Ikea parent company invests in NGR recycling equipment

Ingka Group, which operates the Swedish Ikea home furnishing retail stores, has taken a minority share interest of 24% in Austria-based recycling equipment maker Next Generation Group (NGR). Terms were not disclosed.

The investment, it says, will enable NGR to further develop new technology and expand its service offering in order to better serve the plastic recycling industry.

The Ikea group has been paying close attention to the circular economy and in 2017 acquired a 15% minority stake in Morssinkhof Rymoplast Group, a Dutch plastic recycling plant.

The investments are part of the EUR1 billion Ikea had said it had set aside to assure its long-term sustainable resource supply. The company had said it would spend the money on forestry activities or invest it in recycling companies or renewable energy and biomaterial efforts. Since 2009, Ikea says it has invested EUR1.5 billion in wind and solar energy, setting aside another EUR600 million for additional investments in this regard.

With more than 20 years’ experience, NGR supports the supply growth of secondary raw plastic materials by offering a full range of post-consumer, post-industrial and PET recycling equipment. NGR’s technology for PET recycling includes P:REACT.

Josef Hochreiter, CEO of NGR, says: “Ingka Group with their investment principles, enables Next Generation Group as a technology-provider, to invest in new technologies supporting the transition from a linear to a circular economy. The shared view on our long term strategy and philosophy supports us to further grow the company”.

“Next Generation Group is an interesting company with great potential and is in line with our sustainability commitments. We have a clear strategy for our minority investments to support innovative companies and create room for them to develop. We have a long term commitment in all our investments,” says Krister Mattsson, Head of Ingka Investments.

NGR was established in 1996 and designs and manufactures recycling machinery mainly at its facility in Feldkirchen, Austria. The group has 250 employees.

Ingka Group (Ingka Holding BV and its controlled entities) has three business areas: Ikea Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. It is the world’s largest home furnishing retailer operating 367 Ikea stores in 30 markets and 158,500 co-workers. These Ikea stores had 838 million visits during FY18.

(PRA)

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