Plastic recycler Nordic Plast invests €2.8 million in modernization and development

Nordic Plast, one of the leading polyethylene and polypropylene recyclers in the Baltics, belonging to Eco Baltia, the largest Baltic environmental and waste management group, which is backed by INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund, has invested €2.8 million into a new sorting line. The new line is automated and provides high-precision pre-sorting and purification of raw materials which will all lead to an upwards of 30% increase in Nordic Plast’s recycling capacities and provide a significant boost to production quality and efficiency.

“Our main goal is to ensure the highest possible plastic packaging recycling rate and quality, thus replacing virgin materials used in packaging. So far, our packaging sorting operations depended quite largely on manual work, which, although ensures high quality, limits faster increase in production capacities. Thanks to the new automated line, our production capacities will increase up to 300 tons or 30% monthly. Furthermore, this investment will help us to build up both efficiency and our international competitiveness, and help ensure a consistent flow of production of the highest quality production for our customers”, explains Andris Trumars, Director of Nordic Plast.

The new equipment is intended for processing materials of various purity, thus also promoting recycling of more difficult to work with packaging streams which have been lagging behind in the industry thus far. With this investment, Nordic Plast will further strengthen its contribution towards the fulfilment of the plastic packaging recycling goals imposed in the European Union which are set to raise the recycling level from the current 22% to 50% of the total volume of the marketed plastic packaging by 2025.

“Eco Baltia’s mission is to find value in things that others already consider unnecessary. That’s why we treat waste as a resource to create new materials and promote circular economy. Therefore, we are constantly developing options to recycle a wider range of packaging and other materials. Investments in the modernisation of Nordic Plast is a significant step to achieve this goal and creates foundation for the development of new recycled products. In parallel, we are continuing our work on other major development projects, providing significant investments in the improvement of efficiency and competitiveness of Eco Baltia group companies which prove themselves more and more convincingly beyond the regional level, contributing to the sustainability of the whole Europe”, stresses Māris Simanovičs, Chairman of the Management Board at Eco Baltia.

According to Vytautas Plunksnis, Partner at INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Eco Baltia, the Fund’s strategy is to grow all of its portfolio companies both through add-on acquisitions as well as organically.

“The investment in Nordic Plast’s capacity increase is a great example of this,” says Plunksnis.

Investments in creation of the new Nordic Plast line are partially covered by using the funds received from the European Union fund project “Polymer Recycling Park of the SIA Nordic Plast”.

About Nordic Plast

Nordic Plast is one of the leading plastic recycling companies in the Baltics, recycling used polyethylene (PE) films, HDPE hard plastics and polypropylene (PP)) products. Since the establishment of the company in 2001, Nordic Plast has steadily grown its production capacities over the years, reaching 12,000 tons in 2022. The recycling process results in high value-added end product – LDPE, HDPE and PP pellets, which are used for production of various parts and templates in automotive, plastic compounding, packaging, plastic ware production and other industries.

Nordic Plast is a part of Eco Baltia group which is the largest environmental and waste management group in the Baltics, providing the full-cycle waste management solutions from waste collection and sorting to secondary raw material logistics, wholesale and raw material processing as well as PET and PE/PP plastics recycling.

In 2022, the Eco Baltia group pro-forma revenues expected to reach around €240mn, compared to €150mn in 2021. In September 2022, the group expanded its operations with its PET recycling arm AS PET Baltija, one of the largest PET recyclers in Northern Europe, completing the acquisition of a leading Czech fibre producer TESIL Fibres.

The group employs more than 2,200 people in Latvia, Lithuania, and Czech Republic. Its leading companies in the existing portfolio include Eco Baltia vide, PET Baltija, Latvijas Zaļais punkts, Nordic Plast, JUMIS, Czech TESIL Fibres and Lithuania-based Ecoservice. 

Shareholders of Eco Baltia are private equity fund INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund (52.81%), the European Bank for the Reconstruction and Development (30.51%) and management of the company (16.68%).

About INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund

With a size of EUR165 million, the INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund is one of the largest private equity funds in the Baltics. The European Investment Fund (“EIF”) is its anchor investor.

The EIF, which is a part of the European Investment Bank, has committed EUR 30 million with the support of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (a key element of the Investment Plan for Europe, or ‘Junker Plan’) whilst also allocating resources from the Baltic Innovation Fund, a “fund of funds” initiative developed in cooperation with the governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The initiative aims to increase capital investment in high-growth potential small and medium-sized enterprises in the Baltics.

The fund seeks to assemble a diversified portfolio of companies, targeting majority or significant minority stakes through investments ranging from of EUR 10 million to EUR 30 million. These companies must demonstrate high growth potential and an ability to succeed in conditions of increasing global competition and market volatility.

The fund is focused on the Baltic countries and neighbouring regions including Poland, the Nordics, and Central Europe. The fund has invested in seven companies to date, focusing on sectors including healthcare, medical rehabilitation, civil engineering, environmental management (plastic recycling and waste management), veterinary services, and the manufacturing of cosmetics and hygiene products.

The fund is managed by INVL, the leading Baltic investment management and life insurance group. The group’s companies manage pension and mutual funds, life insurance directions, individual portfolios, private equity as well as other alternative investments. More than 300,000 clients in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia plus international investors have entrusted the group with the management of over EUR 1.75 billion of assets. With a track record spanning 30 years, the group has strong expertise and experience in managing private equity assets and building true market players that are leaders in their respective fields in the Baltic countries and across Central and Eastern Europe.