EKO-PUNKT to waive market shares.

Lünen. Faced with decreasing licensing volumes for recyclables throughout the whole of the Federal Republic of Germany and the explosion in 'Dual System' costs resulting from this, EKO-PUNKT GmbH has taken the decision to cut back its market share. EKO-PUNKT has established itself on the market as a high-performance 'Dual System' business. It believes, however, that the decreasing volumes of waste mean it is unable to achieve positive results at present.
In accordance with the 5th amendment to the Packaging Ordinance, EKO-PUNKT will also offer branch solutions in 2009 based on the GVM study. In order to be able to implement such branch solutions, EKO-PUNKT has access to all services provided by the REMONDIS Group which carries out environmental ser-vices every day for more than 466,000 customers.
As far as the dual licensing system is concerned, EKO-PUNKT's calculations are always based on a realistic appraisal of the market in order to offer its customers fair, soundly based and long-term reliable prices. By doing so, it ensures that cus-tomers are not charged additional costs during the year or forced to conclude post-licensing agreements.

As a result of its experiences in 2008, a year that has been characterized by fur-ther decreasing licensing volumes and destructive price wars, EKO-PUNKT has now decided to no longer aid and abet the fall in prices. Herwart Wilms, managing director of EKO-PUNKT GmbH, underlined the significance of this measure: "The 'Dual System' market is shrinking which is having clear negative effects on the companies' turnover. Trying to push out competition by lowering prices is, in the medium-term, neither advantageous for the companies nor the customers. Negative results on the part of the companies is putting the principle of the 'Dual System' in danger and the additional costs and post-licensing agreements that result from these measures must always be borne by the customers. It is precisely because of this that EKO-PUNKT feels it is best for its customers to waive market shares, if these can only be held if quality suffers and customers are forced to pay unrealistic prices. We believe that this serious approach will pay off in the long term when the improved regulations laid down in the 5th amendment to the Packaging Ordinance begin to take effect on the market next year."    

The overall dual licensing market has been decreasing for a long while now. DSD, which used to be the sole provider of such services, has had to face a continued reduction in its turnover for some time. And this trend is set to continue (see enclosed chart). It will have a long-lasting effect and threaten the economic basis of the 'Dual System' and result in there being increased pressure for consolidation measures.

Background information:
EKO-PUNKT GmbH is a company belonging to the REMONDIS Group.
REMONDIS has many years' experience of setting up and operating take-back systems. Across Europe, EKO-PUNKT organizes the take-back of several 100,000 tonnes of packaging materials every year. The material is processed and any recyclable materials recovered and fed back into the economic cycle. 
Internationally active manufacturers and distributors are particularly interested in finding cross-country solutions on the European market. EKO-PUNKT has access to an international network and is continuously working on extending its services throughout Europe. Its services range from organizing national recyclable waste collection logistics, to processing such materials and marketing secondary raw materials, to documenting waste streams. In Germany, EKO-PUNKT services are available to all manufacturers and distributors of sales packaging.


REMONDIS is one of the world's largest privately-owned water and environmental service companies and provides services for more than 20 million people. Through its branches and associated companies, REMONDIS is active in 21 European countries as well as in China, Japan, Taiwan and Australia.

Further information is available from:

REMONDIS SE & Co. KG
Michael Schneider
Marketing & Corporate Communication
Brunnenstraße 138
44536 Lünen
T +49 2306 106-515
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