The relentless battle for market share in German packaging licensing continues with a UK heavyweight entering the market: Reconomy (Telford; www.reconomy.com) has signed an agreement to acquire Germany’s Noventiz Group (Cologne; www.noventiz.de), a waste management company and service provider in the licensing business since 2007. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of November 2020, subject to approval by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office. No financial details about the deal were released. The Noventiz Group has annual sales of around EUR 38m and over 60 employees in Germany and Europe.

The company’s Noventiz Dual unit has been conducting household collection and recycling since the January 2017 as part of Germany’s “Duales System”, which is now approved across the country. According to the authority responsible for tracking packaging, the Zentrale Stelle Verpackungsregister (ZSVR, Osnabrück / Germany; www.verpackungsregister.org), Noventiz Dual’s market share for the light packaging segment across the country in the fourth quarter of 2020 will be 8-9%, depending on the state.

Noventiz CEO Dirk Boxhammer said, “We are certain that we will strengthen our position in the German market [with the sale] and, in cooperation with our British colleagues, we will offer our customers pan-European solutions for the involvement of sales packaging and electrical appliances and batteries.” Competing environmental service provider Interseroh (Cologne; www.interseroh.com) recently announced a focus on Europe-wide disposal services. Increased competition is also to be expected from the re-entry into the Duales System by compatriot recycling service provider Remondis (Lünen; www.remondis.de).

Reconomy, which claims to be the leading provider of disposal and take-back solutions in the UK, has also included the recycler and disposal company Valpak (Stratford-upon-Avon / UK; www.valpak.co.uk) since December 2018. The operator of the largest and longest-running packaging return system in the UK sees the acquisition of the Noventiz Group as the first step toward internationalisation. Reconomy CEO Paul Cox said, “Our vision is to offer environmental services to customers worldwide.” Noventiz’s competence in and knowledge of the German market is expected to allow Reconomy to build on the success and experience it has gained with take-back and compliance solutions.