K.D. Feddersen joins the Maschinenraum innovation ecosystem

Hamburg/ Berlin

The Hamburg-based family business K.D. Feddersen, a specialist in the worldwide trade and distribution of plastics, technical products and chemicals, becomes part of Maschinenraum. The alliance of around 30 Mittelstand companies as well as university partners and other innovators is working together on the digital transformation of German Mittelstand. K.D. Feddersen wants to use the exchange with other members of Maschinenraum to successfully master challenges together, such as the sustainable, future-oriented transformation within an industry in upheaval. With a special focus on the plastics industry, the newly founded Corporate Innovation Lab "port F" has already been active in this area since January 2021.

 Founded in 1949 by Karl Detlef Feddersen as a Hamburg trading company, the company has grown into an international group of companies today – with around 1,100 employees in subsidiaries and branches in Europe, China, Southeast Asia and South America. 

 The group's core competencies are the development, production and distribution of engineering plastics as well as mechanical engineering and trading in machinery for plastics processing. Engineering services as well as wholesale and foreign trade in stainless steel and other raw materials and technical products are further important pillars. The Feddersen Group's products are used, for example, in the mobility, E+E, packaging, consumer goods, industrial and medical technology sectors.  

Impulses for a sustainable plastics industry

"Plastics are versatile and enable innovations for our daily lives. At the same time, it is clear that the entire value cycle must become more sustainable. With our newly founded Corporate Innovation Lab 'port F', we are pursuing the goal of making the plastics industry fit for the future and for the cycle. We want to make a difference – in the Feddersen Group, in the plastics industry, in our society," says Christian Gref, Director Corporate Innovation Lab.

 Today, the Feddersen Group still sees itself in the tradition of its founder as a family-owned company for which humanity in dealing with employees, customers and partners is important, which pursues long-term goals and attaches great importance to independence and robustness. At the same time, it is facing many current and future challenges and has founded port F, a unit that can act completely independently of the core business, precisely for this purpose. 

 This is also the background for the now starting engagement in the shared innovation ecosystem. "With Maschinenraum, we offer the appropriate environment to develop digital innovations in a network. K.D. Feddersen exemplifies the core idea of our alliance: only through shared exchange can the innovative power of the individual fully develop. Our newly launched Sustainability Circle will certainly also make an important contribution here," says Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum.

About Maschinenraum:

Maschinenraum, a shared innovation ecosystem from Mittelstand for Mittelstand, unites German Mittelstand and family businesses to boldly shape the future. Already, more than 30 family businesses – including Viessmann, Fiege Logistik, Dussmann Service and Paracelsus Kliniken – have joined Maschinenraum to jointly drive the digital and sustainable transformation of Mittelstand.

About K. D. Feddersen:

The holding company serves as the central link and steering body within the Feddersen Group. It represents the group of companies vis-à-vis the Foundation and is responsible for strategic planning and management at group level. In addition, the holding company acts as an internal service provider for the companies in the group. The K.D. Feddersen Foundation was established by the company's founder Karl Detlef Feddersen out of a desire to give something back to society. The work of the charitable K.D. Feddersen Foundation is significantly supported by the dividends distributed by K.D. Feddersen Holding GmbH. The foundation has been operating a residential complex for senior citizens in Hamburg since 1984. In recent years, the residential complex has been expanded and extensively modernised in several construction phases.   

About port F:

port F builds bridges between the tried and tested and the new, and creates a new network that goes beyond the established value-added cycle of industry. Whether market partners, start-ups, co-innovators, investors, educational and research institutions or NGOs – the Corporate Innovation Lab deliberately opens up innovation processes in order to create an effective and equally robust ecosystem in the long term. port F wants to make an active contribution to the overdue transformation of the plastics industry and also develop sustainable business models and products for a desirable future together with others.