Alpla on the upswing

Successful financial year for packaging giant

24,350 people work at Alpla with CEO Philipp Lehner at the helm.

(Bild: Alpla, Krone KREATIV)

Last year, the internationally active packaging and recycling specialist Alpla increased its turnover from 4.7 to 4.9 billion euros. The growth course was continued with new products, business areas, plants and thanks to accelerated specialist training, according to the family-owned company. 

At the Alpla Group, founded in 1955, CEO Philipp Lehner looks back on a successful financial year 2024 and continues to grow after a moderate decline in revenue in the previous year. The annual revenue of 4.9 billion euros corresponds to an increase of four percent compared to 2023.

There was significant growth in the number of locations and employees. Alpla reached the 200 mark in terms of the number of plants and created more than a thousand new jobs with new business areas, acquisitions and training programs. A total of 24,350 employees work at 200 locations in 46 countries - including 365 apprentices. 

"Plastic packaging shapes the lives of billions of people. As the technological market leader, we are making this packaging ever lighter and more sustainable. We will continue to invest in this worldwide in the future," emphasizes Philipp Lehner. In addition to the strong growth markets in South America, Africa and the Middle East, demand in North and Central America recovered in 2024.

Competitiveness suffers
Alpla is also seeing an upward trend in Europe. However, the market environment remains challenging. "Increasing regulation in the EU is causing enormous expense and weakening international competitiveness. Added to this are high wage costs in some countries. We are countering this with greater efficiency, product innovations and our leading role in recycling," says Lehner. The markets in the Asia-Pacific region offer great potential. A new plant is to be built in Thailand in 2025. 

Alpla invests at least 50 million euros in recycling every year. The self-imposed target of at least 25 percent recycled material in packaging is to be achieved by 2025. The "Alpla Recycling" division produces PET and HDPE recycling material (rPET and rHDPE) in 13 plants in nine countries. The currently installed and projected output capacity of 350,000 tons is to be doubled by 2030.