC Pressure Technology GmbH in Burscheid, Germany and operates under the name “Sustainable Energy Solutions”. I have led the joint venture since its inception as CEO and report to an eight-member supervisory board, which includes two owner representatives, Hexagon Composite ASA and Worthington Enterprises Inc., and three working group members in Austria. The Supervisory Board is chaired by an independent chairman.
How are the shares of Worthington Cylinders GmbH currently distributed?
Cords: The shares of Worthington Cylinders GmbH are distributed to the extent of 49% in the American conglomerate Worthington Enterprises Inc., and 49% of the shares went to the Norwegian group Hexagon Composites ASA and 2 percent to the management team at Kienberg. I and my management team together with Franz Buescher, Managing Director and Head of Human Resources at our steelworks, as well as Finance Director Sandra Cole and Christian Rausch, Managing Director of our joint business, solutions and systems with mixed bottling.
Gabriele Zeilerbauer, director of sales and sustainability, has left the company, is there already a successor?
cords: Peter Madengruber (Sales Director D1) took over the management of the sales department for the steel bottle area. Responsibility for joint sales lies with Radiša Nunić (Director of Joint Sales). I took over the sustainability department.
What impact does the joint venture with Hexagon Composites have on the Kienberg/Gaming location in all aspects?
cords: By establishing a joint venture, we have gained strength. The resulting partnership combines knowledge, talent and technologies, giving us an enormous expertise in the growing hydrogen market. This will bring us many advantages in the steel bottle market. Partners Worthington Enterprises Inc. And we are in close contact with representatives of Hexagon Composites ASA. We discuss and design our future business strategy. We benefit from our vast knowledge of the steel bottle market and the knowledge of the composite bottle market that we have acquired in recent years. Until the strategy is finalized and approved, Sustainable Energy Solutions with its parent company Worthington Cylinders GmbH will appear in the market as a competitor to the Hexagon Group. There will be no immediate impact on the Kienberg location.
Based in Kienberg, Worthington Cylinders GmbH is part of the American conglomerate Worthington Industries and is one of Europe’s two market leaders in the manufacture of seamless high-pressure steel cylinders.
Photo:
Worthington
