Expansion continues as UNTHA creates new Turkish operation

The Austrian-headquartered firm – which has been manufacturing shredding technology for over 50 years – has already sold a number of machines to Turkish operators, particularly in the Waste to Energy market.

But as UNTHA’s reputation has grown, so too has demand from customers looking for local expertise and support.

Taner Topcu will head up the new company as general manager mainly responsible for sales and after sales. He has 10 years’ industrial manufacturing and engineering experience – including almost five years as UNTHA’s business development manager for other European countries.

He is already joined by service and aftersales manager Yusa Özbek, from Istanbul. Yusa is no stranger to UNTHA’s shredders, having operated them as a customer for the last six years. Long-standing UNTHA colleagues Peter Streinik, head of global sales and business development , and CFO Andrea Gratzer, have also both joined as directors.

Recruitment is now underway to build UNTHA Türkiye administrative team, so that the Istanbul-based business can deliver a premium level of customer service, as the company continues to expand.

The commitment to people and premises is complemented by a significant investment in spare and wear parts, with a consignment of stock machines also planned. A demo tour of UNTHA’s world-renowned XR shredder is also planned for Autumn 2022, enabling operators to try the machine on their own site, with their own materials.

“The Turkish waste and recycling industry is innovating - quickly!” said Taner. “There is increasing demand for flexible, high-performance technology that can transform materials into valuable resources, as cost effectively as possible. And our shredders have made an impact – particularly when it comes to their energy efficient capabilities in a single pass.

“However, we’ve listened to our growing Turkish customer base too. They want to invest in our Austrian-manufactured machinery as they know it represents world class engineering. But they also want to work with a partner who understands the Turkish market, can visit their facility to see their materials first-hand, be on-site when they perform a trial, deliver readily available parts when required, provide after sales and machine optimisation support – and so on.

“That’s why UNTHA Türkiye was born – and with a Turkish heritage myself, I’m particularly excited to play a part in the growth of this business.”

Peter Streinik, UNTHA’s global sales director, added: “When the time is right, we always try to move even closer to our customers.

“The pandemic has particularly taught us that you can be anywhere in the world and still do business together, successfully, but when you want to create something really exciting – and long-lasting – it’s often better to work ‘side by side’. It’s rare to find a distributor who cares about the customer as much as we do, hence the decision to set up this new company.”

UNTHA now has more than 10,000 shredders in operation worldwide. With a busy HQ, factory, and innovation centre just outside Salzburg, the business also has successful subsidiaries in Germany, the UK, Poland, France and Iberica, plus established distributor agreements in Italy, Australia, and Southeast Asia – to name just a few.

The company announced a record €70m turnover, in March 2022 – up more than €10m on the previous year’s figures. With a 90% export rate, UNTHA has shipped over 400 shredders to customers worldwide, in the past 12 months alone.