Plastics Innovation Centre Opens in Austria

Borealis inaugurates its international Innovation Headquarters in Linz, Austria on 20 November 2009. This is the culmination of approximately one and a half years of construction and an investment of euro 50 million. A provider of innovative plastics, the company now offers customers “ … direct access to cutting-edge plastic processing equipment, the expertise of international specialists and scientists, and years of experience in the field of process and product development, at one single site,” explains the company’s Chief Executive, Mark Garrett.

The Innovation Headquarters in Linz houses 350 employees from more than 30 countries, who work in research and product development focused on developing plastic materials of the future. One hundred new employees in research and development complement the existing 1100 employees who currently work for the company in Linz.

The five-storey building accommodates state-of-the-art equipment for processing plastics in applications such as pipe, film and injection moulding, as well as the relevant analysis and laboratory equipment.  A new high-tech polymerisation laboratory is being used to produce batch samples of new grades that are specifically tailored to customers’ needs.

“Our success and the success of our customers depend directly on our ability to introduce new and innovative products to the market faster and to adapt them specifically to our customers’ requirements,” says Alfred Stern, Senior Vice President Innovation & Technology. “The Innovation Headquarters in Linz creates the best possible foundation for this. Experts from all business areas are able to cooperate with customers and researchers in order to develop plastic materials of the future by using cutting-edge technology.”

Borealis operates innovation centres in Stenungsund, Sweden, and Porvoo, Finland. A new innovation centre is currently being built in Abu Dhabi by Borealis’ joint venture Borouge.

The company together with its shareholder OMV also supports the new Plastics Engineering Programme at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. Upper Austria aims to position itself as a region with extraordinarily high innovation capabilities. The state of Upper Austria provided euro 7 million towards the Programme, with euro 4.1 million being contributed by fifteen companies of the regional plastics industry, according to Governor Josef Pühringer. “If we all pull together, we can make a great difference. Upper Austria is on the right track in order to maintain its status as a number one region in Europe.”