Press release

C.C. Umwelt and Blue Phoenix join forces to become new pan-European heavyweight

Krefeld, 05 March 2021 Slag processor C.C. Umwelt has a new shareholder with a 100-percent stake in the company: the Blue Phoenix Group, a slag recycling company based in Rotterdam (Netherlands). Following a short bidding and evaluation phase, the previous shareholder, Novum Capital, and Blue Phoenix agreed on the transfer of C.C. Umwelt to the Blue Phoenix Group with retrospective effect from 30 November 2020. The purchase agreement was signed by both parties in February 2021.

Successful consolidation due to clear focus

C.C. Umwelt is one of Germany’s leading specialists for the disposal, reprocessing and recycling of waste incineration slags, the disposal of flue gas cleaning mass (filter dust) from waste incineration plants, and the processing and disposal of special mineral waste. The company’s headquarters are located at the Krefeld port, with six more sites in Hagen, Würzburg, Schwandorf, Bleicherode/Sollstedt, Hamm and Menteroda.

Twelve million euros invested in technologies

The economic success of C.C. Umwelt can be mainly attributed to the considerable investments C.C. Umwelt made between 2018 and 2020 with the support of the previous owner, Novum Capital: In total, the company invested twelve million euros in the technical equipment of the four slag sites in Krefeld, Hagen, Würzburg and Schwandorf. As a result, C.C. Umwelt now runs state-of-the-art facilities with maximum processing depth and throughput capacity for slag. These modernization measures have made C.C. Umwelt a technology leader in the German circular economy.

Quantum leap with “Stratego” metal finishing machinery

The most important technical advancement was implemented by C.C. Umwelt in 2019. On 19 July 2019, C.C. Umwelt celebrated the unveiling of its self-constructed metal finishing machinery, “Stratego”, at its headquarters in Krefeld.

The technology of this machinery is ground-breaking. It can be used to extract non-ferrous metals by type from the incineration slag of all of C.C.’s sites. Stratego separates light non-ferrous metals (mainly aluminum) from heavy non-ferrous metals (in particular: copper, gold, silver, platinum, and palladium). Prior to this, C.C. Umwelt had only been able to sell the metals as a mixture. C.C. Umwelt also offers the metal-refining capabilities of Stratego as a service to other companies.

State-of-the-art technologies at even more locations

The sale of C.C. Umwelt to the Blue Phoenix Group signifies one thing in particular: the merger of two leading technologies for non-ferrous metal refining – Blue Phoenix’s processing machinery and C.C. Umwelt’s Stratego machinery. Customers can now benefit from long-term, reliable services that meet the highest technical standards.

The Blue Phoenix Group and C.C. Umwelt are planning to open further locations in Germany and Europe over the next five years.

The next step towards a successful future

Dieter Kersting, Managing Director of C.C. Umwelt, says: “We would like to express our sincere thanks to our previous shareholder, Novum Capital, for the excellent cooperation over the last few years. We wish Novum Capital all the best for the future. The management team at C.C. Umwelt sees our new partner, Blue Phoenix, as a guarantor for the continuous development of C.C.”. According to Dieter Kersting, this applies in particular to the continual improvement of end-of-waste technologies for slag processing – and the company’s expansion in Germany and Europe.

Paul Knight, CEO of the Blue Phoenix Group, is also pleased with the transaction: “We see C.C. Umwelt as an ideal geographical addition to our portfolio of services. Together, our companies will continue to grow rapidly.”

Pan-European heavyweight in slag processing

The Blue Phoenix Group was formed in 2015, when private equity investment group Waterland simultaneously acquired and merged the English company Ballast Phoenix and the Dutch company Inashco. To date, Blue Phoenix employs a staff of more than 400. Following the merger with C.C. Umwelt, the company will have more than 500 employees and become one of the market leaders in Germany, England and the Netherlands.

Contact:

Dieter Kersting, Managing Director of the C.C. Group

Contact via:

Ute Beck

Tel:  +49 (0) 2151 / 5258-744

E-mail: u.beck@cc-gruppe.com

About the C.C. Group

The C.C. Group was founded in 1969 and is part of the circular economy. To date, the company operates sites in Krefeld, Würzburg, Hagen and Schwandorf, with approximately 130 employees. In addition, C.C. holds minority interests in partner companies in Bleicherode/Sollstedt, Hamm and Menteroda. Its business divisions are: the disposal and reprocessing of slag; the disposal of filter dust in safe underground storage sites; and the processing of mineral waste. The C.C. Group’s customers include municipalities, towns, administration unions, waste incinerators, disposal companies, recycling specialists and construction companies. The latter, for example, use the qualities of slag processed by C.C. for large civil engineering projects, helping to conserves resources such as new sand and gravel. Moreover, by recovering approximately 70, 000 tons of metal per year (including iron, aluminum, copper, gold, and silver) through the processing of slags and mineral wastes, C.C. Umwelt helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – unlike metal production from primary raw material sources.

Press release

C.C. continues to be successful despite the COVID-19 crisis – and has temporarily introduced a three-shift system at its headquarters in Krefeld

Krefeld, 14 May 2020 The C.C. Group, one of the leading disposal and recycling specialists for incineration waste in Germany, is resisting the current economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In an interview for the series “Point of view: The COVID-19 pandemic”, which features on the C.C. Group’s corporate website, Managing Director Dieter Kersting explains: “Waste incineration is continuing at normal rates, which is why we are receiving roughly the same quantities of slag and filter dust as before the pandemic.” In order to guarantee acceptance security for its customers, the C.C. Group is now operating its sites in line with pandemic plans. In addition, C.C. is keeping sufficient storage space available and has temporarily introduced a three-shift system at its headquarters in Krefeld to handle the volume of waste.

Multimillion investment “Stratego” is living up to expectations

As a result of the coronavirus crisis, the percentage of household waste in the incineration mix received from waste incineration plants is rapidly rising, while the percentage of commercial waste is falling. “Taken together, the weekly slag quantities have remained almost consistent. The quality is more or less the same, too. However, we are observing that, at times, the amount of coarse ferrous fractions typically found in industrial waste is in decline, while finer non-ferrous fractions are ‘on the rise’,” Dieter Kersting explains.

Co-Managing Director Roberto Grau adds: “This means that we can take full advantage of our multimillion investment ‘Stratego’. In the current coronavirus crisis, this machinery has once again proven its value – for our customers and for us.”

Before the installation of state-of-the-art metal finishing machinery “Stratego”, the C.C. Group was only able to extract one big mixture of light and heavy non-ferrous metals (NF metals) from the incineration slags, and thus had to return them to the commercial cycle in this form. “Thanks to this technology, which we put into operation in Krefeld in July 2019, we have performed a quantum leap in the recovery of raw materials. We are now able to extract NF metals by type,” Roberto Grau continues.

“Stratego” separates light NF metals (mainly aluminum) contained in the slag from heavy NF metals (in particular: copper, gold, silver, platinum and palladium). This allows the company to process very small fragments of non-ferrous metals: C.C. can now recover and refine certain fractions as small as 0.1 millimeters.

Even better alternative construction materials from waste incineration slag

Alternative construction materials remain another important topic for the C.C. Group. “We plan to produce them in increasingly high quality, using waste incineration slags as a basis,” says Dieter Kersting. Among others, he considers cement research very interesting in this regard, stating that C.C. soon wants to be able to produce quality slags that can be used as aggregates for cement. Innovations are needed in this area because building sand is becoming scarce. “The C.C. Group remains committed to the conservation of resources and climate protection. We are convinced that we are providing important impulses in the interest of sustainability,” Dieter Kersting concludes.

You can read the interview in full here:

C.C. Inside

Contact

Dieter Kersting, Managing Director

Contact via

Ute Beck

Tel: +49 (0) 2151 / 5258-744

E-Mail: u.beck@cc-gruppe.com

About the C.C. Group

The C.C. Group was founded in 1969 and is part of the circular economy. With around 300 employees, the company operates sites in Krefeld, Würzburg, Hagen and Schwandorf. Its three business divisions are: the disposal and reprocessing of slag; the disposal of filter dust in safe underground storage sites; and the processing of mineral waste. The C.C. Group’s customers include municipalities, towns, administration unions, waste incinerators, disposal companies, recycling specialists and construction companies. The latter, for example, use the qualities of slag processed by C.C. for large civil engineering projects, helping to conserves resources such as new sand and gravel. In 2019, the C.C. Group celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Press release

New industrial machine “Stratego”: The C.C. Group’s quantum leap in metal finishing

Krefeld, 19. July 2019 The C.C. Group, one of the leading disposal and recycling specialists for incineration waste in Germany, is unveiling its new metal finishing machinery at its Krefeld site today.

With this groundbreaking technology, known as “Stratego”, the C.C. Group is set to perform a quantum leap in the recovery of raw materials from incineration slags. From now on, the company will be able to extract non-ferrous metals (NF metals) from incineration slag by type. “Stratego” can separate so-called light NF metals (mainly aluminum) contained in the slag from “heavy” NF metals (in particular: copper, gold, silver, platinum and palladium). Up until now, the C.C. Group could not separate light and heavy NF metals and thus had to return them to the economic cycle as one big mixture. The economic benefit of “Stratego” is that the C.C. Group can now market extracted metals directly to metal smelters.

Dieter Kersting, Managing Director of the C.C. Group, explains: “With “Stratego”, we are not only expanding our business model, but also making an even greater contribution to reducing CO₂ emissions.” Both are important factors in customer satisfaction and corporate growth.

State-of-the-art technology launched with the support of strong partners

C.C. developed “Stratego“ in cooperation with environmental engineers Hamburg-Umwelt-Recyclingtechnologien (H-U-R) GmbH, and the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH)/ Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics. The event today will open with an introduction to metal finishing by Markus Gleis, a senior advisor with the Federal Environment Agency in Dessau-Roßlau.

Dr. Jochen Hoffmeister, Head of the Waste & Secondary Raw Materials Division at Düsseldorf-based economic research facility, Prognos, will then talk about how significant the production standard achieved by C.C. is for the circular economy. He will also explain how “Stratego” helps to reduce CO₂ levels, compared, for example, to the sourcing of low-grade ores and Bauxite, the main source of aluminum.

This will be followed by a talk by Prof. Dr. Kerstin Kuchta from the TUHH, explaining in detail how metallic raw materials can be sustainably recovered from incineration plants – and what part C.C. and “Stratego” will play in this.

“Stratego“ completes C.C.’s service portfolio

Dr. Georg Rottländer, Project Lead for “Stratego“ at C.C. Umwelt GmbH, says: “We are proud that today we are bringing to life a great idea and a big investment. “Stratego” will process all non-ferrous metals that are collected at our sites in Germany.” The C.C. Group will also be offering  metal finishing services to other companies.

“Stratego“ completes the C.C. Group’s portfolio of waste disposal services, which includes activities in the municipal waste incineration industry; the recycling of filter dust and flue gas cleaning mass; as well as the processing and recycling of slags, which yields high-quality raw materials with valuable metals.

Contact
Dieter Kersting, Managing Director

Contact via
Ute Beck
Tel: +49 (0) 2151 / 5258-744
E-Mail: u.beck@cc-gruppe.com

About the C.C. Group
The C.C. Group was founded in 1969 and is part of the circular economy. With around 300 employees, the company operates sites in Krefeld, Würzburg, Hagen and Schwandorf. Its three business divisions are: the disposal and reprocessing of slag; the disposal of filter dust in safe underground storage sites; and the processing of mineral waste. C.C.’s customers include municipalities, towns, administration unions, waste incinerators, disposal companies, recycling specialists and construction companies. The latter, for example, use the qualities of slag processed by C.C. for large civil engineering projects, helping to conserves resources such as new sand and gravel. In 2019, C.C. is celebrating its 50^th anniversary.

Press release

C. C. Group announces major investment in highly efficient extraction processes for NF metals

Krefeld, 15 March 2019 The C.C. Group, one of the leading disposal and recycling specialists for incineration waste in Germany, will today unveil the new dual-pass non-ferrous metal separator at its Hagen site. “With this multimillion investment, we continue to drive the modernization of our company, as we have done since C.C. was acquired by Novum Capital at the end of 2017,” says Dieter Kersting, Managing Director of the Krefeld-based C.C. Group and Container Company GmbH & Co. KG in Hagen. „In addition, we are also doing our part to conserve resources and reduce CO₂ emissions.”

Qualitative leap with modern technology
C.C. is adding this state-of-the art dual-pass non-ferrous metal separator to its existing slag processing system in Hagen-Kabel. One of the major benefits of this industrial machine is its optimized screening technology, which makes use of modern aggregates to extract valuable recyclable materials from municipal waste incineration slag. It is precisely this optimized screening technology that will allow C.C. to extract recyclables at a much higher rate than in past decades. This also means that a significantly higher amount of non-ferrous metals can be returned to the commercial cycle than was previously possible.

Opening ceremony with important guests
Roberto Grau, Managing Director of the C.C. Group and its subsidiary in Hagen, emphasizes: “The fact that we have achieved this milestone in our investment strategy is not only proof of our commitment to resource conservation and climate protection, but also means a leap in the efficiency of the C.C. Group. This will clearly help to sustain our economic viability in the future.”

C.C. is celebrating the installation of the dual-pass separator with representatives from waste incineration plants, local disposal specialist AGR Abfallentsorgungs-Gesellschaft Ruhrgebiet, and the city of Hagen. Several of the shareholders in the corporate group will also be present.

Contact
Dieter Kersting, Managing Director

Contact via
Ute Beck
Tel: +49 (0) 2151 / 5258-744
E-mail: u.beck@cc-gruppe.com

About the C.C. Group
The C.C. Group was founded in 1969 and is part of the circular economy. With around 300 employees, the company operates sites in Krefeld, Würzburg, Hagen and Schwandorf. Its three business divisions are: the disposal and reprocessing of slag; the disposal of filter dust in safe underground storage sites; and the processing of mineral waste. C.C.’s customers include municipalities, towns, administration unions, waste incinerators, disposal companies, recycling specialists and construction companies. The latter, for example, use the qualities of slag processed by C.C. for large civil engineering projects, helping to conserves resources such as new sand and gravel. In 2019, C.C. is celebrating its 50th anniversary.