09.03.21
Schwarzenbach/Saale, Germany
www.sandler.de
2020 Nonwovens Sales: $360 million
Key Personnel
Dr. Christian Heinrich Sandler, CEO; Wolfgang Höflich, board member & chief production officer; Dr. Ulrich Hornfeck, board member & chief commercial officer; Tobias Baumgärtel, president, Sandler Nonwoven Corporation
Plants
Sandler AG, Schwarzenbach/Saale, Germany
Sandler Nonwoven Corporation, Perry, GA, U.S.
Processes
Carded, waddings and drylaid nonwovens, thermally bonded, meltblown, needlepunched, air-through bonded, spunlaced, coating, embossing and aperturing, composites
Brands
Sawabond, sawaloom, sawaloft, sawaflor, sawatex, sawascreen, sawaform, sawasoft, sawasorb, fibercomfort, bio textile by sandler, enAIRsave
It was a record year for Sandler Nonwovens. The company reported 2020 sales of €328 million ($360 million), up slightly from €322 million the year before, amidst increased demand for products like disinfectant wipes and protective clothing and slowdowns in the automotive and other technical markets in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“We did not expect these things when we made our plan for 2020 but like many people last year, we were surprised with how the nonwovens industry responded during crisis,” says management board member Ulrich Hornfeck. “It proved that nonwovens are really needed to take care of people.”
At the start of the pandemic, Sandler responded quickly, shifting its production to meet surging demand in certain areas and reducing volumes in other areas. Additionally, Sandler added 60 new staff members.
“We had to train people from one line to the other, from one warehouse to the others,” Hornfeck says. “We had to have our sales team learn to quickly work with new customers. Everyone had to pitch in to help. It really was amazing.”
Sandler also responded to this crisis with investment. In April, the company announced it would add a new meltblown line to meet demand for face mask material both in Germany and elsewhere. The line was completed in record time in August 2020. It can make filtration media material for about 600 million mouth-nose-protection masks a year and was reportedly the first of its kind in Germany.
Sandler had already been making media for face masks prior to the pandemic and was able to build on this knowledge to quickly ramp up production of the material.
“We were in good shape because we already had a fundamental understanding of meltblown and we had existing customers, products and markets for this technology,” Hornfeck says.
“We managed to handle all of the requests in the first months during the crisis but the new line allowed us to serve this at a larger scale. We are still making a lot of face mask material for different purposes.”
Meanwhile, at Sandler’s U.S. site in Perry, GA, construction on a new line, which started in September 2019, was delayed by travel restrictions due to Covid, but the line was able to come onstream at the beginning of 2021. The new line, which executives describe as a hybrid machine, continues to ramp up production to meet demand for nonwovens in North America.
In addition to adding capacity, the U.S. investment includes a 135,000-square-foot building that houses production and warehouse facilities as well as the new line.
This investment is part of a larger corporate-wide investment announced during the company’s 140th anniversary in 2019.
Sandler established the Perry site, its first manufacturing operation outside of Germany, in 2017.
“We are where we want to be in the U.S. and we will continue to work hard and focus on where we want to grow in the future,” Hornfeck says. “At both of our sites, we a growing constantly with our customers and we have a lot of ideas and are doing well in all of our markets.”
At Sandler, sustainability has been key to its strategy for many years and the company has always used a lot of recycled or biobased fibers in its nonwovens. Additionally, the company has focused on energy savings, water savings and gas savings to reduce its CO2 footprint overall.
What is new to this strategy is the need to talk to its customers about what the company has done and what it plans to achieve with its partners and its customers globally.
“We have a lot of discussions with our customers about these topics and we want to push this forward pragmatically, taking it step by step,” he says. “We feel responsible for what we are doing and what our supply chain is doing. We want to help our customers meet their certain challenges and goals in CO2 reduction.”
www.sandler.de
2020 Nonwovens Sales: $360 million
Key Personnel
Dr. Christian Heinrich Sandler, CEO; Wolfgang Höflich, board member & chief production officer; Dr. Ulrich Hornfeck, board member & chief commercial officer; Tobias Baumgärtel, president, Sandler Nonwoven Corporation
Plants
Sandler AG, Schwarzenbach/Saale, Germany
Sandler Nonwoven Corporation, Perry, GA, U.S.
Processes
Carded, waddings and drylaid nonwovens, thermally bonded, meltblown, needlepunched, air-through bonded, spunlaced, coating, embossing and aperturing, composites
Brands
Sawabond, sawaloom, sawaloft, sawaflor, sawatex, sawascreen, sawaform, sawasoft, sawasorb, fibercomfort, bio textile by sandler, enAIRsave
It was a record year for Sandler Nonwovens. The company reported 2020 sales of €328 million ($360 million), up slightly from €322 million the year before, amidst increased demand for products like disinfectant wipes and protective clothing and slowdowns in the automotive and other technical markets in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic.
“We did not expect these things when we made our plan for 2020 but like many people last year, we were surprised with how the nonwovens industry responded during crisis,” says management board member Ulrich Hornfeck. “It proved that nonwovens are really needed to take care of people.”
At the start of the pandemic, Sandler responded quickly, shifting its production to meet surging demand in certain areas and reducing volumes in other areas. Additionally, Sandler added 60 new staff members.
“We had to train people from one line to the other, from one warehouse to the others,” Hornfeck says. “We had to have our sales team learn to quickly work with new customers. Everyone had to pitch in to help. It really was amazing.”
Sandler also responded to this crisis with investment. In April, the company announced it would add a new meltblown line to meet demand for face mask material both in Germany and elsewhere. The line was completed in record time in August 2020. It can make filtration media material for about 600 million mouth-nose-protection masks a year and was reportedly the first of its kind in Germany.
Sandler had already been making media for face masks prior to the pandemic and was able to build on this knowledge to quickly ramp up production of the material.
“We were in good shape because we already had a fundamental understanding of meltblown and we had existing customers, products and markets for this technology,” Hornfeck says.
“We managed to handle all of the requests in the first months during the crisis but the new line allowed us to serve this at a larger scale. We are still making a lot of face mask material for different purposes.”
Meanwhile, at Sandler’s U.S. site in Perry, GA, construction on a new line, which started in September 2019, was delayed by travel restrictions due to Covid, but the line was able to come onstream at the beginning of 2021. The new line, which executives describe as a hybrid machine, continues to ramp up production to meet demand for nonwovens in North America.
In addition to adding capacity, the U.S. investment includes a 135,000-square-foot building that houses production and warehouse facilities as well as the new line.
This investment is part of a larger corporate-wide investment announced during the company’s 140th anniversary in 2019.
Sandler established the Perry site, its first manufacturing operation outside of Germany, in 2017.
“We are where we want to be in the U.S. and we will continue to work hard and focus on where we want to grow in the future,” Hornfeck says. “At both of our sites, we a growing constantly with our customers and we have a lot of ideas and are doing well in all of our markets.”
At Sandler, sustainability has been key to its strategy for many years and the company has always used a lot of recycled or biobased fibers in its nonwovens. Additionally, the company has focused on energy savings, water savings and gas savings to reduce its CO2 footprint overall.
What is new to this strategy is the need to talk to its customers about what the company has done and what it plans to achieve with its partners and its customers globally.
“We have a lot of discussions with our customers about these topics and we want to push this forward pragmatically, taking it step by step,” he says. “We feel responsible for what we are doing and what our supply chain is doing. We want to help our customers meet their certain challenges and goals in CO2 reduction.”