Craemer Group – a success story

, Commerzbank’s tailor-made financing concept for carbon reduction

The Craemer Group, headquartered in Herzebrock-Clarholz (Craemer GmbH), Germany, is a specialist in metal forming, plastics processing, and tool making. The internationally active family company is committed to social, environmental, and economic responsibility. The Group’s goal is to reduce CO₂ emissions – for instance, by constructing a new sustainable production site and switching to renewable energy. To support this green transformation, Commerzbank has developed a financing concept that integrates public funding and ensures the high level of flexibility requested by the client.

For decades, Craemer has been relying on the advisory expertise and excellent service of Commerzbank as its principal bank. As the group expanded internationally, it stepped up this collaboration, which now covers all key business areas – from domestic and international payments to financing and currency management. Individual advice and support play a key role here. Corporate client advisors and specialists are in regular contact with the client, to discuss strategic decisions and financing concepts. They outline the relevant options so that a decision can be taken right away and the requested financing can be provided without delay once it has been approved.

This approach has also shaped the most important sustainable investments of recent years: constructing a new plastic injection molding facility and installing a wind turbine to establish a renewable energy supply.

Injection molding – a core process in plastics manufacturing – is a highly energy-intensive process. As part of its green transformation, the company therefore decided to build a new future-oriented plastic injection molding facility designed for renewable energy. In 2021, Craemer acquired a 17-hectare site with ample room for expansion, located right next to the A2 motorway, within the 80-hectare interregional industrial area Aurea, jointly developed by the municipalities of Oelde, Rheda-Wiedenbrück, and Herzebrock-Clarholz.

The injection molding facility, which went into operation in 2023, comprises an 18,000-square-meter production and storage hall, reaching heights of up to 16 meters. It currently houses five injection molding machines with clamping forces between 3,200 and 5,500 tons, several welding units, and extruder facility. With these, Craemer recycles used plastic products into high-quality raw materials. The company’s in-house regranulate, branded Zero Virgin, consists of 100 percent recovered and refined polyethylene and will be produced using electricity from renewable sources in the future. Twenty aluminum silos, each 27.5 meters high and 4.2 meters in diameter, with a total storage capacity of 4,000 tons, ensure a reliable supply of plastic granulate – even when the availability of renewable energy fluctuates.

The entire new facility has been built to KfW Efficiency Building 55 standards – the energy-efficiency benchmark developed by the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), which stipulates that buildings must not consume more than 55 per cent of the energy used by a conventional new build. This gave Commerzbank the opportunity to assist the investment in the plastic injection-moulding facility with expert advice on public subsidies and to supplement this with loan financing from KfW. During a brief window in 2021, the construction – which complied with Efficiency Building 55 standards – was even eligible for repayment subsidies via the KfW federal funding programme for non-residential buildings. This recommendation from Commerzbank and its rapid implementation in collaboration with Craemer were key factors in enabling the original double-digit million investment to be realised and subsidised with repayment grants.