Dr. Jan Klingele, Managing Partner of the Klingele Group, has been elected Chairman of the International Corrugated Case Association (ICCA). Founded in 1961 as an international association for the corrugated board industry, ICCA's main goals are to work globally to address the concerns of the industry, to increase awareness of its products, services and issues, and to support the activities of its members at a national and regional level. Members include international global players in the industry, but also national and supranational associations such as the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO). The structures and members of the ICCA are very familiar to Dr. Jan Klingele: he has been representing Europe on the board of the ICCA for four years and has participated already in 15 ICCA congresses.
In his new position, Dr. Klingele wants above all to promote exchange between the national associations, expand the virtual presence of the ICCA and create a good data foundation for information and communication through meaningful statistics. It is particularly important for him to strengthen the perception of corrugated board as environmentally friendly, versatile and high-performance packaging material and to position the industry as a solution provider for environmental and climate protection. As Chairman of the ICCA, Dr. Jan Klingele also determines the venue of the association's next congress, which will take place in Constance, Germany, in 2021.
"Pollution knows no national boundaries; the international community has become very painfully aware of this when it sees the world's oceans filled with plastic," states Dr. Jan Klingele. "My personal goal is to position corrugated board material globally as part of the solution. Corrugated board is a wonderful product that ideally combines renewable raw materials, complete biodegradability and very high recycling rates. Every day, we present innovative packaging concepts to our customers, even for increasingly complex applications, so I know that there is still a lot more to achieve. I want to work on this together with a strong team at the ICCA."
International industry expert
By electing Dr. Jan Klingele, the ICCA has chosen a proven expert in the international corrugated board industry: founded 100 years ago in Wiesloch in the Baden region, the Klingele Paper & Packaging Group now has a presence in Spain, Great Britain, France, the Benelux countries and Scandinavia, partly through affiliated companies and subsidiaries. However, Dr. Klingele demonstrated a pioneering spirit and courage in making entrepreneurial decisions, above all with his investments in Mauritania and Cuba: various West African governments are striving to modernise their food sector and the associated logistics, which generates high demand for cheap, robust and yet sustainable packaging. In Cuba, economic reforms are aimed at increasing the participation of foreign companies in the economy and modernising local businesses.
In 2006, Klingele founded the European alliance of Blue Box Partners (BBP) together with three other family-owned companies from Italy, Spain and Belgium: today, BBP has a presence in 24 European countries, has over 87 sheet plants and eight paper mills and is one of the top 3 in the industry in Europe with nearly 9,800 employees.
Decades of commitment to the corrugated board industry
Klingele's commitment to the industry is a long-standing family tradition: Dr. Werner Fred Klingele, father of Dr. Jan Klingele, was one of the founding members of the ICCA. From 2010 to 2016, Dr. Jan Klingele himself was Chairman of the German Association of the Corrugated Board Industry (VDW) and from 2016 to 2020, Chairman of the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO) umbrella organisation.
www.klingele.com
