PIZZA, PASTA, PEOPLE – INSIDE L’OSTERIA’S FORMULA FOR GROWTH

Dating back centuries, osteria refers to a traditional place for food, wine, and socialising, which still exists today. The term describes a casual, affordable restaurant with a welcoming atmosphere and home-style cuisine.

L’Osteria, a distinguished Italian restaurant brand, embodies this concept, promoting communal dining and authentic Italian dishes.

Established in 1999 in Nuremberg, Germany, it quickly gained popularity amongst locals for its inviting ambience and delectable offerings.

What began as a small restaurant soon grew into an ambitious vision for its founders, Friedemann Findeis and Klaus Rader, to expand.

After the success of its inaugural location, L’Osteria opened additional restaurants in Rosenheim, Regensburg, and Munich.

In a significant milestone for the company, 2009 marked the launch of its first franchise restaurant in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Bavaria, signalling a new era of growth. Also in 2009, L’Osteria opened its first freestanding restaurant in Augsburg.

The expansion trajectory moved beyond Bavaria’s borders, paving the way for a broader presence across Germany. In 2011, L’Osteria embarked on an exciting international adventure in Austria, partnering with gastronomy entrepreneur Maria Klara Heinritzi.

Subsequently, the company ventured into nine more European markets, including Switzerland, England, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain, and Denmark, enriching its culinary influence across the continent.

Currently, L’Osteria operates over 220 locations in 11 countries and employs nearly 9,000 people.

“At L’Osteria, success and sympathy go hand in hand – within ‘La Famiglia’, cooperation between suppliers, partners, and employees is the highest maxim,” introduces Jacek Trybuchowski, CEO.

“This also benefits guests: service and hospitality are top priorities. The reliable quality of products such as the ‘best, best pizza and pasta d’amore’, along with the pleasant atmosphere in the restaurants, completes the concept.”

At the heart of L’Osteria’s remarkable journey is a strong commitment to a values-based culture, emphasising the continuous optimisation of operational processes and employee development. This has helped to solidify its reputation not just as a restaurant, but as a beloved dining destination.

The company is based on a three-pillar system: company-owned restaurants, joint-venture restaurants in which the parent company, FR L’Osteria SE, holds at least a 50 percent stake, and traditional franchise restaurants.

In 2025, FR L’Osteria SE acquired a majority stake in Pizza Pilgrims, a British restaurant brand specialising in Neapolitan pizza. This was the next step in building a Europe-wide Italian brand platform for casual dining.

THE GUEST EXPERIENCE

All L’Osteria restaurants follow the same operational framework, covering everything from ingredient specifications and kitchen processes to hospitality standards.

“We believe consistency stems from clear standards, strong leadership, and continuous training. We invest significantly in developing our team because well-trained staff, rather than manuals, create exceptional guest experiences,” Trybuchowski informs.

“Providing a uniform guest experience across a diverse portfolio demands discipline, training, and trust in local teams. Guests are not concerned with organisational charts or market structures; they expect the same outstanding L’Osteria experience, regardless of which restaurant they visit.”

When entering any L’Osteria restaurant, whether in Munich, Vienna, or Prague, Trybuchowski believes the food, atmosphere, and hospitality should be instantly recognisable – a standard he aims to maintain as the company expands throughout Europe.

Another key element of the quality strategy is a centralised supply chain, storing and distributing most products from two logistics hubs in Germany to supply all L’Osteria restaurants across Europe.

This approach ensures consistent product quality across all its markets whilst creating significant purchasing efficiencies.

“We locally source only a select number of beverages and ultra-fresh items, such as fruits and vegetables, to guarantee maximum freshness,” assures Trybuchowski.

CRAFTING AUTHENTICITY

Brand identity is integral to L’Osteria as it shapes the restaurant’s overall perception and experience.

“Italian kitchen culture is at the centre of everything we do. Our dishes are inspired by authentic Italian cuisine and adapted to our concept’s operational standards. To find the right ingredients and culinary influences, we work closely with our suppliers and partners from Italy,” Trybuchowski notes proudly.

“To this day, around a third of our ingredients still come directly from there, which enables us to maintain the quality and credibility our guests have come to expect from us.”

Trybuchowski believes that Italian food is not just a trend; it is a craft based on simplicity, quality ingredients, and hospitality. This philosophy is reflected in L’Osteria’s well-known classic dishes, generous portions, and easy-to-understand dishes, whilst allowing for seasonal specials on its ever-changing menu della casa.

“We have made a conscious decision not to follow every food trend, but rather to pick up on the ones that genuinely fit with our brand identity. We then take our time to adapt them properly to our system,” he explains.

L’Osteria sets itself apart by having a clear understanding of its identity. Standing for authentic Italian casual dining, generous hospitality with great value for money, and a lively, warm, and accessible atmosphere, the combination of iconic food, emotional relevance, and operational scale makes the brand distinctive.

“Our guests recognise us immediately thanks to our oversized pizzas, high-quality pasta, open kitchens, beautiful restaurants, and welcoming La Famiglia vibe,” smiles Trybuchowski.

In a competitive market, L’Osteria knows product quality alone is not enough. Guests remember the whole restaurant experience and how a place makes them feel, which is why hospitality remains its strongest point of difference.

BLENDING TRADITION WITH TECHNOLOGY

Trybuchowski believes that continuing to invest in areas that will strengthen the L’Osteria experience, such as digital guest journeys, simpler restaurant operations, better planning tools, and training, will help teams spend more time with guests.

Whilst technology is important to the company, it should support, rather than replace, hospitality.

“We intend to grow with discipline, a clear brand identity, and the ambition to create restaurants that people actively want to return to,” he reports emphatically.

“If we stay true to our Italian heritage whilst making the dining experience easier, warmer, and more consistent, I believe L’Osteria will remain highly relevant across Europe.”

Indeed, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly important enabler in restaurant operations, and L’Osteria already uses data-driven forecasting and planning tools to optimise labour scheduling and cost of sales, improve purchase accuracy, control costs, and manage restaurant reservations.

“AI tools enable our teams to make better decisions faster, freeing up managers’ time to focus on leadership, team development, and the guest experience,” reveals Trybuchowski.

In addition, L’Osteria continues to invest in modern kitchen equipment, digital operating systems, and integrated restaurant technologies that simplify processes, increase consistency, and enhance efficiency without compromising on hospitality.

CULTURE AT THE CORE

Successful expansion requires L’Osteria’s culture to grow alongside its restaurants.

“We have dedicated many years to building a strong company culture, which is why employee development is central to our growth strategy,” Trybuchowski declares.

“We utilise a company-wide competency model that outlines clear core competencies and transparent development paths for every role, from kitchen and bar staff to service staff, shift leaders, restaurant managers, and C-suite executives.”

The model gives employees direction, helping them understand their current position, the skills they possess, and the steps required for the next stage in their career.

“What matters to us is not someone’s formal background, but their potential, attitude, motivation, and willingness to grow. Our goal is to create fair opportunities for people with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences,” he sets out.

“That’s why we prioritise internal promotion. 90 percent of our future leaders and managers will come from within our own teams because they will understand our restaurants, our guests, and culture from the ground up. Besides that, nothing motivates people more than giving them room to grow.”

L’Osteria acknowledges that growth can lead to increased complexity. As a diverse organisation, it brings people together from various nationalities across different countries and functions. Whilst this diversity is a significant strength, it also necessitates clear standards, effective leadership, and empathy.

The five company values – teamwork, empowerment, mindfulness, focus, and a hunger for success – serve as the foundation for feedback, development conversations, and career decisions.

“Our values help us preserve our La Famiglia culture whilst giving people the structure and support they need to develop,” states Trybuchowski.

“Ultimately, we want every employee to feel they have a genuine opportunity at L’Osteria, regardless of their background or how they joined us. If we can foster a sense of fairness, belonging, and opportunity whilst continuing to grow, our organisational culture will remain strong.”

BALANCING GROWTH WITH HOSPITALITY

A primary focus for the coming year is to continue profitable growth whilst staying true to L’Osteria’s identity, reflected in the five key areas that will guide the company’s strategy for 2026-2028.

“First, we want to support and promote our La Famiglia because people form the foundation for everything else. Second, we’re embracing digitalisation and using AI to lead our business, employing smarter tools for a leaner, more efficient organisation.

“Third, we aim to turn guests into fans by delivering the hospitality and consistency that keep them returning. Fourth, we are developing an international growth platform for Italian brands, expanding our presence thoughtfully rather than opportunistically.

“Fifth, we are committed to improving our margins to ensure growth is not only rapid but also healthy and sustainable. Together, these areas guide every decision we make – growth must always strengthen the brand and never overstretch it,” Trybuchowski outlines.

Hospitality remains at the heart of everything the company does. Whilst technology, expansion, sustainability, and operational excellence are all important, they are only valuable if they enhance guests’ experiences and create better working environments.

“L’Osteria has grown because people form an emotional connection when they visit us. Maintaining this whilst growing across Europe is one of our key responsibilities,” Trybuchowski resolutely concludes.

The post L’Osteria : Pizza, Pasta, People – Inside L’Osteria’s Formula for Growth appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

The UK ports industry has demonstrated remarkable resilience over recent years.  

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector has continued to adapt to changing global trading patterns, geopolitical uncertainty, inflationary pressures, supply chain disruption, and evolving regulatory requirements. 

At the same time, ports have become increasingly central to delivering national priorities.  

Indeed, they are playing an essential role in supporting offshore wind, handling new energy products, facilitating the transition to net zero, and strengthening supply chain resilience.  

Further, as the UK government looks at national resilience, ports are increasingly seen as vital hubs that can also support military defence and mobilisation. 

The industry additionally continues to invest at significant levels; since the pandemic, UK port investments have exceeded £1 billion a year on average.  

Unlike many countries, most UK ports operate commercially without routine government subsidies, reinvesting profits into infrastructure and services.  

That commercial model has enabled billions of pounds of private investment across the sector, although planning, consenting, grid connections, and wider infrastructure remain challenges that need continued attention. 

The importance of ongoing investment in port infrastructure is demonstrated by the growth in container traffic at UK ports in 2025, which increased by 10 percent to 66.9 million tonnes (t). 

This was driven by strong import demand and additional capacity at DP World London Gateway, the UK’s most advanced integrated logistics hub. 

Overall, UK ports handled 428.3 million t of freight last year – a slight decrease of less than one percent compared to 2024. 

Despite overall freight volumes remaining broadly stable, significant changes in the types of cargo moving through UK ports reflect wider shifts in trade, energy, and the economy. 

Whilst consumer traffic increased, liquid bulk traffic fell by two percent due to continued declines in crude oil movements linked to changing North Sea production and refinery activity. 

Roll-on/roll-off (Ro-Ro) traffic likewise decreased by two percent last year, although it remained the second-largest cargo category handled by UK ports.  

Dry bulk traffic also shrank by three percent, continuing longer-term reductions in traditional bulk commodities such as coal and ores. 

However, the decline in these traditional bulk cargoes reflects structural changes in the wider economy, rather than the performance of the ports themselves.  

Q&A WITH RICHARD BALLANTYNE OBE, CEO, BRITISH PORTS ASSOCIATION

Our latest catch-up with the British Ports Association and CEO, Richard Ballantyne OBE, outlines the strong investment in decarbonisation and infrastructure across UK ports in recent years.

We previously featured the British Ports Association in July 2022. Could you reintroduce us to the association and your aims?

Richard Ballantyne OBE, CEO (RB): The British Ports Association (BPA) is the national trade association for ports and harbours across the UK and the voice of the ports industry.

Our members range from the country’s largest commercial ports handling global trade through to smaller regional ports, passenger gateways, fishing and community harbours, and specialised terminals. Collectively, they are responsible for 88 percent of the UK’s seaborne trade.

BPA’s role is to represent the interests of the sector to governments and regulators, provide a forum for collaboration across the industry, and promote the importance of ports to the wider economy.

Ports are critical national infrastructure, supporting around 95 percent of the UK’s international trade by volume, facilitating energy security, offshore renewables, manufacturing, fishing, tourism, and regional economic growth.

Our aim is to ensure public policy recognises the strategic importance of ports whilst allowing the sector to continue investing and operating on a commercial basis.

Unlike other trade organisations, we are open to all and have an inclusive membership approach, accessible outlook, and strong rules on governance and accountability.

How does BPA represent the interests of British ports to the UK and international governments?

RB: We engage with ministers, parliamentarians, civil servants, and regulators across a wide range of government agencies and departments on behalf of our members, both in Westminster and the devolved assemblies.

That includes following transport, trade, energy, planning, environment, border policy, security, marine and fisheries, tourism, and employment issues, reflecting the breadth of activities that ports support.

BPA also works closely with the UK government, the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and, where appropriate, international organisations and governments on issues affecting maritime trade.

We respond to consultations, provide technical expertise, organise industry working groups, and facilitate dialogue between policymakers and the sector.

In terms of our wider reach, we have indirect representation at EU and UN/International Maritime Organisation (IMO) level.

Also within our network are a number of ports located in the Crown Dependencies and a host of specialist industry advisers, suppliers, and consultancies, adding to the strength of knowledge we provide across our sector.

One of our strengths is that we represent ports of every type of ownership model and size. This allows us to present a balanced industry perspective whilst ensuring the needs of different types of ports are understood. We do this for all UK ports, even the handful that are outside BPA.

Can you tell us more about the decarbonisation of British ports and what role BPA plays in this?

RB: Decarbonisation is one of the defining challenges and opportunities facing the ports sector.

Every port is different, with varying cargoes, business models, and operational requirements, so there is no single pathway to net zero.

Many ports are investing in equipment electrification, renewable energy generation, alternative fuels, shore power, and more efficient buildings and vehicles, whilst also enabling the wider energy transition by supporting offshore wind, carbon capture, hydrogen, and other emerging industries.

Encouraging our varied types of customers to match the pace has been a challenge and the high electricity prices in the UK puts the ports sector at a competitive disadvantage.

BPA works closely with government and industry with the aim of ensuring public policy supports these investments. We facilitate knowledge sharing between ports, engage on funding and regulation, contribute to the development of national decarbonisation strategies, and advocate for practical approaches that recognise commercial realities.

We also work to ensure policy reflects the diversity of UK ports, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.

What developments and investments have there been in ports and logistics infrastructure?

RB: Investment across UK ports remains strong. Over recent years, we have seen significant spending on quay infrastructure, deep-water berths, logistics parks, digital technologies, passenger and cargo handling equipment, fuel and maritime services, and facilities supporting offshore wind and other clean energy industries.

Many ports are also expanding warehousing and distribution facilities to improve supply chain efficiency and support manufacturing and exports.

Investment in automation, digitalisation, and security is helping ports improve productivity whilst maintaining resilience.

However, investment decisions increasingly depend on efficient planning processes, timely regulatory decisions, and supporting infrastructure such as road, rail, and electricity networks.

Ensuring these wider systems keep pace with private investment is becoming ever more important.

How do you see the British ports industry developing by the end of the decade?

RB: I expect UK ports to become increasingly diversified. Traditional cargo handling will remain fundamental, with a greater focus on unitised activities, but ports will also become major hubs for renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, logistics, offshore maintenance, and low-carbon fuels.

Digital technologies and greater automation will continue to improve efficiency, whilst resilience and security will remain high priorities given the increasingly uncertain global trading environment.

The industry will continue investing, but maintaining competitiveness will require proportionate regulation, efficient planning systems, and policies that encourage private investment.

If these conditions are in place, UK ports will continue to play a vital role in supporting economic growth and achieving the UK’s wider industrial and environmental ambitions.

Lastly, what are BPA’s key priorities in order to continue representing the interests of British ports?

RB: Our priorities remain focused on ensuring that ports can continue to invest, compete, and support economic growth.

That means working with governments on planning reform, infrastructure investment, border policy, decarbonisation, energy, skills, security, and regulation.

We also want to ensure policymakers fully recognise the commercial nature of the UK ports sector and the significant private investment that underpins it.

At the same time, we will continue supporting our members through events, training, technical working groups, and opportunities to share best practices.

As the industry continues to evolve, BPA’s role in bringing ports together and providing a strong, unified voice will become even more important.

BRITISH PORTS ASSOCIATION PARTNER

The post British Ports Association : Spotlight appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

THE UEA’S PREMIER INTEGRATED AGRI-FOOD GROUP

Shaping the future of food means building an organisation capable of supporting the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) long-term food security whilst remaining commercially competitive, innovative, sustainable, and scalable. Food security is not achieved through one project or by maintaining strategic stock alone. It requires a productive local ecosystem covering feed, breeding, farming, processing, technology, logistics, talent, and strong consumer brands.”

This statement, as postulated by Mazen Al Refae, Group CEO of Emirates Rawabi, reflects the company’s philosophy when it comes to providing high-quality, reliable, and sustainable food and beverage products across the UAE.

Headquartered in Dubai, the group has deep roots in the nation’s food and agricultural sector. It was established through the combination of Al Rawabi Dairy and Emirates Modern Poultry Co., with Green Fields for Feed Industries (Green Fields) subsequently joining the portfolio.

Today, Emirates Rawabi operates across an integrated farm-to-fork value chain. Its principal businesses include Al Rawabi, one of the UAE’s most recognised dairy and juice brands; Al Rawdah, a leading producer of fresh and value-added poultry products; Green Fields, which manufactures animal feed; and Al Salwa Breeders farm, which supports poultry breeding operations.

“Our capabilities extend from animal feed, breeding, farming, and hatcheries to dairy and poultry production, food processing, quality assurance, logistics, distribution, and consumer brand development. This integration gives us greater control over quality, traceability, product availability, and operational resilience,” informs Al Refae.

Emirates Rawabi’s ambition is to position itself as a leading integrated food-security and agribusiness platform in the region. The company is strengthening its established businesses whilst exploring growth across complementary verticals where it can create a genuine competitive advantage and contribute to the UAE’s long-term food-security objectives.

“Our mission is clear: to nourish the nation whilst shaping the future of food. This means producing safe, nutritious, and accessible food today whilst investing in the infrastructure, technology, talent, and innovation the country will require tomorrow,” Al Refae explains.

NOURISHING LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Having spent more than 24 years working across fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), food manufacturing, dairy, poultry, animal feed, agriculture, logistics, and distribution, Al Refae’s career has been driven by growth and transformation.

Over the course of his career, he has led businesses through growth, transformation, restructuring, operational challenges, and changing market conditions.

“I have always been attracted to environments where meaningful change is required,” he elaborates.

“Growth is not simply about increasing revenue or capacity; it is about building stronger organisations, improving productivity, developing people, strengthening brands, and ensuring the business can remain resilient through economic cycles and market disruptions.”

For Al Refae, the food and beverage industry has particular significance because it touches every household and contributes directly to the resilience and strength of the national economy. In the UAE, developing local food production also carries a strategic responsibility, supporting food security, creating employment, developing national capabilities, strengthening local supply chains, and reducing exposure to global disruption.

That mix of commercial opportunity, operational complexity, and national purpose has kept him passionate about the industry. Today, as Group CEO, Al Refae’s responsibility is to lead the group through its next stage of transformation and build a stronger, more resilient, and future-ready agri-food organisation that meaningfully contributes to the continued growth of the UAE economy.

Emirates Rawabi is working towards this goal by expanding local production capacity, modernising its farms and factories, strengthening biosecurity and quality systems, improving water and energy efficiency, and developing healthier, more convenient products. It is also building a digitally connected organisation that can use reliable data to improve planning, productivity, traceability, and decision-making.

In parallel, the company is looking beyond traditional categories, using its strength to pursue growth across carefully selected adjacent verticals where there are clear consumer needs and strategic benefits for the nation.

“Our ambition extends beyond the UAE, but the country will always remain our foundation. We want to build a scalable agri-food model that can support selective regional and international expansion whilst demonstrating the quality, innovation, and capability of UAE food production,” Al Refae explains.

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF FOOD

For Emirates Rawabi, its greatest differentiator is the depth of the company’s integration.

“We are not simply a dairy company, poultry producer, or animal feed manufacturer. We bring these capabilities together within one group, covering much of the value chain from feed and breeding through to farming, production, processing, distribution, and the finished consumer product,” details Al Refae.

“This gives us greater visibility and control over quality, traceability, supply continuity, and operational performance. It also strengthens our ability to respond when markets, input costs, or global supply chains become disrupted.”

Another important distinguisher is Emirates Rawabi’s local understanding, which enables it to combine international developments in nutrition, technology, and convenience with products that remain relevant to local lifestyles and cultural preferences. Additionally, the company operates with a wider sense of responsibility, with the balance between commercial discipline and national purpose central to its mission.

Emirates Rawabi’s unique abilities are further highlighted by the recent initiatives it is engaging in. Specifically, its new dairy farm in Abu Dhabi is one of the group’s most strategically important investments. It expands local milk production, strengthens operational resilience, and provides a scalable platform for future growth.

“The farm has been developed with a focus on modern animal housing, environmental controls, efficient feeding and milking systems, strong biosecurity, animal welfare, and responsible resource use,” Al Refae adds.

In addition to this new farm, Emirates Rawabi is developing its existing poultry farms, strengthening both broiler and breeder operations. Its newer broiler farms are improving production capacity, supply consistency, and resilience, whilst the expansion of its breeder operations is intended to increase the local availability of hatching eggs and reduce dependence on external sources. Once fully operational, the breeder expansion is expected to add approximately 15 million hatching eggs annually.

Ultimately, these initiatives contribute to the organisation’s investment in future-ready capabilities, long-term infrastructure, and scalable agribusiness excellence.

“A major element of this transformation is the implementation of SAP S/4HANA as the group’s integrated digital backbone. This will provide a single digital backbone connecting planning, procurement, production, quality inspection, maintenance, sales, logistics, finance, and human resources,” continues Al Refae.

In practical terms, this means better demand forecasting, stronger production planning, improved inventory visibility, more disciplined procurement, faster access to reliable information, and clearer performance accountability. It will also provide the foundation for advanced analytics, automation, and the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).

SCALABLE AGRIBUSINESS EXCELLENCE

As Emirates Rawabi looks towards the future, its first priority is operational excellence. Growth must be supported by reliable production, strong quality, healthy animals, disciplined costs, improved service levels, and consistent product availability.

Secondly, the organisation is working to continue expanding local production capability, including ramping up the new Abu Dhabi dairy farm, progressing the poultry breeder expansion, improving broiler performance, and strengthening integration between feed, farming, and food-production businesses.

Additionally, Emirates Rawabi will continue its digital transformation, alongside accelerating consumer innovation and advancing brand and packaging transformation. The company also intends to expand through new channels, stronger e-commerce and foodservice capabilities, a more effective regional presence, and carefully selected export opportunities. This is in parallel to its commitment to ensuring sustainability will remain embedded in investment decisions.

“Our ambition is to build Emirates Rawabi into one of the region’s most respected integrated food and agribusiness groups, recognised for its performance, innovation, sustainability, and contribution to food security,” Al Refae emphasises.

“The most important point is that food security is ultimately built through people.”

Infrastructure, technology, and capital are essential for successful companies, but they only create value when supported by capable teams, strong governance, and a culture of accountability. Emirates Rawabi’s progress is the result of people working across farms, factories, laboratories, warehouses, distribution routes, commercial teams, and corporate functions on a daily basis.

Since the UAE’s government has created an environment that encourages investment, innovation, advanced agriculture, local manufacturing, and long-term thinking, Emirates Rawabi’s responsibility as a national food group is to convert that opportunity into stronger local capability and measurable economic value.

“Emirates Rawabi is proud of its heritage, but we are equally focused on what comes next. We are building an organisation capable of feeding a growing population, adapting to changing consumer expectations, and representing the quality of UAE food production in regional and international markets,” Al Refae concludes.

“In simple terms, we are born in Dubai and made for the UAE. We nourish the nation whilst helping shape its future.”

The post Emirates Rawabi : The UAE’s Premier Integrated Agri-food Group appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

SPOTLIGHT ON GERMAN DATA CENTRES

Historically, Germany has maintained a strong reputation for manufacturing excellence and precision engineering expertise. It is therefore no wonder the country is home to Europe’s top infrastructure markets and a thriving data centre industry, supported by its central location in the continent, strong economy, and political stability.

This leading position is further driven by multi-billion-euro investments from both the private and public sectors, whilst the rise of cloud computing and hyperscale facilities across the country further aid industry growth.

Geographically, Frankfurt has emerged as a central hub for data centre development thanks to its financial importance and presence of vital international interconnection services, underpinning the region’s central role in Europe’s data centre market.

Germany is no stranger to the accelerating emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and its importance as a significant growth engine. Indeed, the country is central to unlocking the power of generative AI, cloud services, and high-performance computing. However, each of these elements require extensive processing capacity and large specialised facilities – attributes Germany is well positioned to cater for.

The growth of AI is simultaneously taking place alongside the industry-wide shift towards decarbonisation and greener digital infrastructure. This is primarily demonstrated by recently introduced regulatory measures such as the Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG) and the government’s Data Centre Strategy, which prioritise waste heat recovery and aim to make Germany one of the leading global hubs for sustainable data centres.

Looking ahead, the nation’s data centre industry must navigate the delicate balance between rising digital demand and lower environmental impact.

As AI continues to shape the landscape, Germany aims to further expand its capacity to meet the needs of Europe’s evolving digital economy whilst facilitating a highly sustainable sector.

Q&A WITH MARTIN KOHOUTEK, DIRECTOR GENERAL, THE GERMAN DATACENTER ASSOCIATION

Since its founding in Frankfurt in 2018, the German Datacenter Association (GDA) has worked to provide the country’s data centre industry with a strong, coordinated voice. Martin Kohoutek, Director General, talks us through the intricacies of the industry and how the association forges a path for its progressive growth.

Firstly, could you introduce us to the German Datacenter Association (GDA) and outline its founding principles?

Martin Kohoutek, Director General (MK): For me, the strength of GDA lies in the diversity of the organisations it brings together – right now more than 320. Our members include operators, investors, technology providers, engineering firms, law firms, energy companies, research institutions, and municipalities.

Each of them contributes a different perspective, but they are united by the understanding that data centres have become essential infrastructure for the economy, public services, and society as a whole.

From the outset, our objective has been to improve the framework conditions for digital infrastructure, represent the sector in political and regulatory discussions, and bring together the organisations that collectively enable digital infrastructure.

I see our role as translating the operational experience of our members into practical policy recommendations and helping to create conditions for secure, sustainable, and predictable infrastructure development.

What is your take on the German digital infrastructure sector at the moment, particularly as energy access demand increases with the growing prominence of AI?

MK: Few sectors are currently evolving as rapidly as digital infrastructure and in my view, Germany does not have a demand problem; it has a delivery challenge.

Demand for cloud services, AI, and data-driven applications continues to grow rapidly. However, demand alone does not create digital infrastructure. The decisive question is whether new capacity can be delivered within a predictable timeframe.

For me, one of the most important measures of a digital infrastructure location is its ‘time to capacity’: how quickly demand can be translated into capacity that is permitted, powered, connected, and ready for operation – which goes far beyond the construction period of an individual facility.

It includes access to land and power, grid connection procedures, planning and permitting, connectivity, regulatory certainty, and the coordination of all relevant public and private stakeholders.

A market may have strong demand and significant energy potential, but investors ultimately need deliverable capacity within a credible timeframe. Power potential attracts interest whilst deliverable capacity attracts investment.

AI reinforces this development. During the cloud era, connectivity was often the primary location factor. In the AI era, power availability has become equally important, which fundamentally changes how digital infrastructure is planned and where future investment will flow.

Germany benefits from strong industrial demand, excellent connectivity, engineering expertise, and political stability. I believe we have everything it takes to remain one of Europe’s leading digital infrastructure markets. The key challenge is whether we can align energy planning, grid expansion, permitting, and regulation quickly enough to keep pace with demand.

Demand tells us where the market wants to grow. Time to capacity determines whether that growth can actually be realised.

With some highly notable and globally leading names in its member base, how does GDA help its members evolve and progress in the German data centre market?

MK: Today, delivering digital infrastructure has become a collaborative effort as no single company, regardless of its size, can solve the industry’s biggest challenges alone.

A data centre operator can optimise the design and efficiency of a facility, but cannot independently accelerate grid expansion, simplify permitting procedures, or establish regional heat infrastructure. These challenges require alignment between industry, policymakers, utilities, municipalities, and regulators.

This is where I believe GDA creates real value for its members: we bring together all relevant stakeholders, identify where projects lose time, and help improve the framework conditions that determine whether investment can actually be realised.

We also provide guidance through Germany’s federal structures, regulatory framework, and regional stakeholder landscape as, often, understanding who is responsible for what is often just as important as understanding the regulation itself.

Our objective is never to advocate for individual projects or companies. Our objective is to improve the environment in which every member operates. If we can shorten permitting timelines, improve planning certainty, or create better regulatory conditions, the entire ecosystem benefits.

How do GDA’s working groups encourage members to participate in the sustainable growth of the industry?

MK: One of GDA’s greatest strengths is the expertise of its members. Our working groups provide the structure through which this expertise is brought together and translated into concrete outcomes.

They are not discussion forums; they are where the association develops its positions, consultation responses, and industry initiatives. Experts from across the data centre value chain contribute their operational experience, challenge each other’s perspectives, and work towards common recommendations.

A good example is our politics working group, which coordinates GDA’s political and regulatory work by developing common positions on issues at municipal, state, federal, and European level.

Topics range from grid connections, energy efficiency, and heat reuse to permitting, electricity costs, and data centre strategies. Recent examples include GDA position papers on the EnEfG, grid connection reform, Frankfurt’s municipal heat planning, and Hesse’s regional data centre strategy.

Another example is the annual Open Data Centre Day which has been developed together with our members, it has become an important initiative to improve public understanding of digital infrastructure by opening data centres to citizens, students, and local communities.

For me, these working groups demonstrate what an industry association should do: transform the practical expertise of its members into solutions that benefit the entire ecosystem.

Can you tell us more about the German Datacentre Conference (GDACon) 2026 and how it created a forum to discuss the key issues facing the industry right now?

MK: This year marks the fifth anniversary of GDACon, reflecting how the conference has evolved alongside Germany’s rapidly changing digital infrastructure sector.

When GDACon started, discussions focused primarily on technology and market growth. Today, the agenda is much broader. Over the past five years, the industry has changed significantly. AI, energy availability, digital sovereignty, and resilience have moved to the centre of strategic discussions, making it increasingly clear that technology, energy, and regulation can no longer be considered separately.

GDACon therefore brings together stakeholders who do not always engage in the same discussions, including operators, technology providers, energy companies, investors, policymakers, municipalities, and researchers. Alongside keynote sessions, workshops and interactive formats focus on practical implementation, examining how improvements could be made across coordination energy systems, permitting, financing, and infrastructure planning.

Many of the industry’s current challenges are not primarily technical. They arise where different planning and decision-making processes fail to progress in a coordinated manner.

For me, GDACon has become much more than an industry conference: it is a platform where different parts of the digital infrastructure ecosystem can develop a shared understanding of the challenges ahead and, hopefully, common solutions.

As one of the industry’s biggest hurdles currently, GDACon 2026 also addressed questions surrounding efficient energy supply and reuse. How do you believe this can be resolved and in what ways is GDA supporting its members working towards this?

MK: In my view, energy has become the defining strategic issue for the future of digital infrastructure. It is no longer simply an operational consideration – it has become one of the key determinants of investment.

Energy access is also one of the main factors influencing time to capacity. A site may be technically suitable and commercially attractive, but without a reliable grid connection and a credible delivery timeline, it cannot become operational capacity.

Addressing this challenge requires much closer coordination between developers, grid operators, energy suppliers, and public authorities. More transparent grid connection procedures, continued investment in electricity networks and generation capacity, competitive energy conditions, and earlier planning are all part of the solution.

Heat reuse is a good example of why this coordinated approach matters. A data centre can provide a reliable source of residual heat, but successful implementation also depends on suitable heat networks, local demand, financing models, and long-term contractual certainty. None of these elements can be developed in isolation.

This illustrates a broader lesson as the future competitiveness of digital infrastructure will depend less on optimising individual assets and more on connecting different infrastructure systems effectively.

The real challenge is not whether Germany has electricity, but whether electricity, permitting, and infrastructure planning evolve at the same pace.

At GDA, we support this process by bringing operational experience into legislative discussions, facilitating dialogue between industry, energy stakeholders, and municipalities, therefore advocating for practical framework conditions that improve both sustainability and investment certainty.

Can you provide more detail on why you believe efficient and interconnected infrastructure is so crucial to the evolution of the data centre landscape, particularly as the industry strives to decarbonise and improve its environmental footprint?

MK: Efficient and interconnected infrastructure is essential both for decarbonisation and improving time to capacity. No data centre develops in isolation – every project depends on a broader infrastructure ecosystem that extends well beyond the facility itself.

Successful development depends on electricity networks, generation capacity, fibre connectivity, planning authorities, construction supply chains, and, where appropriate, district heating infrastructure.

If these systems evolve independently, projects become slower, more expensive, and less sustainable. If they are planned together from the outset, we can accelerate delivery whilst improving energy efficiency, heat reuse, and the integration of digital infrastructure into regional energy systems.

This is why I do not see sustainability and implementation speed as competing objectives. Better coordination strengthens both. In fact, many future efficiency gains will not come from the data centre itself, but from the interfaces between energy, digital infrastructure, and urban development.

Ultimately, decarbonisation is not just about building better facilities but better systems.

As data centres transition from commercial entities to critical national infrastructure, how important is it that efficient regulatory frameworks and strategies are put in place?

MK: With data centres increasingly becoming recognised as critical national infrastructure, the expectations placed on regulation inevitably change. Regulators must protect security, resilience, and sustainability whilst also enabling the timely deployment of the digital infrastructure on which modern economies increasingly depend.

In my view, this is not about choosing between growth and regulation but creating regulation that enables responsible growth.

That requires rules that are clear, proportionate, technologically informed, and, above all, predictable. Planning certainty is the prerequisite; time to capacity is the result.

Investors can adapt to ambitious requirements when they are transparent and consistently applied. What creates uncertainty is overlapping responsibilities, fragmented decision-making, and approval processes without reliable timelines. Every unnecessary delay ultimately extends the time it takes to bring new digital infrastructure online.

This is why regulation has become a competitive factor. Countries that provide planning certainty will be better positioned to attract investment because they can deliver capacity more predictably and more quickly. Ultimately, effective regulation is not measured by how many rules it creates, but by whether it delivers secure, sustainable, and predictable outcomes.

Following on from this, how does the GDA act as voice for its membership in front of governing bodies?

MK: Effective policymaking starts with understanding how digital infrastructure is actually planned, financed, and delivered. Providing that practical perspective is one of GDA’s most important responsibilities.

In my experience, policymakers and industry often pursue the same objectives: secure, sustainable, and resilient digital infrastructure. The challenge is translating those shared objectives into regulation that also works in practice.

This is where GDA acts as a bridge. Through our working groups and continuous dialogue with members, we identify where projects encounter delays, uncertainty, or conflicting regulatory requirements, translating this operational experience into evidence-based positions, consultation responses, and recommendations for ministries, parliaments, regulators, municipalities, and network operators.

Our objective is not simply to argue for faster procedures or fewer rules but to help create better regulation through better dialogue. Ultimately, our role is to ensure that political decisions are informed by operational reality and that the expertise of our members contributes constructively to shaping Germany’s digital future.

Finally, how would you define the outlook for the German data centre community in 2026 and beyond?

MK: I am optimistic about the future of Germany’s data centre industry because the long-term demand for digital infrastructure is beyond question. Cloud computing, AI, and the digital transformation of industry and public services will continue to drive investment for many years to come.

The defining question for the coming decade is therefore no longer whether additional digital infrastructure is needed, but whether we can deliver new capacity with sufficient speed, reliability, and planning certainty.

Germany starts from a position of strength. We have many of the fundamentals required for continued growth: a strong industrial base, excellent connectivity, engineering expertise, and a highly innovative digital infrastructure ecosystem. Our challenge is to bring these strengths together more effectively.

The most competitive locations will not necessarily be those with the greatest energy resources or the largest number of announced projects. They will be those that align energy, connectivity, permitting, regulation, and execution into one coordinated delivery model.

If Germany succeeds in creating a more predictable and coordinated environment for infrastructure development, we will not only attract more investment – we will also strengthen industrial competitiveness, digital sovereignty, and sustainable economic growth.

I am convinced the country has everything it takes to remain one of Europe’s leading digital infrastructure markets and lead its next phase of growth. Whether we succeed will depend less on ambition than on execution.

GERMAN DATACENTER ASSOCIATION PARTNER

The post German Datacenter Association : Spotlight appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY AND SUSTAINABILITY

Since launching two decades ago in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has developed industry-leading cloud capabilities and expertise.

Today, AWS provides highly reliable, scalable, and low-cost IT services in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries around the world.

In Europe, Germany is a central hub for the company, home to two AWS Regions as well as multiple development centres and cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) research.

AWS has been present in Germany since October 2014 when it launched the AWS Europe (Frankfurt) Region, which provides three Availability Zones – separate clusters of data centres – and serves as one of the continent’s most established AWS Regions.

The company invested €9.6 billion in that infrastructure from 2014 to 2023, contributing an estimated €18.4 billion to GDP – with more investment to come.

“We’re going to spend an additional €8.8 billion between 2024 and the end of this year, so it’s fairly rapid growth,” reveals Michael Hanisch, Head of Technology Germany at AWS, who has worked at the company since 2011.

This investment is helping to meet growing customer demand for cloud services in Germany, adding another estimated €15.4 billion to GDP over those three years.

“We continue building up our infrastructure and data centre capacity to meet the growth we see in Europe and Germany in particular,” he outlines.

SOVEREIGN CLOUD

Germany’s second AWS Region, the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, was recently launched in January 2026 in Brandenburg.

This new, independent cloud is separate from other existing AWS Regions, with infrastructure located wholly within the EU.

The AWS European Sovereign Cloud is designed to help public sector organisations and customers in highly regulated industries meet their evolving sovereignty needs.

Its unique approach provides the only fully featured, independently operated sovereign cloud backed by strong technical controls, sovereign assurances, and legal protections designed to meet the needs of European governments and enterprises for sensitive data.

“We’re building an entirely separate sovereign cloud for our customers in Europe, and that of course comes with physically separate infrastructure,” Hanisch explains.

“To achieve this level of independence, we’re essentially copying what our customers love about the AWS Cloud – the same portfolio of services, the same highly secure design operations, the same resilience and high availability – run by European staff within Europe, and to host this infrastructure we’re building up a new, separate AWS Region.

“You might ask, ‘Why are we building a separate cloud for Europe?’ – we’ve been sovereign by design since day one; every AWS Region already gives customers control over where their data resides and who can access it.

“But we listened to customers in highly regulated industries and the public sector who told us they need an additional option: a cloud that meets the most stringent European data residency and operational autonomy requirements, without compromising on capability or innovation. That’s what the AWS European Sovereign Cloud is,” he informs us.

That need has only become more urgent as geopolitical events – not least Russia’s war against Ukraine – have put resilience and digital sovereignty firmly at the top of the agenda. Indeed, many governments, regulators, and even customers themselves are looking to increase their resilience against these kinds of shocks.

“How can we be less dependent on global supply chains and supply providers without going back to the on-premises IT of 20 years ago or sacrificing the innovation power and comprehensive service portfolio only a large cloud provider like AWS can deliver?” questions Hanisch.

“That’s how we came up with this sort of design, especially for customers that need additional resilience.”

The company plans to invest €7.8 billion in the AWS European Sovereign Cloud through to 2040, reflecting its long-term commitment to meeting the continent’s digital sovereignty needs.

CARBON FOOTPRINT

Another important aspect for many customers is understanding and reporting the carbon footprint of their AWS infrastructure.

In March this year, the company launched its AWS Sustainability console, a free, standalone service that shows customers the environmental impact associated with their AWS usage.

“What we do is basically take the carbon intensity of providing our services and break down the energy consumption, and secondary factors that go into that, by AWS Region,” Hanisch tells us.

“Let’s say Frankfurt – what data centres in Frankfurt do your files actually reside in? How is the power contributed? Does it mostly come from renewable energy or not? We break down the overall power consumption and carbon emissions of our operations so you can really see how big the carbon footprint of a certain IT workload is.”

AWS helps customers benefit from the high utilisation of its infrastructure, which is typically a lot greater than what they can achieve if they just run their own.

“A report conducted by Accenture confirms that AWS data centres are 4.1 times more efficient than average on-premises instances, and customers can reduce up to 99 percent of their optimised workloads running in the AWS Cloud,” acclaims Hanisch.

“That’s the benefit many customers like to see – they have to report, and for that they need the kind of data the AWS Sustainability console provides.”

WATER POSITIVE

Since July, customers have also been able to view annual water withdrawals data associated with their AWS workloads on the AWS Sustainability console.

Water withdrawal is the total volume of water drawn associated with the AWS services they use.

In 2022, the company announced its commitment to being ‘water positive’ by 2030 – that means returning more water to communities and the environment than it uses in its data centre operations.

“We are already 75 percent of the way to reaching this goal globally. Our data centres are seven times more water efficient than the global industry average and up to 4.1 times more energy efficient than on-premises sites,” says Hanisch.

“We are committed to using as little water as possible for our operations and therefore use technologies that help us reach that goal. In Germany, AWS data centres use no water for cooling purposes for over 95 percent of the year, instead using free-air cooling, and have a water usage effectiveness of 0.17 litres (L) per kilowatt hour (kWh), well below the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact target of 0.4 L/kWh.

“For the few days and hours a year when we do use water, we prioritise on-site harvested rainwater and the reuse of water in the cooling system, as we keep the use of ground water to an absolute minimum,” he adds.

The methodologies AWS uses to reduce water withdrawals vary from site to site – which approach works best depends on factors like the local climate, available water sources, and regional conditions.

At most sites, the company uses a combination of different strategies, such as reprocessing wastewater and collecting rainwater, tailored to local conditions.

“We always think hard about how we can do the most to reduce water withdrawals and reuse it as much as possible so we don’t waste water,” affirms Hanisch.

“Besides working on our own efficiency, we take our responsibility a step further and invest in projects that help increase water efficiency, restoration, and replenishment.”

In Germany, AWS recently announced two water replenishment projects – an innovative urban leak detection initiative in Frankfurt and a wetland restoration project in the Spessart Forest upstream of the city.

Together, the two projects are expected to return more than 370 million L of water annually to the community once completed, contributing to AWS’ goal to be water positive by the end of the decade.

CLEAN POWER

Alongside being water positive, AWS continues to make progress towards net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

To achieve this, the company continues to invest in the amount of carbon-free energy available from the German grid.

Amazon as a whole is the largest corporate purchaser of carbon-free energy in Europe and one of the leading purchasers worldwide.

In Germany, AWS has entered into a number of long-term corporate power purchase agreements (CPPAs).

“We basically guarantee consumption of electric capacity and power over a certain time, which then allows providers to finance, build, and operate things like wind farms,” Hanisch highlights.

“There’s quite a lot of offshore wind power that’s plentiful in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, so we’ve signed five CPPAs for offshore wind in Germany alone.”

This includes a CPPA signed in February 2026 with RWE for 110 megawatts (MW) from its German Nordseecluster B offshore wind farm – enough to power the equivalent of more than 139,000 German households annually.

Altogether, Amazon sources power from offshore wind farms and solar installations with a total capacity of over 1.3 gigawatts (GW) — enough to power 1.8 million German households once operational.

“In 2025, we again matched 100 percent of the electricity consumption of our operations with carbon-free energy. That covers electricity consumption across Amazon’s global operations, including AWS data centres as well as facilities such as Amazon fulfilment centres,” insights Hanisch.

PARTNER ECOSYSTEM

The AWS Partner Network (APN) is a global, interconnected community of organisations that leverage AWS technologies, programmes, funding, and tools to build solutions and provide services for customers.

This expansive ecosystem is made up of over 130,000 partners across more than 200 countries, including Germany, ranging from software and technology providers and system integrators through to customer consultants.

AWS Competency Partners in particular specialise in building software or delivering services across specific industries, use cases, and workloads.

To receive this designation, APN partners undergo rigorous technical validation related to industry-specific technology, as well as an assessment of the security, performance, and reliability of their AWS solutions.

As a result, customers benefit from an easier way to identify the right partner from the APN to support their business growth and innovation.

“If a customer wants to have, for example, a cloud or AI project, they can look at the APN and figure out what kind of partner they want to work with,” Hanisch expands.

“Do you want to have a small, boutique, AI-focused partner, or do you want to benefit from having a large global partner that specialises in AI security or whatever it is you require? We can help find the right kind of partner.

“We often operate together with those partners, making sure that, as a team, we can deliver on the value the customer is aiming for,” he asserts.

DATA ANALYTICS

A big focus area for AWS next year is helping customers make sense of the AI story, navigate the AI landscape, and create the infrastructure they will need to benefit from it.

“I’m not just talking about lots of GPUs to run inference for AI models; I’m also talking about helping them create the data analytics infrastructure,” Hanisch sets out.

Data analytics converts raw data into actionable insights, using a range of tools, technologies, and processes to find trends and solve customer problems.

This enables companies to gain more visibility and a deeper understanding of their processes and services, which can improve decision-making and foster business growth.

“It’s ensuring they make the most out of their data, which can be a unique differentiator for their business, and turning it into AI-driven business models, products, or service capabilities they can then offer to their customers,” Hanisch states.

“That’s something we started a couple of years ago, and we’re seeing that speed up, especially with the advent of generative AI. Now, of course, everybody is focused on agentic AI, which can also automate processes, machinery, and workflows.

“We’re working with our customers across the stack, making sure we have the compute to run these models, that we have the proper models, but also making the most of their data, figuring out how to incorporate that into their overall workflow, and hopefully transforming their business or at least getting value out of their AI investments, be it more efficiency, higher output, bigger growth, or whatever their business priorities are,” he closes.

AWS is very much a fast-growing business driven by further cloud adoption and the AI transformation happening in Germany, which is driving up consumption in terms of compute and storage.

The post AWS Germany : Digital Sovereignty and Sustainability appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

CREATING THE CITIES OF TOMORROW

Nowadays, infrastructure is the prime tool used to tackle the various challenges of the 21st century, such as digitisation, the ongoing energy transition, and dealing with the increasing prominence of climate change.

Undoubtedly, its importance across myriad industries cannot be understated.

Making waves across Europe, APK Group (APK) has grown significantly since its founding in 1960 into a multidisciplinary group and well-respected titan of the infrastructure industry.

The company specialises in a wide range of infrastructure works for water pipelines and installations, energy grids, telecommunications (telecom) networks, and road construction.

In addition, skills in environmental and landscape architecture, trenchless techniques, civil engineering, and recycling have provided the group with added value.

Thanks to its gradual expansion and various smart acquisitions, APK is active today in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg.

“APK connects people, businesses, and governments – we install smart and sustainable infrastructure for underground and above-ground construction with the aim of making cities future-proof, safe, and accessible,” introduces co-Owner and executive board member, Ward Kerkhofs.

The company is based in the Blue Banana region of Europe, centred around the intersection of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany – it currently employs around 2,700 staff and generates an annual turnover of approximately €600 million.

Half the group specialises in installation and maintenance field services, whilst the other half focuses on cables and ducts, trenchless techniques, and road construction.

“We believe strongly in having sites that are close to both our customers and our employees, and we now have more than 60 sites spread across an area of around 70,000 square kilometres,” he states.

Today, the company’s client base mainly consists of operators and owners managing widely dispersed assets, particularly across energy, water, telecoms, mobility, and landscaping.

NAVIGATING THE MARKET

Across Europe, there are two major trends which continue to have a prominent influence on the infrastructure industry today, both of which are technical but environmentally driven.

“The first relates to machinery – there is a great deal of discussion around electric machinery, zero-emission working practices, and similar developments, although this is partly being driven by legislation,” Kerkhofs sets out.

“This can be challenging, because contractors may be required to purchase electric machines even when they are not yet the most efficient option for a particular job.”

For example, in horizontal directional drilling, companies can use either a conventional diesel-powered drilling rig or an electric rig. However, waiting times for electric rigs have increased drastically because demand is so high.

In some cases, waiting for an electric machine can create more emissions overall than completing the project quickly with conventional equipment, especially when the project itself will ultimately quickly deliver long-term emissions savings.

“This is one area where legislation can create uncertainty and a kind of bullwhip effect in the market,” he surmises.

The second major trend relates to water use – many of APK’s techniques involve significant amounts of water, whether for soil excavation, drilling fluids, or other site processes.

“Innovation in this area is helping to reduce water consumption, which means using less water at the start of the process and producing less waste at the end. That is a win for the environment, technology, and construction site.”

The ability to recycle and reuse working water is therefore becoming an important trend for businesses such as APK, and it is one that will continue to be supported by ongoing technological development.

This is in addition to the household recycling businesses of APK, which focus on reusing excavated soils and processing construction and demolition waste into aggregates for reuse as raw material or in concrete.

The business believes that in this way, it’s all about closing the circle.

HOUSEHOLD NAME

With a vast and invigorating portfolio of projects in development, one clear priority for APK is its focus on the Netherlands.

“Last year, there was a major tendering procedure there, which takes place roughly every eight to 10 years and leads to very long-term contracts. We were able to secure a number of those, which gives us a challenging but exciting growth path in the Netherlands,” Kerkhofs excites.

“This specific geography is also interesting because the market is strong at shifting more of the design responsibility towards contractors. People often talk about design and build, or design, build, finance, maintain (DBFM), and other similar concepts, but the Dutch are very good at applying those models on a large scale,” he explains.

This can lead to much faster delivery and a much higher pace of construction for projects.

“Meanwhile, in other countries, including Belgium and Germany, projects often move much more slowly and can take many years before they are realised. The lessons we learn in the Netherlands may eventually become best practice for everyone.”

Kerkhofs believes APK is operating in and expanding a very exciting space, especially the Blue Banana region. Being so densely populated, this is an area where many different types of infrastructure intersect, creating both complexity and opportunity.

Moreover, the ongoing energy transition and need for additional grid capacity have really ramped up activity across the entire industry.

At the same time, challenges around maintaining groundwater levels, preserving freshwater reserves, and dealing with extreme rainfall and drought are keeping everyone busy.

“Hydrogen and CO2 pipelines have faced some difficulties and delays, but they will eventually become a reality. However, the changing attitude of governments has sometimes created bullwhip-like movements in the market – something we aim to avoid in the future,” Kerkhofs adds.

TUNNELLING TO SUCCESS

One of the company’s most exciting and ambitious projects to date, last year, APK completed the largest microtunnel in Belgium beneath the Scheldt River in Antwerp.

“As a Belgium-based company working across Europe, it is always special to set a record in our home country,” Kerkhofs prides.

The tunnel has an inner diameter of three metres and a total length of approximately 1.5 kilometres (km), built to serve a wide range of utilities.

Most importantly, it transports steam generated from a waste-to-heat plant on one side of the river to the chemical industrial cluster on the opposite bank.

This delivers significant emissions savings whilst also providing an energy supply that is independent from geopolitical instability.

“With this tunnel, we crossed not only the naval entrance to the Port of Antwerp, but also dozens of chemical pipelines, a nuclear emergency high-voltage grid line, multiple railways, and a busy industrial highway carrying heavy traffic,” he details.

“It was a highly complex project involving many stakeholders, but we completed the work on time and to the highest quality standards.”

Because it is such a specialised niche, the microtunnelling side of APK’s business provides a strong gateway into new locations such as Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Morocco, and Scandinavia. Many of these fresh markets are also seeing growing demand for infrastructure, which creates clear opportunities for the company.

“However, developing those markets takes time. Travelling around may sound romantic, but a great deal of time and effort goes into visiting potential markets and building key relationships,” Kerkhofs clarifies.

“We already have the contacts, technology, and people in place – all the vital ingredients are there. Now, it is about bringing everything together and getting things moving towards an exciting future for the group,” he enthusiastically concludes.

The post APK Group : Creating the Cities of Tomorrow appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

A BETTER REALITY

We make people and the environment central by embedding sustainability and human needs into the DNA of every project.”

This core philosophy underscores the fundamental shift the architecture and construction industry is currently undergoing, driven by rapid technological advances and the growing need to balance innovation with sustainable initiatives.

ATI Project not only embodies this transformation but is leading the way in human-focused construction, as highlighted by Giulia Carravieri, Head of International Business Development.

Since we last featured ATI Project in 2022, the company has undergone a period of intense growth and consolidation. It has established specialised units focused on medical planning, sustainability, comfort, and façade design to strengthen its architecture and engineering backbone, whilst also expanding its footprint in the private sector to complement its public work alongside officially opening a new headquarters inside Pisa’s North Tower in May 2026.

With the sector being more dynamic than ever, the firm has observed the entire supply chain shifting towards a more collaborative, integrated model fuelled by rapid technological advances, which it continuously researches and folds into its design process.

“What truly drives us is understanding architecture’s real social impact on people’s lives. Our core challenge today – and our main source of inspiration – is creating spaces that actively promote well-being and inclusion,” states Carravieri.

“Tackling modern crises and climate change through sustainable, resilient design gives real purpose to our work as we shape the future of the built environment.”

To accomplish these goals, ATI Project’s Sustainability & Comfort team joins at the earliest concept stage, using bioclimatic analysis and whole-lifecycle environmental testing to shape the architecture.

At the same time, the company puts people first through data-driven and participatory design. It also goes beyond basic comfort to create spaces that actively support physical and mental well-being, naturally boosting focus, creativity, and performance.

CUTTING-EDGE INNOVATION

Founded in 2011, ATI Project began as a research-driven venture into bioclimatic architecture and renewable energy, developing into an international firm with over 350 team members across eight offices. The company’s headquarters in Pisa and its Milan office cover full-service offerings, whilst collaborating seamlessly with its Belgrade hub, which concentrates on integrated design.

“Our work revolves around two core pillars: integrated design – which unites architecture, structural engineering, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems – and tender and construction management, covering everything from bid support and value engineering to site supervision,” states Branko Zrnic, President.

“We operate natively in building information modelling (BIM), effortlessly aligning specialised disciplines. Supporting this entire ecosystem is our internal Research & Development (R&D) department, which builds proprietary tech tools to continuously refine quality and speed up delivery timelines.”

This setup provides the studio with the credibility to work across both the public and private sectors. Beyond its core strengths in healthcare, education, residential projects, and heritage restoration, the practice is actively expanding into high-growth sectors such as hospitality, infrastructure, sports venues, data centres, logistics, and industrial facilities.

“What really sets ATI Project apart is how we balance cutting-edge scientific innovation with a deeply human-centred culture,” Zrnic enthuses.

On the one side, the company’s heavy, ongoing investment in R&D turns its research team into a strategic engine, keeping it ahead of industry shifts and driving project development. On the other, ATI Project firmly believes excellence starts with people; it nurtures its team through internal career pathways, fostering a work culture where everyone can thrive.

“That balance of advanced methodology and genuine investment in people defines who we are,” continues Zrnic.

EMBEDDING HUMANITY INTO EVERY PROJECT

For ATI Project, utilising a BIM environment allows the company to integrate processes and ensure control of all design phases.

“BIM isn’t just modelling software – it’s the foundation where every project takes shape. We’ve broken down traditional silos to connect architects, engineers, and specialists in real time through a single ‘digital brain’. Design becomes a fluid, predictive conversation: clashes are spotted and resolved before construction ever starts, whilst costs and environmental metrics update dynamically as the design evolves,” Zrnic insights.

Using a common data environment (CDE), every decision stays transparent, building a digital history that manages the facility long after construction ends.

The impact of this approach is observable through ATI Project’s most recent developments, illustrating where the company’s design methodology is heading. Firstly, there is the firm’s North Tower in Pisa, which exists as the city’s first true corporate tower, with the company’s headquarters occupying the top seven floors.

“It’s an ambitious urban renewal project that turned an abandoned structural skeleton into a vibrant, multidisciplinary hub open to the city. Targeting LEED certification and designed around workplace wellness principles, the building stands as a physical expression of our commitment to sustainability, transparency, and efficiency,” Zrnic details.

There’s also the Pisa Training Centre, a major sports infrastructure project that will become the new beating heart of Pisa Sporting Club’s football and administrative activities. Spanning more than 120,000 square metres (sqm), it blends high-performance, eco-friendly design into the local landscape. More than just a state-of-the-art technical facility, it was designed as a community hub where sports, culture, and daily life converge.

“Finally, the New Turin North Hospital – a 60,000 sqm cutting-edge medical complex that marks a major milestone for our firm. Building on our international experience with the New Odense University Hospital in Denmark, the New Turin North Hospital is one of our first major projects in Italy to fully reflect our vision for modern healthcare design,” continues Zrnic.

Highly sustainable and innovative, this project reconnects the urban and natural surroundings, keeping patient and staff well-being at the heart of every space.

DATA AT THE FOREFRONT

As is the case with many industries in the midst of transformation, the architecture and construction sector is being heavily shaped by the emergence of new technology and data.

“The conversation in our industry tends to focus on artificial intelligence (AI) as a set of tools. We think the real shift is quieter and deeper: it will be about who owns their data, structures it, and knows how to use it,” Zrnic states.

“Everything we design eventually becomes tangible – a hospital, a stadium, a tower – but the most valuable asset we generate along the way is intangible: thousands of coordinated models, performance simulations, cost and carbon datasets, and the accumulated experience of hundreds of delivered projects. The practices that treat that as an asset rather than a by-product will set the pace for the next decade; the others will end up renting intelligence from someone else’s platform.”

ATI Project recognises that a building today produces information across its entire life, from the first bioclimatic analysis to decades of operational performance, and the party that controls that information controls a large part of the value.

Specifically, in Europe, with the EU AI Act now in force, traceable and auditable data governance is shifting from a virtue to a requirement. For clients in healthcare, public infrastructure, and institutional work, being able to demonstrate where knowledge comes from, how it is handled, and who controls it will become part of the professional offer itself, not a compliance formality.

“This is also where we see the clearest distinction of ATI Project in the design sector. We are young enough as a practice to understand what this new element really means, and large enough to meet it with a level of investment, mindset, and scope that smaller studios cannot realistically sustain,” Carravieri details.

Since the company has operated natively in BIM from the very beginning, and already has a rich experience in integrating AI into its design processes, it is not starting from scratch but rather building on a proprietary body of structured knowledge that is its own. It’s the same capability that many international brands are now approaching the studio for because of its ability to bring routine technology adoption and internal data management into sectors that have never had it.

“The impact of technology on our sector may prove so disruptive that, in a few years, we will look back at what we said in the summer of 2026 and be struck by everything we did not see coming. That is not an argument for waiting; it is precisely why we keep investing in research,” concludes Zrnic.

The post ATI Project : A Better Reality appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

GENIUS BETWEEN THE BUNS

The origin story of Burgermeister is not just a colourful anecdote – it captures something essential about the brand.

Established in 2006 by Cebrail Karabelli, the company curiously started out from a repurposed public toilet tucked under a U-Bahn bridge at Schlesisches Tor in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Germany.

Karabelli’s motto was simple – ‘If you want to do something best, you have to do it yourself’.

He wanted a better burger than what was available in Berlin at the time, and he built it.

“That ethos of quality without compromise has stayed with us as we have grown from one kiosk to our current network of locations across Germany,” introduces current COO, René Haehnen.

“Our menu is deliberately focused – burgers, made well, at a price that is affordable to everyone. Our customer base reflects that, as our food is enjoyed by students, professionals, families, and tourists.”

Today, the brand has a strong following in Berlin but is also expanding across the rest of Germany and beyond, one location at a time.

NAVIGATING THE INDUSTRY

With more than 30 years of experience across the food, hospitality, and quick service industries, Haehnen brings deep operational expertise to Burgermeister, with a focus on strengthening processes, scalable structures, and operational excellence as the business continues to grow.

“What has always driven me is the challenge of making complex systems work at scale, and the restaurant industry is one of the most demanding environments you can find for that,” Haehnen describes.

“Burgermeister in particular sits at the intersection of food culture, real estate, technology, and logistics, and getting all of those pieces to work together consistently, across many locations and at high volume, is a difficult but genuinely exciting problem,” he highlights.

Undoubtedly, this is an industry that is demanding in ways that are easy to underestimate from the outside.

The market is mature enough that you cannot coast on novelty, but also dynamic enough that the brands willing to invest in technology and operational excellence are pulling away from those who are not.

“What excites me most right now is how much technology can change the economics of running a restaurant well.

“When I look at where Burgermeister was three or four years ago, the systems we were running on and the manual processes in the kitchen and at the point of sale (POS) – compared to where Burgermeister is today, it is a different business,” affirms Haehnen.

OPERATIONAL DISCIPLINE

With the goal of serving the best burger at the best price, whilst keeping quality high but prices low, operational discipline is the key for Burgermeister.

“A focused and slim menu gives us purchasing leverage and kitchen consistency. We are not trying to do everything; instead, we focus on doing what we do very well,” Haehnen sets out.

The bigger lever, one the company currently spends the most time on, is technology and team development.

As Burgermeister has grown, its operational infrastructure has at times struggled to keep pace.

POS systems were decades old, manual processes in the kitchen created bottlenecks and waste, and inventory management relied on guesswork as much as data.

“Modernising all of that – migrating to a new POS system, digitising kitchen operations with screen-based order management, building delivery platform integrations that actually work – has given Burgermeister real efficiency gains,” notes Haehnen.

Those gains translate directly into Burgermeister’s ability to hold prices down without squeezing quality.

The technology transformation Burgermeister has been through over the past few years deserves an enormous amount of credit.

None of this is visible to the customer, but it is the foundation that makes everything else possible.

“Burgermeister has also invested in internal training platforms that allow us to onboard and develop people across our growing network consistently.

“That kind of investment in people infrastructure does not make headlines, but it is what differentiates the brands that scale well from those that do not,” Haehnen continues.

Looking ahead, Burgermeister has laid the foundations of the natural next direction as the business matures into European markets.

STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS

Finding and securing the right locations, at the right commercial terms, in the right parts of a city, is as strategically important as the product itself.

“The relationship between quick-service restaurant (QSR) operators and property owners and investors is complex, and I think the most successful expansions happen when there is a genuine alignment of interests rather than an adversarial negotiation,” acknowledges Haehnen.

Burgermeister has worked hard to build credibility as a serious, long-term tenant across its German footprint, and that reputation matters as the company targets new markets.

“The operational and technological investment we’ve made is also an argument we make to landlords. A Burgermeister that runs on modern infrastructure is a reliable tenant,” he continues.

On a personal level, this expansion phase is one Haehnen feels well-placed to lead having grown through the operational side of the business, possessing a clear view of where the strategic and commercial opportunities lie – in new markets, fresh formats, and how to build the brand.

EUROPEAN EXPANSION

Maintaining quality and staying true to its brand roots is the central challenge of scaling, one that Haehnen thinks about constantly.

The Burgermeister identity is not just a logo or a menu – it is rooted in a very specific story, place, and set of values regarding quality and authenticity.

“As we open in Poland, Austria, or the UK, that story still needs to come through. What I have learnt is that the way to protect brand quality at scale is through operational systems and culture,” he expands.

“The investment we have made in technology, training, and standardised processes is ultimately an investment in the brand. Karabelli’s founding instinct – ‘Do it yourself and do it right’ – must be embedded in every part of how we operate, not just the kitchen,” Haehnen asserts.

Right now, the company’s focus is on executing its domestic expansion to the best of its ability, encompassing the development of new locations, completed to the Burgermeister standard, with the operational infrastructure to support them.

Alongside this, the business is excited to be meticulously establishing its first international markets across Poland, Austria, and others.

“In the medium term, our focus is on continuing to grow across Germany whilst expanding selectively into neighbouring European markets. Entering the UK is another important step for us, and preparations are already underway,” Haehnen excites.

Underpinning all of this is Burgermeister’s continued investment in technology and people. The operational foundation the company has built is what makes growth realistic rather than reckless.

“I want Burgermeister to be a brand that never loses sight of where it started, under a U-Bahn bridge in Berlin, whilst bringing that same spirit to more cities across Germany and Europe,” he concludes with pride.

The post Burgermeister : Genius Between the Buns appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

ENACTING CHANGE IN EDIBLE OILS

As a trusted global leader in oilseed extraction, CPM|Crown provides advanced technologies, processing equipment, services, and solutions for industries including food, feed, aqua, energy, industrial, and specialty products. 

More specifically, these markets focus on oilseed processing, including the extraction of soybeans, canola, sunflower, and other oilseeds; green energy and renewable fuels, such as biodiesel and renewable diesel; food, feed, and aquaculture, comprising food-grade processing, specialty proteins, animal feed, and aqua feed; and chemical and pharmaceutical applications, which utilize specialized solid-liquid separation, refining, and specialty processing across many diverse products. 

The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of oilseed processing and refining solutions. Prior to refining, oil must be extracted from the oilseeds, which involves seed preparation, solvent extraction, and desolventization processes.  

Seed preparation includes cleaning, dehulling, conditioning, cracking, and flaking, each critical to enabling effective extraction.  

Next, the extraction process uses a counter-current flow where prepared flakes and liquid solvent wash in opposite directions inside an efficient and reliable, patented Crown extractor. The liquid stream yields a rich mixture of oil and solvent called miscella, alongside the solvent-wet solid meal.   

The meal is desolventized and toasted for use as a feed ingredient, while the miscella is pumped to the distillation process to separate the solvent from the crude oil. The solvent is subsequently reused in the process. Meanwhile, the oil undergoes a stripping process to remove any residual solvent – making it available as crude oil feedstock for further refining. 

In the oil refining process, the first step involves degumming the oil to remove phospholipids and other components. From there, neutralizing steps remove free fatty acids and bleaching removes color bodies and residual impurities, creating a lighter appearance.  

Deodorizing strips volatile compounds to secure a stable, palatable flavor profile, while also improving the color. Finally, crude filtration and winterizing involve the removal of solid impurities and wax fractions, respectively.   

“This detailed refining process ensures the customer can provide high-quality products on a consistent basis,” opens Bill Morphew, VP Sales – Liquids Segment. 

CPM’s vast global structure is supported by over 1,700 employees from its international headquarters and Global Innovation Center in Blaine, Minnesota, as well as worldwide locations such as the UK, Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, and China. 

FEEDING A BETTER WORLD

Increasing biofuel demand, feedstock volatility, tighter quality standards, and evolving sustainability expectations are continuing to shape the edible oil refining sector in North America.  

As a result, food applications remain essential, while other sectors such as renewable diesel, biodiesel, and sustainable aviation fuel compete for soybean oil, canola oil, used cooking oil, animal fats, and other feedstocks. 

This restricted supply environment is pushing refiners to improve yield, flexibility, uptime, and feedstock optionality, and adapt to changing products, where oil has gained strategic importance, and the food produce markets move more independently.   

Within this landscape, CPM|Crown plays a key role.  

Crown is a brand division of the CPM organization whose systems support core refining steps such as degumming, neutralizing, bleaching, deodorizing, winterizing, dewaxing, enzymatic degumming, hydrogenation, fractionation, and fat modification.  

By helping refiners process variable crude oils, remove key impurities, protect yield, and maintain product stability, CPM|Crown supports the industry’s move toward more flexible, efficient, and sustainable refining capacity.   

“CPM|Crown’s full suite of solutions positions the company as a strategic partner in a market where food, fuel, and sustainability priorities increasingly overlap,” Morphew outlines. 

SUSTAINABLE AND ECONOMICAL

In October last year, CPM|Crown launched Monarc Clean Oilseed Processing™ (Monarc™) – a revolutionary alcohol-based solvent extraction technology.  

Monarc™ provides customers with a competitive advantage because it solves the central trade-off that has limited the clean oilseed processing sector for decades.  

“Processors have wanted safer, more sustainable, clean-label alternatives to petroleum-derived hexane, but alcohol-based systems historically struggled to match hexane’s economics at commercial scale. Monarc™ changes that by combining a patented ethanol-based extraction process with the scale, economic viability, and familiar plant configuration customers expect from modern Crown crush and protein plant offerings,” highlights Marc Ulery, Global Product Director – Monarc™.  

Historically, hexane became the industry standard because of its efficient, high-volume, and affordable oil extraction qualities. However, Monarc™’s use of ethanol maintains these attributes while also ensuring cleaner production, with a process that is on par from both a capital investment and an operational cost perspective.  

This allows Monarc™ to be positioned as much more than a niche sustainability upgrade, but a commercially viable platform for mainstream oilseed processors.  

The technology’s aforementioned characteristics also make adoption easier for processors, investors, and engineering teams because it does not ask them to choose between sustainability and economics. 

Moreover, the design and operation of Monarc™ oilseed processing facilities are very similar to Crown’s existing crush or protein plant systems. This makes the solution more familiar to customers evaluating retrofits, brownfield improvements, or greenfield construction and presents it as an evolution of established extraction infrastructure rather than a risky departure to an unfamiliar processing platform. 

“Crown provides the process know-how needed to make ethanol extraction economically viable while leveraging established and well-known technologies. This combination reduces perceived technology risk and improves our ability to win strategic projects,” Ulery points out.

CLEAN-LABEL MOVEMENT

The clean-label movement continues to permeate the food and beverage industry, with consumer awareness around food production processes growing, and the edible oil sector playing a key part in this increased focus. Fortunately, Monarc™ closely aligns with the consumer-driven shift.  

“As expectations on food manufacturers continue to rise, Monarc™ creates a market-facing advantage by supporting the production of high-value clean-label ingredients and products, including the potential for organic labeling, which are permitted by supply chain and regulatory compliance,” Ulery says.  

The technology’s use of ethanol, which is already associated with food and beverage applications, gives processors a more consumer-aligned processing story compared to petroleum-derived hexane. 

This also supports the goals of brand owners and ingredient suppliers as they seek to communicate simpler processing, cleaner ingredients, and more responsible production.   

Such advantages extend across a broad range of markets, including oils, meals, white flakes, protein concentrates, animal nutrition products, and biofuel-related value chains, all of which can benefit from a hexane-free processing narrative. 

“The potential for clean manufacturing strengthens CPM|Crown’s value proposition beyond equipment sales by giving customers a scalable route into premium, differentiated markets and helping them advance broader growth strategies tied to cleaner, more responsible manufacturing,” he expands. 

CIRCULAR CARBON MODEL

As a clean oilseed processing technology, Monarc™ also offers a meaningful environmental step forward by enabling ethanol extraction as an alternative to petroleum-derived hexane.  

Because ethanol can be produced from plant-derived renewable sources, the technology enables processors to better align extraction operations with corporate sustainability goals, renewable energy strategies, and broader industry decarbonization commitments, while also being more scalable, efficient, and economical.  

Renewable ethanol additionally supports a departure from fossil-based extraction solvents in favor of a more circular carbon model.  

“Alcohol-based extraction can draw on agricultural or bio-based ethanol supply, reducing exposure to fossil-carbon inputs while allowing producers to maintain scale. Rather than introducing additional petroleum-derived solvent demand into the production chain, alcohol extraction draws on an agricultural-based ethanol supply, helping processors reduce exposure to fossil-carbon inputs,” explains Ulery.  

This ultimately supports decarbonization while allowing producers to maintain the processing scale their businesses require.  

Monarc™’s alcohol-based approach also creates practical advantages for permitting and environmental review. 

In the US, hexane appears on the Environmental Protection Agency’s List of Hazardous Air Pollutants. Ethanol is not identified as such, making it better-positioned for facilities facing tighter air emissions targets, regulatory uncertainty, or heightened community scrutiny.   

Furthermore, for producers located in populous areas or markets where permitting timelines and public acceptance can influence project viability, using ethanol can support a smoother path through environmental approvals and reduce the perceived risk associated with new extraction capacity.

SAFETY ADVANTAGES

Monarc™ also offers myriad workplace safety advantages, helping customers transition from petroleum-based hexane exposure risks to an alcohol-based process, which has more favorable safety and handling properties.  

“By eliminating toxic hexane exposure concerns, the technology can improve plant safety profiles and essentially remove the risks of processing with hydrocarbons, which are traditionally used to strip or clean any residual hexane from the oil,” Ulery tells us.  

On top of this, ethanol is non-toxic and not classified as a carcinogen, thus reducing worker health risks during operations, maintenance, material handling, and storage. 

It also provides an added fire safety advantage because the chemical’s   autoignition temperature of 363 degrees Celsius (°C) is significantly higher than hexane’s at 223°C, creating a wider margin against unintended ignition.   

Furthermore, since water is miscible in ethanol, sprinkler or deluge systems can both cool and dilute it, while water applied to hexane can only provide cooling and cannot dilute the solvent.  

These advantages support customer goals around worker safety, operational risk reduction, and responsible manufacturing.   

As such, for processors facing growing expectations around safety, the operating profile of Monarc™ can become a meaningful project driver.   

“By enabling safer, more confident day-to-day operations, the technology creates an opportunity for increased employee engagement, stronger safety culture, and improved conditions for successful plant performance,” Ulery notes.

CONNECTING INNOVATION AND EXECUTION

CPM|Crown’s Global Innovation Center provides a low-risk path to develop, validate, scale, and commercialize new products and processes.  

Located at its Blaine headquarters in Minnesota, the 15,000-square-foot pilot plant, analytical lab, and training facility replicate production environments while providing expert support, confidential testing space, and full-scale processing insight.   

The company’s world-class value comes from combining production capability with deep technical expertise. With systems for preparation, extraction, and liquids refining, customers can progress from feasibility work to continuous pilot-plant testing with data representative of commercial operations. 

The Global Innovation Center operates 24 hours a day, five days a week, enabling scale-up testing under real-world production conditions.  

It offers a complete innovation ecosystem with an analytical lab, engineering, fabrication, piloting, and R&D teams translating results into process designs, equipment selections, and return on investment (ROI) analysis for efficient implementation. 

Through the Center, CPM|Crown combines forward-thinking, proprietary technology, engineering knowledge, aftermarket experience, and full-scale support to help customers anticipate megatrends, improve continuously, and bring products to market with confidence.    

The facility also strengthens workforce readiness through classroom and hands-on training in controlled environments that mirror plant realities while reducing risk and disruption.  

“The Global Innovation Center connects innovation with execution. It gives producers a state-of-the-art production plant for innovation, real-world testing before implementation, engineering, ROI analysis, confidential product sampling, and workforce training,” surmises Alex Danelich, CCO. 

ADDITIONAL PRIORITIES

With Monarc™ moving from the development stages into commercial execution, the first commercial plant contract was awarded to Elian in Barcelona, Spain in August last year.  

CPM is supplying equipment for Elian’s commercial-scale facility expansion to produce soy protein concentrate at the Port of Barcelona, supporting clean-label, plant-based protein production capacity using Monarc™’s alcohol-based extraction system. 

Elsewhere, the company is continuing to advance equipment innovations that improve reliability and optimization in oilseed processing plants.  

For example, Crown’s Flexible Control Tray™ Oil Stripper maximizes active tray areas while reducing the risk of fouling and plugging that can lead to costly shutdowns.   

Initially focused on stripping hexane from crude oil, the technology is expanding into additional applications where improved stripping performance, uptime, and energy efficiency are priorities.   

“Compared with conventional disc-and-donut style systems, it can deliver a 35 percent or greater reduction in energy requirements while maintaining or improving residual hexane performance, and its adjustable orifice layout provides flexibility across different plant conditions and operational rates,” details Danelich.  

With customers looking to purify and pretreat renewable oil feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel production, CPM|Crown’s projects demonstrate how it is positioning its technologies to support both conventional oilseed processors and emerging renewable fuel markets.  

EXCITING NEW ERA

Looking ahead, Rosebank Industries’ recent acquisition of CPM marks an important new chapter for the company, bringing a renewed focus on long-term growth, commercial discipline, and the customer experience across the full plant lifecycle.  

“As CPM becomes part of Rosebank Industries, the transition is an opportunity to strengthen its core commitments. The coming year will be defined by a clearer emphasis on helping customers maximize the value of their equipment well beyond the original sale with practical support that keeps their operations running confidently, reliably, and efficiently,” says Kris Knudson, President. 

The acquisition will be most visible in the company’s aftermarket support – comprising service, parts, components, technical expertise, rapid downtime response, and refurbishment – which will lead to clearer processes, stronger parts planning, and reduced lead times. 

Utilizing Rosebank Industries’ resources, CPM will strengthen its delivery across key markets by combining local expertise with its broader engineering, technology, and technical network to help customers extend equipment life, improve uptime, and reduce unplanned downtime. 

Customers will also benefit from a stronger CPM that has a greater ability to support equipment performance over time. The organization’s future priorities are aimed at extending equipment life, improving uptime, and delivering more predictable support through better processes and planning.  

“With Rosebank Industries’ backing, CPM is positioned to combine commercial focus, local service, global resources, and technical expertise in a way that reinforces its commitment to long-term customer value,” Danelich concludes.  

The post CPM|Crown : Enacting Change in Edible Oils appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

BUILT TO DELIVER

Having joined Descon Engineering (Descon) in 2019 as Business Development Manager for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market, Kinan Raslan brings over a decade of engineering and project management experience from the oil and gas industry to the company.

“I leveraged this deep knowledge base to transition into commercial and strategic leadership at Descon, translating technical and project expertise into business development, market growth, and strategic opportunities,” he opens.

During his first year at Descon, Raslan completed his MBA, further strengthening his business acumen and broadening his understanding of business management and corporate strategy.

He subsequently took on progressively broader responsibilities across business development and strategy, contributing to the company’s growth agenda and strategic direction, which ultimately culminated in his appointment as CSO.

Over the course of Raslan’s career, the regional industrial services sector has changed considerably, with clients today looking for much more than manpower or execution capacity.

Today, reliability, safety, and technical capability remain fundamental, but there is a much greater emphasis on integrated solutions, local capability, supply chain resilience, productivity, and the ability of contractors to understand an asset over its complete lifecycle.

“We’re also seeing clients increasingly expect their strategic contractors to anticipate issues rather than simply respond to them.

“That means understanding their operational priorities, being able to mobilise quickly, developing local supply chains, bringing specialist partners into an integrated solution, and continuously improving the way work is delivered,” Raslan sets out.

For Descon, that evolution plays to an important strength, since the company has spent decades working in operating plants.

“That experience gives us a very practical understanding of what dependable execution means to an asset owner,” he adds.

DEPENDABLE, LONG-TERM PARTNER

Descon was established in 1977 as an engineering firm and has since evolved into a world-class engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) company.

Its capabilities span EPC, engineering, construction, manufacturing, commissioning, industrial services, maintenance, shutdowns and turnarounds, asset performance, and selected operations and management services across sectors including oil and gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, fertiliser, power, infrastructure, and other process industries.

“An important aspect of our model is the breadth of capability we retain within the organisation,” Raslan asserts.

Descon’s ability to engineer, procure, manufacture, construct, and maintain facilities enables it to provide clients with integrated solutions rather than isolated services.

Operating across various global markets including the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, South Africa and, most recently, Azerbaijan, the organisation employs nearly 22,000 people globally.

Its client portfolio includes many leading national and international energy and industrial companies, with a number of these relationships built over decades – particularly in the Gulf region.

“Our objective is not simply to execute an individual contract, but to become a dependable long-term partner to our clients,” he insights.

INTERNATIONAL GROWTH

Descon’s recent geographical expansion into Azerbaijan was a very deliberate step in the company’s international growth journey due to the country’s well-established energy market, strong oil and gas infrastructure, and long-term requirements across engineering, EPC, maintenance, and shutdown services.

It was therefore a natural fit between the needs of the market and the capabilities Descon has developed over several decades.

“We have now formally established our presence in the capital, Baku, making Azerbaijan our ninth geography,” Raslan prides.

Descon is not approaching the market as a short-term opportunity; rather, it has established an office, local organisation, and long-term local supply chain capabilities there to create a sustainable presence.

“Our approach to new geographies is quite measured. We want to understand the market properly, build relationships with clients and partners, develop local talent, and then grow on the back of successful execution,” he informs us.

Azerbaijan also provides an opportunity to take Descon’s experience from some of the world’s most demanding energy markets and apply it in another geography with a strong energy and industrial future.

“We believe there is considerable long-term potential, but credibility has to be earned project by project,” Raslan says.

STRATEGIC CAPABILITY

As Descon looks to strengthen its long-term client relationships across the Gulf with a focus on enhancing procurement expertise and supply chain capability, Raslan believes procurement cannot be viewed simply as purchasing.

“Procurement has a direct impact on schedule, cost, quality and, ultimately, the client’s confidence in the contractor,” he points out.

Indeed, whilst a design may be technically perfect, the entire project can be affected if critical equipment arrives late, vendor documentation is delayed, materials do not meet specifications, or logistics are poorly coordinated.

Procurement must therefore be integrated with careful consideration around engineering, planning, quality, commercial management, and construction from the beginning.

“This becomes even more important as projects increase in size and complexity – hence, global supply chains introduce risks that need to be identified much earlier,” he emphasises.

Therefore, for Descon, procurement capability means understanding the supplier market, selecting the right vendors, building competitive tension where appropriate, managing technical interfaces, expediting effectively, and developing contingency options before a problem reaches the site.

“There is also a regional dimension; across the Gulf, localisation and in-country value are becoming increasingly important,” Raslan urges.

In this way, a contractor with a deeper understanding of local manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers can create value for the client whilst improving resilience and responsiveness.

“Our ambition is therefore to develop procurement and supply chain management as a strategic capability, not simply an administrative function. If done well, it becomes a genuine differentiator in project execution,” he affirms.

COLLABORATIVE ECOSYSTEM

With access to an extensive ecosystem of specialist subcontractors, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and service providers, Descon delivers complex EPC and industrial projects whilst maintaining the highest standards of quality, reliability, and execution.

“No EPC contractor delivers a complex project entirely on its own – what matters is how effectively that wider ecosystem is selected, integrated, and managed,” Raslan considers.

Thus, whilst Descon maintains significant capabilities in-house, it also complements them with specialist subcontractors, OEMs, technology providers, and manufacturers where their expertise creates additional value.

“The role of the main contractor is to bring those parties together under one execution framework,” he outlines.

This requires early alignment on engineering interfaces, quality, health, safety, and environment (QHSE) requirements, scheduling, documentation, and accountability.

The company also places considerable importance on supplier and subcontractor qualification because it believes the performance of every member of the supply chain ultimately reflects on the wider organisation and, more importantly, clients’ projects.

“Our regional operating experience is valuable here, as long-standing relationships with suppliers and specialist service providers give us insight into their capabilities, whilst our own engineering and execution teams allow us to manage interfaces closely rather than simply pass responsibility down the supply chain,” Raslan notes.

As such, for Descon, the end goal is a collaborative ecosystem with very clear ownership.

“Collaboration should improve execution; it should never dilute accountability,” he states.

SCALING CAPABILITIES

As it strengthens and scales its existing EPC capabilities, Descon is capitalising on its unique advantage of having access to best-in-class EPC, manufacturing, commissioning, and industrial capabilities.

“Our strategic opportunity today is to bring those capabilities together even more effectively and move further up the value chain,” Raslan says.

Increasingly targeting larger and more complex projects, Raslan reflects on how the wider organisation must also evolve.

“Large EPC execution requires very strong project governance, front-end planning, procurement capability, contract and risk management, engineering integration, and digital visibility across the project.

“Our focus is therefore not simply on winning bigger contracts, but building the systems, people, partnerships, and governance required to execute them predictably,” he explains.

Descon also wants to be selective as it believes sustainable growth in EPC comes from choosing projects where its capabilities, client relationships, and risk appetite are closely aligned.

“Scale by itself is not the objective, but is profitable, repeatable, and high-quality growth,” he adds.

PLATFORM FOR GROWTH

As a multinational engineering company, diversity is both a cultural priority and a business advantage for Descon.

“We have a workforce representing more than 30 nationalities, bringing diverse experiences, technical expertise, and perspectives to our operations across various geographies,” Raslan reveals.

It is also focused on increasing participation in engineering, particularly through its female trainee and apprenticeship programmes, supported by broader diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Professional development is another key priority for the company, with a graduate training programme, leadership competency framework, and master trainer programme designed to build technical capability, develop future leaders, and strengthen its internal learning culture.

“We believe a strong culture is built by creating opportunities, developing people, and ensuring diverse perspectives are heard and valued,” he highlights.

Looking ahead, Descon’s key priorities include strengthening its position in its core markets whilst accelerating its geographical expansion into targeted and recently entered regions.

“We will focus on building a strong and sustainable market presence, developing strategic partnerships, and translating our capabilities and track record into new growth opportunities,” Raslan details.

Of equal importance is the company’s drive to remain the partner its clients can rely on in all circumstances, delivering consistently on quality, execution, and trust.

“Ultimately, our ambition is to continue strengthening the Descon brand across our key geographies and the industrial markets we serve, whilst creating a platform for sustainable, diversified, and long-term growth,” he passionately concludes.

The post Descon Engineering : Built to Deliver appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

SPOTLIGHT ON EUROPEAN ALGAE BIOMASS

Playing a critical role in Europe’s renewables industry, algae biomass is a highly versatile feedstock driving the European Green Deal – a comprehensive policy framework launched by the European Commission (EC) in 2019 to make the region the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

It also fuels the circular bioeconomy and creates employment in coastal communities, bolstering Europe’s reputation as a modern, resource-efficient, and competitive economy.

A primary application for European algae is in the food and nutraceuticals market, where the focus is on high-value dietary supplements, alternative plant-based proteins, and nutrient-dense species like spirulina and chlorella. It is also a major contributor to the cosmetics sector, where its uses range from functional skincare extracts to UV protection.

However, its advantages span much wider than this, with algae capable of contributing to food security, sustainable agriculture, health, renewable chemicals, and climate resilience.

Indeed, the resource’s positive impact on the environment and sustainability is notable, acting as an efficient biological absorber of carbon dioxide and thereby assisting the EU in achieving its climate-neutrality and emissions-reduction targets.

Elsewhere, algae’s use in bioremediation sees it naturally filter pollutants, excess nitrogen, and phosphorus from industrial wastewater and runoff.

The EC is actively promoting the use of algae biomass through a dedicated policy framework – yet the industry faces various challenges before it can achieve full, continent-wide adoption.

Obstacles include the costly infrastructure required to cultivate algae biomass, stringent EU food regulations and pharmaceutical manufacturing standards that currently inhibit its widespread use, and digestibility concerns surrounding the use of some microalgae species in animal feedstock.

Looking ahead, progressing the algae industry is an active political and economic priority for Europe, spearheaded by the EU4Algae initiative and the EC’s backing.

Indeed, the EU’s official roadmap targets 23 crucial actions to transition the sector into the cornerstone of the region’s blue bioeconomy, focusing on improving governance and legislation, creating business support mechanisms, driving knowledge and innovation, and raising market awareness.

Q&A WITH THE EUROPEAN ALGAE BIOMASS ASSOCIATION

Seeking to accelerate the development of a sustainable, innovative, and competitive algae sector, the European Algae Biomass Association brings together scientists, industry, and policymakers to unlock the resource’s potential as a key pillar of Europe’s future bioeconomy, as we find out from President, Carlos Unamunzaga.

Firstly, could you talk us through the origins and primary goals of the European Algae Biomass Association?

Carlos Unamunzaga, President (CU): Founded in June 2009, the European Algae Biomass Association (EABA) is dedicated to advancing the algae biomass sector by fostering collaboration amongst scientists, industry professionals, and policymakers.

EABA was created with a very clear vision – to bring together everyone working with algae across Europe, and to help transform algae from a promising scientific field into a thriving industrial sector.

When EABA was founded, the algae industry was still in its infancy. There were many excellent research groups and a handful of pioneering companies, but collaboration between stakeholders was limited and there was no common voice representing the sector at European level.

Today, EABA has evolved into the largest European network dedicated exclusively to algae and algae biomass. We represent companies, universities, research institutes, technology providers, public organisations, consultants, and entrepreneurs working across the entire algae value chain.

Our mission goes far beyond simply representing our members.

We aim to accelerate the development of a sustainable, innovative, and competitive algae sector in Europe by promoting collaboration, facilitating knowledge exchange, supporting research and innovation, and engaging with policymakers to create an enabling regulatory environment.

One of our greatest strengths is that we bring together people from very different backgrounds. Within EABA, scientists interact directly with industrial companies, start-ups exchange ideas with multinational corporations, and policymakers have access to technical expertise from the sector itself.

This multidisciplinary approach is essential because algae are incredibly versatile.

They can contribute to sustainable food systems, aquaculture, animal nutrition, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, agriculture, renewable materials, wastewater treatment, carbon capture, and even advanced biomanufacturing.

Very few biological resources have such a broad range of applications.

Our objective is therefore not only to support individual sectors but also to help position algae as one of the key pillars of Europe’s future bioeconomy.

Ultimately, EABA exists to help the continent unlock the enormous potential of algae whilst ensuring scientific excellence is translated into successful industrial applications that generate economic growth, skilled employment, and environmental benefits.

Who is EABA membership open to, and what are the key benefits of membership?

CU: One of the defining characteristics of EABA is that we are an open and highly diverse community.

Membership is available to virtually any organisation with an interest in algae. This includes industrial companies ranging from start-ups to large corporations, universities, research institutes, technology developers, engineering companies, investors, consultants, public bodies, and innovation clusters, including individual members. Our membership represents the entire algae ecosystem.

Some cultivate microalgae or macroalgae. Others develop processing technologies, manufacture equipment, produce ingredients, conduct clinical research, work on regulatory affairs, or develop new commercial applications. This diversity creates enormous value.

Members do not simply join an association; they become part of a collaborative ecosystem.

One of the greatest benefits is networking. Many collaborations, European projects, commercial partnerships, and even company acquisitions have started through contacts made within EABA.

Members also gain early access to information on European policies, regulatory developments, funding opportunities, and market trends.

Through our working groups and committees, they can actively contribute to shaping the future of the sector rather than simply reacting to regulatory changes after they happen.

Another important benefit is visibility. EABA provides members with opportunities to present their work through conferences, webinars, publications, and international events. For young companies in particular, this exposure can be invaluable.

Perhaps most importantly, members become part of a collective voice. When EABA engages with the EC or other institutions, we represent the expertise and experience of the entire community. That collective representation carries much greater weight than any individual organisation could achieve on its own.

What is your take on the biomass and renewables landscape in Europe, and how have you seen it evolve over the course of your career? Would you say it’s currently a particularly exciting or challenging space?

CU: I would actually say everything in our sector is both exciting and challenging at the same time.

Over the past 20 years, Europe has undergone a remarkable transformation. When I started working in this field, biomass and BioTech were often viewed as niche technologies. Today, they are recognised as strategic components of the European Green Deal, bioeconomy strategy, and industrial strategy.

We have seen enormous advances in BioTech, synthetic biology, fermentation, precision agriculture, and circular economy approaches. At the same time, awareness of climate change and resource scarcity has fundamentally changed the way governments and industries think about biological resources.

However, despite this progress, Europe still faces significant challenges. Scientific excellence has never been our problem as the continent produces world-class research. The real challenge is converting innovation into industrial-scale production. Too many promising technologies remain stuck in the so-called “valley of death” between laboratory success and commercial deployment.

Investment remains difficult, permitting and regulatory procedures are often lengthy, regulation can be fragmented, and scaling manufacturing continues to be expensive.

Meanwhile, international competition is becoming increasingly intense. Countries such as the US, China, South Korea, Japan, and several Gulf countries are investing heavily in BioTech and algae production. Europe cannot afford to fall behind.

The encouraging news is that European policymakers increasingly recognise BioTech as a strategic industrial sector. Recent initiatives, including the European Biotech Act and support for biomanufacturing, demonstrate that the political momentum is moving in the right direction. More specifically, we now have the EU Algae Initiative.

For algae specifically, I believe we are approaching an important turning point. The science is mature. The applications are also expanding rapidly, and market demand continues to grow. What we now need is faster industrial deployment.

How important is the cultivation of algae biomass in helping Europe meet legally binding climate neutrality targets? How heavily are you involved in the EU Algae Initiative, for example?

CU: Algae can make an important contribution to Europe’s climate neutrality objectives, although I think it is important to be realistic.

Algae alone will not solve climate change; there is no single technology capable of doing that. However, algae can contribute simultaneously to several European priorities – they capture carbon through photosynthesis and are cultivated without competing for fertile agricultural land.

Many species can grow using seawater, brackish water, or industrial process water. They can recycle nutrients, contribute to wastewater treatment, and integrate with industrial carbon emissions.

Beyond carbon capture, algae can replace fossil-based materials, provide sustainable proteins, produce valuable bio-based ingredients, and support more circular production systems. This multifunctionality is perhaps their greatest strength.

Regarding the EU Algae Initiative, EABA has been closely involved since it was developed by the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE). The EU4Algae forum is tackling all 23 actions included in the EU Algae Initiative.

We are part of the consortium forming EU4Algae and highly involved and representative of the EU algae sector. We have worked with the EC by providing technical expertise, industry feedback, and practical recommendations based on the experience of our members.

This role, engaging directly with the EC through EU4Algae and the EU Algae Initiative, is one of the most relevant contributions EABA makes on behalf of the sector.

The EU Algae Initiative represented an important milestone because it recognised, for the first time at the European level, that algae deserves a dedicated policy framework.

Of course, publishing an initiative is only the beginning. The real challenge now is implementation.

We need to reduce regulatory barriers, facilitate investment, support demonstration facilities, improve market access, and create stronger links between research and industry.

EABA intends to remain an active partner throughout this process.

As an association that serves as a link between scientific research, industrial applications, and political decision-making, how extensively is EABA involved in promoting policy, mutual exchange, and cooperation to foster synergies amongst scientists, industrialists, and decision-makers?

CU: This bridging role is probably one of EABA’s most valuable contributions. Innovation rarely happens in isolation, and successful innovation requires continuous dialogue between researchers, companies, and policymakers.

That is exactly the environment EABA tries to create. We organise conferences, workshops, webinars, and technical meetings throughout the year where members exchange knowledge and identify opportunities for collaboration. Many Horizon Europe consortia and international partnerships have originated through these interactions.

At policy level, we regularly engage with the EC, members of the European Parliament, and national authorities. We exchange and serve as a networking point with national algae associations, which brings coordination and harmonisation amongst all member states.

Our objective is always to provide evidence-based recommendations grounded in scientific knowledge and industrial experience. For example, EABA has actively contributed to consultations on BioTech policy, food regulations, sustainability, industrial strategy, and the European Biotech Act.

Internally, our Scientific Committee and Industrial Committee bring together experts from different disciplines to identify common priorities and develop coordinated positions. This internal dialogue ensures that our policy recommendations genuinely reflect the diversity of the algae sector.

Ultimately, we see ourselves not only as an association but as a platform for collaboration. Our role is to connect people who otherwise might never have worked together.

Can you talk about your involvement in the upcoming algae conference, AlgaEurope 2026, and what key topics are on the agenda to discuss?

CU: AlgaEurope 2026 is undoubtedly the flagship event of the European algae community. Our annual conference has become the leading event in the algae sector with over 400 participants and growing every year.

AlgaEurope is the perfect spot to learn from science, industry, and technology. Every year it brings together researchers, industry leaders, investors, policymakers, and technology developers from around the world.

As President of EABA, I am very much looking forward to this year’s conference in Valletta, Malta between 8th and 11th December.

AlgaEurope is unique because it covers the entire value chain, from fundamental biology and cultivation technologies to industrial applications, investment opportunities, and regulatory developments.

We dedicate specific sessions to industrial developments and key research topics, and have an EC-dedicated session with key policymakers and members from the commission.

Europe has outstanding research, but the discussion is increasingly focused on how we translate scientific breakthroughs into commercially successful businesses.

Other important topics include biorefinery concepts, novel foods, animal nutrition, aquaculture, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, BioTech, carbon utilisation, sustainability assessment, life-cycle analysis, and advances in cultivation technologies.

Artificial intelligence (AI), digitalisation, and automation are also beginning to play a much larger role in algae production.

But the most important aspect of AlgaEurope is networking. Many collaborations begin during informal conversations at the conference.

This is why we have extended time for coffee breaks and networking activities that propel mutual interexchange. Bringing together people from academia, industry, and government in the same room creates opportunities that simply cannot be replicated elsewhere.

For EABA, AlgaEurope is much more than an annual conference. It is the most important event you could attend in the algae sector.

Finally, what are EABA’s key priorities for the future?

CU: Our priorities are very much aligned with what Europe needs to build a strong bioeconomy.

First, we want to accelerate industrial deployment. The continent has outstanding research capabilities, but we now need more commercial production facilities, more investment, and faster scale-up.

From EABA’s market-driven perspective, optimising production capacity to the technical and environmental carrying capacity is a priority, but it is even more important to develop the market so the sector grows in value and not only in production capacity.

Second, we want to improve the regulatory environment. Innovation should be supported by regulations that are science-based, proportionate, and predictable. Reducing unnecessary administrative complexity will help companies innovate more quickly.

Third, we want to strengthen collaboration across the entire value chain. No single organisation can develop this sector alone. Partnerships between academia, industry, investors, and public authorities will be essential.

Fourth, we want to increase public awareness. Many people still only associate algae with seaweed on beaches or dietary supplements. In reality, algae are becoming a strategic renewable resource capable of contributing to food security, sustainable agriculture, health, advanced materials, renewable chemicals, and climate resilience.

Finally, we want Europe to become the global leader in algae BioTech. The continent already possesses exceptional scientific knowledge. If we combine that with supportive policies, industrial investment, and strong collaboration, Europe has every opportunity to lead the next generation of sustainable BioTech.

I genuinely believe that algae are no longer a niche topic. They are becoming part of the solution to many of the world’s biggest challenges, and EABA is committed to helping make that vision a reality.

The post European Algae Biomass Association : Spotlight appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

SPOTLIGHT ON EUROPEAN SUBSEA CABLES

The European subsea cable industry is rapidly evolving, driven by the increasing demand for high-speed data transmission, cloud computing, hyperscale data centres, and international internet connectivity.  

Subsea cables serve as essential connectors and enablers in our daily lives, forming the backbone of the dynamic energy and digital sectors. These complex networks, often extending deep beneath the ocean’s surface, transmit electricity and data across vast distances. 

In particular, the European subsea cable industry plays a crucial role in this infrastructure, connecting countries and facilitating advancements in technology and renewable energy initiatives. Through these underwater connections, resources can be harnessed and information shared more efficiently than ever, fostering innovation and connectivity in our interwoven world. 

Indeed, the subsea cable market is projected to reach USD$13.30 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.39 percent from 2026 to 2033. Key drivers include the rapid expansion of offshore wind energy projects, deployment of submarine communication cable systems, and rising investments in cross-border electricity interconnectors.  

Additionally, technological advancements in high-voltage cable systems, high-voltage direct current transmission, and durable cable insulation materials are enhancing project efficiency and reliability. 

To safeguard these vital connections, the EU is actively investing in legal, technological, and military measures. However, achieving resilience requires coordinated action across member states, private operators, and international partners to protect connectivity, economic stability, and security. 

European subsea cables face several risks and threats of damage, including abrasion, ocean currents, and seismic activity. Accidental damage also often results from fishing equipment or ship anchors, whilst the risk of intentional threats and cybersecurity have increased attention of governments in recent years.  

These cables carry trillions of dollars in daily financial transactions, support military communications, and enable cross-border energy flows, making them critical infrastructure. 

Therefore, the resilience and advancement of the European subsea cable industry is vital not only for technological progress and renewable energy integration, but also maintaining global connectivity and security in an increasingly interdependent world.

Q&A WITH THE EUROPEAN SUBSEA CABLES ASSOCIATION

We sit down with the European Subsea Cables Association to explore the integral role of the subsea cable industry in meeting Europe’s evolving energy needs and dynamic digital demands. Featuring insights from Executive Director, John Wrottesley, and Chair, Steve Holden, we uncover the strategies driving the future of subsea infrastructure.

The European Subsea Cables Association (ESCA) is a forum for companies involved in the ownership, operation, installation, maintenance, and supply of submarine cables in European and nearby waters, focusing on telecommunications (telecoms), power, and offshore renewables. 

As a non-commercial, member-led association, ESCA promotes marine safety and protects submarine cables from hazards. Its members have interests across the Baltic Sea, North Sea, Irish Sea, Atlantic approaches, and Mediterranean. 

ESCA holds Observer Status with the OSPAR Commission and is a member of the Seabed User & Developer Group (SUDG), which promotes cross-sector cooperation for sustainable development in increasingly busy marine spaces, advocating for early communication between marine industries and good practices to minimise conflicts.  

The association provides technical evidence to the European Commission and national regulators and manages the Kingfisher Information Service – Offshore Renewable & Cable Awareness (KIS-ORCA), a free cable awareness resource for fishermen and mariners in Northwest Europe. 

ESCA is run by a small, experienced Secretariat, whose lean structure draws on its members’ expertise, under an elected Executive Committee. 

It collaborates with governments, regulators, and policymakers to share technical expertise and ensure decision-makers have accurate information. When taking a public stance, the association invites others to collaborate. 

Addressing the complexities of subsea cables that cross national boundaries, ESCA engages with the European Commission and national government departments, maintains its OSPAR Observer Status, and supports the Valentia Island Symposium on Subsea Cable Security and Resilience. In addition, ESCA works closely with other subsea cable associations such as the International Cable Protection Committee (ICPC), Danish Cable Protection Committee (DKCPC), and wider stakeholder groups for other marine industry groups across Europe to support collaboration. 

Moreover, the association partners with academic and scientific organisations to ensure access to quality, neutral data concerning subsea cables in the marine environment, focusing on evidence rather than specific conclusions.

Firstly, could you talk us through the origins of ESCA, its inception, and initial mission and vision?

ESCA: It is worth starting a little earlier than ESCA itself, because the industry we represent began in European waters.  

The first successful permanent transatlantic telegraph cable ran from Valentia Island in County Kerry, Ireland to Heart’s Content in Newfoundland, Canada at the western end, completed in 1866 after the celebrated failure of 1858. The questions operators of that cable faced about protection, repair, and coexistence with other sea users are recognisably the issues the industry still works on today. 

ESCA’s roots run back much further than its name. The first international body dedicated to protecting undersea cables, the Cable Damage Committee, formed in 1958, became the ICPC in 1967. Four decades later, it became clear that European waters, amongst the busiest and most contested stretches of seabed anywhere in the world, needed a regional forum of their own. 

The UK Cable Protection Committee was established in 1999 by companies that own and operate cables in UK waters. It became Subsea Cables UK in 2011 and, in 2016, adopted its present name to reflect a membership and workload that had long since stopped at the UK’s territorial limit. 

The founding mission has barely changed – promoting marine safety and safeguarding submarine cables from man-made and natural hazards. Those two aims sit together deliberately.  

When fishing gear snags a cable, the result is not only a service outage; it’s a serious risk to the life of the crew aboard that vessel, and commercial fishing remains one of the most dangerous occupations in Europe. Preventing cable faults and keeping people safe at sea are, in practice, the same piece of work.  

What has changed is the breadth of the membership. ESCA began as a telecoms body and today brings together telecoms and data cables, power interconnectors, offshore transmission owners (OFTOs), island and festoon systems, offshore renewables export and inter-array cables, and the supply chain that installs, maintains, and repairs all of them, alongside government and regulator participants from a number of European countries. 

ESCA is a non-commercial forum focused on sharing technical information and best practices, not a marketplace or lobby group. It provides decision-makers with the technical input necessary for informed decisions without campaigning for commercial outcomes. 

Steve Holden, Chair (SH): We were founded on an idea that hasn’t dated, which is that protection of subsea cables and protection of lives at sea and maritime safety go hand in hand. Protect the cable and, through active liaison, safeguard the crew of all inshore and offshore maritime users, and everything downstream of that cable benefits. Everything else we do flows from these basic principles. 

How is the subsea cable industry addressing the growing demand for digital connectivity and energy security?

ESCA: Two demand curves are rising at once, and they are sharing the same seabed. 

On the digital side, subsea cables carry over 99 percent of intercontinental data traffic, and the current wave of investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud infrastructure is driving both new cable systems and far higher capacity on existing routes, with hyperscalers now investing directly alongside carriers.  

On the energy side, Europe has around 39 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity installed, and WindEurope expects roughly a further 34 GW of offshore build from 2026 to 2030, alongside a steady increase in interconnectors. None of that reaches shore without subsea cables. 

Geography shapes where the pressure falls. Ireland sits at the western edge of Europe, and its exclusive economic zone, seven times the size of its land area, carries most transatlantic data traffic to the continent. The Baltic and North Seas combine dense shipping, extensive fishing activity, and Europe’s fastest offshore wind buildout.  

The Mediterranean carries the routes linking Europe to Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Each of these has a different mix of users, regulators, and risks, which is one reason a European forum is more useful than a purely national one. 

The industry’s response has three strands. The first is promoting diversity by design – more routes, landing points, and system-level redundancy, so cable faults do not disrupt the end user. The second is investment in capacity, meaning manufacturing, installation vessels, and long-term maintenance agreements. The third, and the one ESCA is directly concerned with, is coordination. 

Policy has moved quickly to keep pace. The EU Action Plan on Cable Security, adopted in February 2025, has since produced the Cable Security Toolbox, a list of 13 Cable Projects of European Interest (CPEI) to guide investment over the next 15 years. 

ESCA contributes technical input to that work and consultations run by European bodies, and its consistent message is that measures need to be designed alongside the operators who will have to deliver them. 

This is where ESCA stands out. It is one of the very few places where telecoms, power, and offshore renewables collaborate, and where these sectors engage with governments to exchange technical advice and information. 

Historically, they have used the same seabed with different regulators, standards, and vocabularies. When a wind farm export cable and transatlantic cable system want to deploy in the same area or close to each other, or when an offshore wind farm export cable has to cross an in-service interconnector, these types of situations need to be resolved technically and early.  

ESCA’s Guidelines do exactly that, covering the proximity of offshore renewable energy installations to cable infrastructure, rock placement, power cable installation and repair, crossing arrangements, and much more. 

Energy and digital security have become the same conversation in government. It helps that, within ESCA, they have already been the same conversation in industry for a decade. 

John Wrottesley, Executive Director (JW): Connectivity and energy security now depend on the same seabed and a limited supply of vessels and people. It is vital to consider the differences, but treating them as entirely separate policy areas can create bottlenecks in both. 

What specific challenges does the industry face in enhancing this critical infrastructure?

ESCA: There are several, but three come up consistently. 

First, repair and maintenance capacity: in 2025, ESCA and the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) issued a joint statement warning of emerging gaps in Europe’s ability to repair its own undersea infrastructure.  

The repair vessel fleet is ageing, strategic spares and equipment reserves need investment, and the sector faces a generational transition in a specialised offshore workforce. Power cable repairs are particularly complex, and inconsistent processes between neighbouring states can hold up cross-border repairs. Building new cable is only half of the resilience picture; the other half is repairing it quickly. 

Secondly, regulatory fragmentation and permitting. Rules made for other purposes, whether environmental permitting, maritime spatial planning, or maritime transport, routinely produce unintended consequences for cables. Complex authorisation procedures can delay new systems and, more seriously, slow emergency repairs where no expedited route exists.  

A cable that crosses four exclusive economic zones can encounter four different consenting regimes, four sets of environmental conditions, and four different definitions of what counts as an emergency.  

ESCA has consistently asked for two practical things: designated single points of contact for subsea cable policy at member state level, and consultation with operators whilst rules are being drafted rather than after they are made.  

That is how you arrive at resilience measures that are technically feasible and proportionate. Government departments from a number of countries are members of ESCA, and those countries have seen good outcomes from being part of the discussions that take place within industry and becoming aware of challenges naturally, rather than being informed only once a serious problem has arisen. 

Lastly, seabed congestion – marine protected areas, offshore wind, aggregates extraction, fishing, aquaculture, defence activity, and carbon storage are all competing for space. Marine spatial planning needs to account for a characteristic unique to cables: they are linear rather than confined to a single footprint. The best spatial plans incorporate the needs of future cable installation and repair from the outset. 

Framing is also an important consideration; since the incidents in the Baltic Sea, undersea cables have become a prominent security issue in the headlines. Whilst the increased attention on this sector is welcome and long overdue, the daily risk profile for the things which commonly damage cables has not changed.  

Policies based on sensational headlines rather than data often overlook the measures that could prevent most faults. However, the heightened focus has led to greater collaboration between industry and governments, which benefits everyone involved.   

What are some of the potential risks or threats to subsea cables, and how does ESCA monitor and protect them?

ESCA: The hazard list is long, and most of it is either accidental or natural in origin: commercial fishing gear, ship anchors, other human activities on the seabed, earthquakes and turbidity currents, underwater landslides, seabed mobility and abrasion, weather and climate effects, and collateral damage from marine incidents. 

ICPC records about 150 to 200 submarine telecoms cable faults globally each year, of which 70 to 80 percent are caused by accidental human activity, mainly fishing and anchors.  

The UK government says 97 percent of faults affecting UK cables result from fishing or anchor dragging. In practical terms, a subsea cable is damaged somewhere in the world roughly every three days. That frequency does not indicate a crisis; it reflects a well-understood operating condition the industry is built to absorb. 

It is worth separating three kinds of risk, because each calls for a different response – direct damage to the cable; impeded access to the water column and seabed, which delays repair; and clustering of systems, or limited access for future routing, which magnifies the consequences of both. 

ESCA should clarify its role here: it does not operate cables or monitor them in real time. Members do that, and national authorities lead on maritime security. ESCA brings a collective voice for the industry, improves the quality of information available to everyone with operational responsibility, shares experience between members, engages with all stakeholders, and helps improve safety, coordination, and cable awareness. 

In practice, that means promoting the charting and dissemination of route information through the hydrographic offices and KIS-ORCA, sustained awareness and education work with fishermen, mariners, offshore operators, and divers, a library of technical guidelines developed by member experts, structured liaison, and the provision of accurate technical evidence to governments, regulators, and European institutions. 

What measures ensure the integrity and resilience of subsea cables, and how do you respond to detected issues to minimise disruption?

ESCA: Protection begins long before installation. A desk study and detailed route survey identify hazards and other users of the area. Burial is the single most effective protection measure, and how deep to bury is an engineering judgement that balances cable protection, cost, and the route’s risk profile. 

After installation, the toolkit largely focuses on separation and information: separation distances from other activities, crossing agreements with other asset owners, cable protection zones, corridors where national frameworks provide for them, proper representation in marine spatial planning, and accurate charting through the hydrographic offices and KIS-ORCA.  

Behind all of that sits a legal framework of civil and criminal liability, supported by maritime guidance such as Marine Guidance Note (MGN) 661 and ESCA’s own guidance. 

When a fault occurs, the network itself is the first line of defence. Resilience and diversity of design, i.e. multiple systems, routes, and landings, mean most single faults never reach the end user. Repair vessels are then mobilised, usually under a standing maintenance agreement, and the cable is recovered, jointed, tested, and reburied.  

This is normally an emergency response because you can’t plan for the unexpected incidents that typically damage cables, so readiness is key. 

New technology is changing detection, not repair. Vessel behaviour analytics built on automatic identification system data can flag loitering or anchor dragging near a route in near real time.  

Distributed acoustic sensing and state-of-polarisation monitoring can support understanding of activities around the cable, and power cables increasingly carry distributed temperature sensing for condition monitoring. Improved seabed mobility modelling is making burial decisions smarter.  

The EU has recognised the need for further funding to support the subsea cable ecosystem, with close to €350 million committed in February 2026. Of that, €60 million is earmarked for cable repair equipment, €20 million for monitoring tools that can detect damage, and a further €20 million for faster repairs, with the Baltic Sea as the pilot region for rapid repair capability. 

JW: There is a lot of interest in what technology can do for cable protection, and rightly so. What we would add is that a cable is still repaired at sea, by a crew, bringing challenges of weather, maritime traffic, and all of the complexities of working in the oceans. Investment in monitoring is one thing, but it is vital to invest in people, skills, and typical cable protection techniques in policy and practice. 

What notable projects, events, or key initiatives is ESCA currently involved in?

ESCA: KIS-ORCA – Managed by ESCA with Seafish’s Kingfisher department, KIS-ORCA provides free, accurate, and regularly updated information on subsea cables and offshore renewable infrastructure to mariners and fishermen.  

It covers the North Sea, English Channel, Bristol Channel, Irish Sea, west of Scotland, and more widely across Europe and down to the Mediterranean, and is distributed as charts, plotter-compatible files, an interactive website, and the Kingfisher Bulletin app.  

Full members include their operational cable data in the system, with annual data calls managed through ESCA and Seafish. It is one of the clearest examples of the industry collectively funding the prevention of incidents that would otherwise fall to individual operators.  

Valentia Island Symposium on Subsea Cable Security and Resilience – ESCA has supported the symposium since its inception and remains one of its strongest supporters.  

Hosted by the Valentia Transatlantic Cable Foundation at the historic Valentia Transatlantic Cable Station, it brings government, industry, and academia together over several days and has become one of Europe’s most productive dialogues for working through the harder questions of cable security and resilience.  

Then-Tánaiste, Micheál Martin, addressed the inaugural symposium in October 2024, and the resulting report was launched on European Maritime Day in Cork, Ireland in May 2025.  

The second symposium, held in April 2026 on the theme of restoration and repair, was addressed by the Minister for Defence and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Helen McEntee, who set out Ireland’s National Maritime Security Strategy and intention to put maritime security and subsea infrastructure on the European agenda during its Presidency of the Council of the EU. 

The location is not incidental; Valentia Island has historical significance as the site of the first permanent transatlantic telegraph cable. The station buildings remain in remarkable condition, and the two sites together are the subject of a transnational UNESCO World Heritage bid, the Transatlantic Cable Ensemble, which sits on Ireland’s tentative list and is working towards formal nomination.  

For a largely invisible industry, having a physical place where its origins can be seen and visited matters more than it might sound and gives discussions about the network’s future an unusually long perspective. 

JW: Valentia Island is a remarkable place, and it works because industry, academia, and government are together across multiple days in a unique and historic location. The focus is on practical, shared dialogue, not just talking sessions. ESCA has supported it from the outset for exactly that reason. 

ESCA: Fishing Liaison Best Practice Guidelines – Launched in June 2026 and formally endorsed by the Minister for Digital Economy, Baroness Liz Lloyd, at a Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Whitehall Briefing on Subsea Cable Resilience. The guidelines were developed with fishing organisations and government departments through joint workshops in York and Cardiff and set out how early dialogue and open information sharing should work across the whole lifecycle of a cable project. 

Two plenary meetings each year – These are members’ meetings rather than commercial conferences. They bring together cable owners, operators, and the supply chain from across the industry, with governments, regulators, and policymakers attending as participants rather than an audience. 

Subsea Cable Awareness Workshop – ESCA’s dedicated forum for sharing information freely on how cables are installed and repaired and scientific evidence is a great place to start if you want to learn about subsea cables. 

Engagement with European institutions – The association responds to European consultations, contributes technical evidence to the European Commission’s work on cable security, and maintains working relationships with national departments and regulators across Europe. Several government departments are ESCA members in their own right, which means the technical conversation happens continuously rather than only when something goes wrong. 

Observer Status with the OSPAR Commission – Allows ESCA to contribute technical expertise and evidence to discussions on marine environmental protection and keep members informed of emerging policy. 

SUDG membership – Much of the cross-sector work with other marine industries happens here with a key focus on sustainable development. 

Sub-Groups and Working Groups – Six standing groups do the substantive work: the Maritime Sub-Group, Technical and Regulatory Sub-Group, Renewables and Power Cables Sub-Group, Next Generation Sub-Group, the Subsea Cable Decommissioning Working Group, and Southern Europe Sub-Group. 

NextGen – ESCA’s NextGen programme supports early-career professionals through training, outreach, and mentorship.  

In July 2026, ESCA’s Subsea Cables Summer Reception at BT Tower in London brought around 120 students and early-career professionals together with Baroness Lloyd, The Crown Estate, and industry leaders to talk about routes into the sector, including graduate schemes, apprenticeships, and vocational and technical training.  

There is no single way in, and the sector needs all of them. 

How does ESCA support its members in adopting sustainable practices and minimising their ecological footprint?

ESCA: The physical footprint of a subsea cable is small. A telecoms cable is roughly the diameter of a garden hose and buried wherever the seabed allows, but small is not the same as evidenced, and ESCA’s position is that decisions about the marine environment should rest on neutral, independent data rather than assumptions in either direction. 

Where evidence has been thin, precaution has often filled the gap. That is understandable, but it is not a substitute for data. 

ESCA’s Observer Status with the OSPAR Commission allows the association to contribute technical expertise directly to discussions on marine environmental protection and help ensure guidance reflects how cables are actually designed, installed, and maintained.  

Where ESCA believes existing guidance has not kept pace with modern practice, it has consistently offered to help bring it up to date. 

The more important work sits upstream of any guideline – improving the evidence itself. ESCA works with academic and scientific organisations across Europe to support better availability of independent data on subsea cables in the marine environment. Two recent examples show why this matters.  

A global assessment of the environmental considerations of subsea cable decommissioning, led by the National Oceanography Centre and published in late 2025, found the impacts of cable recovery are typically localised, short-lived, and substantially smaller than those of installation; modern cables remain structurally sound after decades on the seabed, and their materials are over 95 percent recyclable.  

Separately, a 2026 synthesis of existing research into EMF, to provide a technical summary of the topics, and support the knowledge base as well as where there may be uncertainty.  

ESCA maintains its own statement on EMFs and subsea cables and wants to close those gaps, whichever way the findings fall. 

In practical terms, members are supported through ESCA Guidelines on rock placement and decommissioning, through the Subsea Cable Decommissioning Working Group’s work on end-of-life regulatory, environmental, and practical questions and shared best practices on route planning that avoids sensitive habitats and minimises seabed intervention. 

JW: We are not asking regulators to take our word for anything. We are asking for the science to be done properly and independently, and we will help whoever does it. Filling an evidence gap with assumptions harms the marine environment and infrastructure. 

What are the most significant benefits members receive, and how are these tailored to different types of organisations?

ESCA: ESCA offers two categories: full membership is open to submarine cable owners and operators and includes voting rights, full participation in governance, eligibility to stand for the Executive Committee, Chair, or Vice Chair, and inclusion of operational cables and offshore renewable infrastructure within KIS-ORCA.  

The other category is associate membership, open to government departments, suppliers, consultants, and wider industry stakeholders, with full participation in Sub-Groups, Working Groups, and meetings. 

The common benefits are straightforward: access to peers across telecoms, power, and renewables; shared technical, environmental, legal, and regulatory expertise; collective engagement with governments, regulators, and European institutions; reduced operational risk through initiatives such as KIS-ORCA; and a public demonstration of commitment to safety and responsible operation. 

Tailoring happens through the Sub-Groups, which is where most of the work is done. An offshore wind developer or OFTO will gravitate towards the Renewables and Power Cables Sub-Group; a telecoms operator tends to find most value in the Technical and Regulatory Sub-Group and Maritime Sub-Group.  

A vessel operator or supplier gains direct access to the technical debate that shapes the standards they will be asked to work to and the people specifying that work. A government department or regulator gets something hard to obtain elsewhere: a neutral, non-commercial technical channel into the industry it regulates and a view of what is happening in neighbouring member states.  

Members in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean have the Southern Europe Sub-Group, early-career staff have NextGen, and organisations facing end-of-life decisions have the Decommissioning Working Group. 

Membership is deliberately accessible. Associate membership is currently £1,500 a year with a £500 one-off joining fee, and full membership is currently £3,500 a year with a £1,000 joining fee, pro-rated for those joining mid-year. 

SH: The value members talk about most is the relationships. Working alongside people across the sector over several years builds trust, and that allows issues to be resolved quickly and sensibly when they do arise. 

Finally, what is the anticipated outlook for ESCA and the broader industry over the next five years?

ESCA: Five things look reasonably certain. 

Volume – Demand from AI and cloud infrastructure on the digital side, and from European electrification and offshore wind on the energy side, means the demand for subsea cables continues to increase. 

Regulation catching up – The EU Action Plan on Cable Security has moved from communication to delivery, and Ireland has named subsea cable resilience amongst the digital priorities of its Presidency of the Council of the EU, which runs from July 2026.  

In the UK, the government has announced plans to replace legislation dating back over 140 years with a modern criminal and security framework, with a white paper expected in 2026. The direction of travel is right, and the detail will determine whether it helps or hinders, which is precisely where ESCA’s technical input matters. 

Repair capacity as the binding constraint – If one issue defines the next five years, it will be whether Europe invests in the vessels, equipment reserves, and workforce needed to fix what it is so enthusiastically building. 

People – The generational transition in the offshore workforce is real. NextGen exists because a sector that cannot recruit cannot be resilient, no matter how much cable it lays. 

A maturing evidence base – Independent science on decommissioning, EMFs, seabed mobility, and coexistence is improving quickly. Better evidence should mean more proportionate regulation and better environmental outcomes. 

For ESCA specifically, expect a broader geographic footprint through the Southern Europe Sub-Group, deeper government participation, and more cross-sector work through SUDG and with the fishing industry.  

The association has grown from a UK cable protection committee into a European forum spanning three industries, and that trajectory continues. 

SH: Five years from now, there will be more subsea cables on the European seabed, more sectors sharing that space, and more political attention on all of it. Our job is to make sure the decisions taken in that environment are informed by the people who actually install, operate, and repair this infrastructure.

EUROPEAN SUBSEA CABLES ASSOCIATION PARTNER

The post European Subsea Cables Association : Spotlight appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

PASSION FOR SALMON

The Norwegian aquaculture sector holds a strong position in both the national economy and global food production.

Indeed, protein production at sea is seeing high international demand and strongly endorsed by leading health and sustainability organisations due to its nutritional value, low climate footprint, limited freshwater consumption, low land use requirements, and significant scalability.

“How often do you find a product that is very popular whilst also being widely recognised for its health and sustainability benefits? How often do you find a food product that is tasty, healthy, versatile, sustainable to produce, and acknowledged as an important contributor to feeding future generations? We have a remarkable product on our hands!” exclaims Mats Wærøe Langseth, Head of Sustainability at SalMar – the second-largest salmon producer in the world.

The company is proud to have established itself as a frontrunner in this space, harvesting just over 300,000 tonnes (t) of Atlantic salmon in 2025, and aims to produce 350,000 t in 2026.

Since its inception in 1991, SalMar has always been driven by entrepreneurship, continuously challenging industry norms to innovate and develop the sector whilst remaining grounded in fish welfare.

SCHOOLMASTER OF SALMON

SalMar is also continuously focused on quality, emphasised by its fully integrated value chain – from roe to harvest – which enables precision and world-class products across all stages of production.

“Salmon roe is carefully selected and nurtured until hatching. Juveniles are then closely monitored in controlled environments to ensure their needs are met during the early growth stages and our salmon are raised in healthy, sea-based environments until harvest,” Maria Gaasø, Business Developer, outlines.

Alongside quality, “Sustainability in Everything We Do” is one of SalMar’s core cultural tenets.

Case in point, at the World Economic Forum in January 2026, the company was recognised by Corporate Knights as the world’s most sustainable food producer. A year earlier, it was also acknowledged by TIME and Statista as a leading company for sustainable growth.

Yet, for SalMar, its environmental priorities go far beyond gaining industry recognition.

“For us, sustainability is about taking a holistic view of how long-term value can be created whilst supporting local communities, respecting nature, and building on our vision of ‘Passion for Salmon’,” Langseth urges.

Compared to other food production sectors, salmon farming is a highly resource-efficient way of producing healthy food at scale. Reason being, salmon requires only about 1.2 kilograms (kg) of feed per kg of biomass growth, contributing to its low carbon footprint.

From an already low baseline, SalMar has achieved significant reductions in its climate emissions over the past five years, including a decrease of 20+ percent in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and more than 40 percent in emissions per unit of production. This puts the company on track to achieve its emissions reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement.

SalMar is simultaneously reporting its highest salmon survival rate in more than 15 years, an achievement it is deeply proud of.

“The sustainable development we have achieved over time is the result of the hard work and dedication of more than 3,500 employees. Understanding how long-term value is created, and how sustainability contributes to that, is central to our strategic priorities,” Langseth highlights.

LOCAL VALUE CREATION

Local value creation has been part of SalMar’s identity from the outset. Founded in Frøya, a coastal community in Central Norway, the company’s first objective was to create eight full-time jobs locally.

Since then, contributing to thriving coastal communities has remained part of SalMar’s DNA.

Over the last three decades, the company has expanded beyond Frøya to other parts of Norway, as well as Iceland and the UK.

Despite this growth, its founding principles remain the same.

“Successful companies depend on strong communities, and strong communities benefit from successful companies. We are interdependent and must work together to foster open dialogue and a shared understanding of how both sides can contribute to long-term engagement and value creation,” notes Gaasø.

SalMar’s focus on the latter also extends to its local processing operations; instead of only exporting salmon as a whole fish to markets around the world, it delivers ready-to-eat fillets, portions, and loins directly to customers, therefore reducing the need for additional handling and processing further down the value chain.

This ultimately creates greater employment opportunities in its processing facilities, enhances quality assurance, and generates a lower carbon footprint for its products.

“SalMar is also strongly committed to increasing public knowledge and understanding of salmon farming. We operate six salmon exhibition centres that offer free tours of our sea sites and educational experiences,” Langseth adds.

On top of this, the company operates the SalMar Fund, which contributes to community development across the core focus areas of fellowship, diversity, sports, culture, innovation, value creation, and sustainability.

FORGING FISH FARMING INNOVATION

The industry has significantly evolved since SalMar’s inception, particularly as aquaculture transitions from an experience-based approach to data-driven – which the company is keenly adopting.

“Today, we can gather highly sophisticated data from our farms, providing a broader understanding of salmon’s biological needs and the environment in which it lives. Better information leads to better decision-making,” Gaasø informs us.

The Norwegian salmon industry’s leading global position is attracting growing international attention, with many companies worldwide interested in contributing to its development.

For instance, SalMar recently partnered with Tidal, a spinout of X, Google’s Moonshot Factory, to accelerate the deployment of automated feeding and enable real-time, industrial-scale farm intelligence.

The partnership’s objective is to further improve fish welfare and environmental performance through artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems. It also reflects the company’s commitment to sustainable aquaculture and represents one of several development initiatives across its value chain.

SalMar is also actively involved in developing the Salmon Living Lab, a global research and innovation initiative that brings together industry, research institutions, academia, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and authorities. The aim is to share knowledge, pool resources, and address complex challenges that cannot be solved by individual stakeholders alone.

“The Salmon Living Lab has already attracted some of Norway’s leading research institutions as partners and has several industry-relevant projects underway,” excites Langseth.

STRIVING FOR SALMON EXCELLENCE

For SalMar, being the world’s best salmon producers means understanding the complexity of its operations and striving for excellence in everything it does.

“Our vision, ‘Passion for Salmon’, puts fish welfare and human motivation at the heart of our operations and serves as a key driver of operational efficiency, precision, and performance,” GaasØ smiles.

Over the next five years, the company will invest in new technologies and development projects that further enhance its ability to operate on salmon’s terms.

“Salmon farming is complex, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The optimal technology and production strategy depend on the local environment at each site and the biology of the fish,” he affirms.

AI and automation have already begun to play a vital part in SalMar’s operations, and their application is likely to expand in the near future.

Looking ahead, SalMar’s ambition is to continue developing aquaculture on the terms of the salmon, environment, and communities in which it operates. For the company, progress is not defined by growth alone, but by its ability to combine strong biological performance, responsible innovation, and long-term value creation across the coastal regions it calls home.

“What we do today, we do better than yesterday,” concludes Langseth.

The post SalMar : Passion for Salmon appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

ENABLING EUROPE’S CIRCULAR ECONOMY

The environmental services industry in Europe has undergone a profound transformation over the last four decades, something Abderaman El Aoufir, CEO of Derichebourg – a leader in the metal recycling sector – has a deep understanding of.

“When I began my career, recycling and waste management activities were still viewed largely as local industrial services focused mainly on collection and disposal. Today, our industry has become a strategic pillar of the European industrial and environmental agenda,” he opens.

Indeed, over the span of El Aoufir’s 40+ year career, there has been a growing recognition that waste is not something to eliminate but a valuable source of secondary raw materials – a shift in mindset that has significantly altered the sector.

Recycled metals, plastics, paper, electronic waste, and batteries are now considered critical resources that contribute directly to reducing dependence on virgin raw materials and lowering industrial carbon emissions.

European regulation has simultaneously evolved considerably with the creation of one of the most advanced environmental regulatory frameworks in the world. This has driven higher standards in recycling, traceability, depollution, emissions control, and resource recovery, ultimately accelerating innovation and professionalisation across the sector.

“Technological progress has also been remarkable; modern recycling facilities today bear little resemblance to those of 40 years ago.

“Automation, optical sorting, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced shredding technologies, battery treatment processes, and sophisticated material recovery systems have dramatically improved both efficiency and material quality,” he excites.

The industry has witnessed numerous other notable evolutions, such as the increasing strategic importance of recycling for heavy industry and manufacturing, the landscape’s transition from a fragmented and largely local industry to more international and consolidated supply chains, and a growing awareness of sustainable performance and adherence to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria.

“Overall, I would say the industry has evolved from a relatively traditional waste management business into a highly strategic industrial ecosystem that sits at the intersection of environmental protection, industrial competitiveness, and the energy transition.

“It is a transformation that has been both challenging and extremely rewarding to witness throughout my career,” El Aoufir reflects.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY PIONEER

Derichebourg has grown over the last seven decades to be a major player in environmental services and circular economy solutions, with a strong presence across Europe and North America.

The company is organised around two main divisions: Environmental Services and Public Sector Services.

The former focuses primarily on collecting, recycling, recovering, and trading ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well as end-of-life products comprising vehicles, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), and industrial waste streams.

Meanwhile, the Public Sector Services division provides local government services such as household waste collection and urban cleaning.

Collectively, Derichebourg serves a broad and diversified base, including steelmakers, foundries, manufacturers, and local authorities.

Indeed, the company’s roots date back to 1956 when it began developing activities linked to metal recovery and recycling in France.

“From the very beginning, the company understood the value of recovering industrial materials and reintegrating them into the production cycle, long before the circular economy and decarbonisation became widely recognised,” El Aoufir elaborates.

Over the decades, Derichebourg progressively expanded both geographically and operationally, investing heavily in industrial infrastructure, shredding capacity, logistics, and advanced recycling technologies.

The company soon became one of the leading recycling operators in Europe and amongst the early pioneers in recognising that raw materials would play a critical role in the future of manufacturing and steel production.

“Our mission is to transform waste into resources and support a more circular industrial model where materials remain in the economy for as long as possible.

“We believe this is essential not only for increasing Europe’s recycling performance, but also reducing dependence on virgin raw materials and supporting long-term industrial decarbonisation,” he surmises.

MEETING EUROPE’S RECYCLING NEEDS

Derichebourg is deeply committed to its role of recovering valuable raw materials from industrial, commercial, and end-of-life products and reintroducing them into the manufacturing cycle under the highest quality conditions.

In the current context of the energy transition and geopolitical uncertainty, the company plays an active role in supporting the continent’s transition towards a more circular and resource-efficient economy.

Indeed, Derichebourg contributes to the resilience and sovereignty of European industry by helping secure local sources of secondary raw materials and providing integrated waste management and recycling solutions designed to maximise material recovery and reduce dependence on virgin raw materials.

One of the company’s key strengths in this regard is its ability to manage the entire value chain, from collection and sorting to processing, recovering, and reintegrating recycled materials into industrial production cycles.

“This integrated approach allows us to improve traceability, optimise recovery rates, and deliver high-quality secondary raw materials that can be reused by steelmakers, foundries, refiners, and manufacturing industries across Europe,” details El Aoufir.

Metal recycling in particular has become strategically important for the continent’s industrial and environmental ambitions. Recycling ferrous and non-ferrous metals significantly reduces energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions compared to primary extraction and refining.

“By supplying high-quality recycled metals to industrial customers, we directly contribute to the decarbonisation of sectors such as steel, aluminium, automotive, and manufacturing,” he highlights.

LOCAL ANCHORING, INTERNATIONAL REACH

Both local and international suppliers play a critical role in the success of Derichebourg.

At a local level, the company’s operations rely heavily on strong relationships with regional suppliers, industrial partners, transport companies, maintenance providers, and equipment specialists.

“Recycling is fundamentally a proximity business: the ability to collect, process, and valorise materials efficiently depends on a dense local ecosystem and trusted long-term partnerships.

“Local suppliers also help us remain agile, responsive to customer needs, and compliant with national environmental and regulatory requirements,” El Aoufir notes.

At the same time, international suppliers are increasingly important as the recycling industry becomes more globalised and technologically advanced.

“Scrap flows, refined recycled materials, and end customers often operate across borders. Having a strong international supply chain enables us to secure outlets for recycled materials, diversify sourcing opportunities, and better support major industrial customers – particularly steelmakers and metallurgical groups transitioning towards more sustainable production models such as electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking,” illustrates El Aoufir.

Ultimately, Derichebourg’s balance between strong local anchoring and international reach is one of the key strengths of its business model, allowing the company to combine operational proximity with industrial scale and global market access.

PAN-EUROPEAN NETWORK

With a broad European footprint, Derichebourg strongly believes that an efficient supply chain cannot be managed exclusively from a central office.

“The strength of our organisation comes from combining a common industrial strategy with strong regional leadership teams that understand their local markets in depth,” El Aoufir tells us.

Indeed, the company’s regional supply chain heads play a key role in ensuring operational efficiency whilst adapting to the specific realities of each country and region.

This includes understanding local business practices, regulatory environments, transport infrastructures, customer expectations, and language and cultural nuances.

“In industries such as recycling and environmental services, relationships and trust remain extremely important, and having local teams who speak the language and understand the culture creates a significant operational advantage,” he affirms.

“These regional teams also allow us to react more quickly to market fluctuations, logistical disruptions, or changes in material flows.”

At the same time, Derichebourg’s pan-European structure allows it to coordinate strategically across borders.

Indeed, best practices, market intelligence, industrial standards, and operational expertise are shared throughout the group, whilst procurement and logistics synergies are leveraged whenever relevant.

“This balance between local autonomy and European coordination helps us build a resilient, agile, and highly responsive supply chain,” adds El Aoufir.

In practical terms, this means Derichebourg can remain locally embedded whilst benefitting from the scale, expertise, and international reach of a major European recycling and environmental services organisation.

THE HEART OF THE LOCAL ECONOMY

Derichebourg upholds a deep commitment to local communities across its operations.

“Recycling and environmental services are activities that operate at the heart of local economies, creating industrial employment, supporting circular economy initiatives, and contributing directly to environmental protection and resource preservation,” El Aoufir insights.

With this in mind, the company’s sites are long-standing industrial actors within their respective regions, demonstrated through strong and constructive relationships with stakeholders, including municipalities, residents, schools, associations, industrial partners, and public authorities.

Internally, social responsibility is also embedded in Derichebourg’s operational culture.

“Our industry remains highly people-oriented, and the expertise of our employees is one of the key drivers of our success. We therefore place significant emphasis on health and safety, professional development, internal promotion, and workforce stability,” he reveals.

Case in point, many of the company’s employees build long-term careers in the business, reflecting the importance it places on loyalty, knowledge sharing, and social cohesion.

Derichebourg’s staff base is also built on a social model centred around diversity and inclusion.

“The recycling industry brings together a wide variety of professions, skills, and backgrounds, and we see this diversity as a strength. We actively support vocational integration and seek to provide opportunities across different levels of qualification and experience,” El Aoufir informs us.

In parallel, the company’s environmental mission naturally creates a positive social impact.

“By recovering and transforming waste into secondary raw materials, we help reduce the consumption of virgin natural resources, lower industrial carbon emissions, and support the transition towards a more circular and sustainable economy,” he prides.

DISCIPLINED GROWTH

With continued investment in industrial performance and operational excellence as one of its main priorities, Derichebourg intends to strengthen its position as a leading player in the circular economy.

The company plans to modernise its equipment, improve recovery rates, increase automation where relevant, and further enhance safety and environmental standards across its facilities.

Supporting the decarbonisation of the industry also remains a steadfast focus.

“Steelmakers and manufacturers across Europe are accelerating their transition towards lower-carbon production models, particularly through EAF technologies, which require high-quality recycled raw materials.

“We see this transition as a major long-term opportunity for our sector, and we intend to further strengthen our ability to supply reliable, high-quality ferrous and non-ferrous recycled materials to these industries,” El Aoufir sets out.

Geographical expansion and selective external growth also remain part of Derichebourg’s strategic vision, as it continues to evaluate opportunities that strengthen its industrial footprint, improve access to strategic markets, and complement existing expertise in recycling and environmental services.

“Our objective is not diversification for its own sake, but rather disciplined growth aligned with our core competencies and long-term industrial strategy.”

In parallel, the company is continuing to accelerate its ESG and sustainability roadmap. This includes reducing the environmental footprint of its operations, improving energy efficiency, advancing decarbonisation initiatives, and strengthening transparency and governance practices in line with evolving European regulatory expectations.

“Ultimately, our ambition for the coming years is to combine sustainable growth, industrial leadership, and environmental responsibility, whilst continuing to reinforce our role as a key contributor to Europe’s circular economy and resource independence,” closes El Aoufir.

DERICHEBOURG PARTNER

The post Derichebourg : Enabling Europe’s Circular Economy appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.

READINESS THROUGH SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY

In today’s modern defence landscape, the ability to deter conflict, protect national interests, and support allies no longer rests solely on the strength of military platforms.

It depends on something much broader – the resilience of a nation’s industrial base, skills of its people, and its ability to generate and sustain combat power at pace.

In an increasingly contested world, sovereign defence capacity has become a strategic imperative. Few people understand that challenge better than Rebecca Richards, Managing Director of Rheinmetall UK.

In her role, Richards leads an organisation at the forefront of the UK’s defence transformation.

The company is investing in advanced manufacturing, autonomous systems, weapons production, logistics support, digital integration, and future battlefield technologies whilst helping to modernise the British Army and strengthen the nation’s defence industrial base.

Across its sites in Bristol, Telford, Gateshead, Southampton, Bovington, and the Isle of Wight, more than 1,300 Rheinmetall UK employees are designing, integrating, manufacturing, and supporting systems and technologies spanning combat vehicles, logistics platforms, weapons systems, electronics, digital integration, training, and in-service support.

Together, they are helping build the industrial resilience and operational readiness required to meet the challenges of the future.

For Richards, however, the mission extends beyond programmes, platforms, and production lines.

“The defence industry has entered a new era. Recent conflicts have reinforced the importance of readiness, resilience, and the ability to sustain military effectiveness over time.

“Military capacity and industrial capability are inseparable. If we are serious about protecting our future, we must be equally serious about investing in the people, skills, and infrastructure that make that possible,” she emphasises.

This philosophy has shaped Richards’ leadership approach throughout a career spent steering organisations through growth, change, and transformation.

Today, it is helping to define Rheinmetall UK’s role as a trusted partner to the UK Ministry of Defence and a key contributor to national prosperity, domestic capability, and future force readiness.

BUILDING SOVEREIGN INDUSTRIAL RESILIENCE

The changing character of warfare has fundamentally altered how governments and industry think about defence.

Where success was once measured largely by platform delivery, today’s operational environment demands something more comprehensive – integrated defence systems, resilient supply chains, domestic manufacturing capacity, technological innovation, and the ability to adapt rapidly to evolving threats.

For Richards, this shift represents both a challenge and an opportunity.

“Defence capability is no longer just about what you build; it’s about your ability to design, manufacture, integrate, support, and continuously evolve equipment and systems throughout their lifecycle.

“That requires long-term investment, collaboration, and a clear commitment to UK industrial resilience,” she outlines.

At Rheinmetall UK, this commitment is visible across every part of the business and, as a result, the organisation has become a major contributor to the nation’s defence industrial ecosystem.

Combining advanced engineering, manufacturing, logistics vehicles, digital technologies, weapons systems, training, and in-service support, it is delivering a single enterprise capable of supporting the British Army’s current and future requirements.

DELIVERING FOR TODAY’S ARMY

At the heart of Rheinmetall UK’s portfolio are the programmes helping define the next generation of the British Army’s future fighting power.

For Richards, these programmes are about much more than delivering world-class platforms. They represent long-term investment in domestic capacity, industrial resilience, and the highly skilled people who will sustain the UK’s defence capability for decades to come.

“Every programme we deliver strengthens military readiness. It strengthens our industrial base, develops sovereign skills, and demonstrates the value of long-term investment in UK defence.”

One of the most significant examples is Challenger 3, the future of the British Army’s Main Battle Tank capability.

Combining enhanced survivability, increased lethality, a fully digital architecture, and Rheinmetall’s 120-millimetre L55A1 smoothbore cannon, Challenger 3 is being developed to meet the demands of modern warfare whilst ensuring interoperability with NATO allies.

Earlier this year, the programme achieved a landmark milestone with the successful completion of its first crewed live-firing trials – the first time Challenger 3 had fired on UK soil and the first occasion a newly developed British Main Battle Tank had fired in Britain for more than 30 years.

Building on that achievement, the programme has continued to progress through Battlefield Mission (BFM) serials.

Conducted in representative operating conditions, these activities are generating critical engineering data, validating procedures and trial methodologies, with data and observations feeding directly back into the engineering baseline to support continuous improvement and further mature the platform ahead of formal trial phases. For Richards, Challenger 3 is about much more than developing a world-class platform.

“Challenger 3 demonstrates what home-grown capability looks like in practice. Every stage of the programme strengthens our understanding, builds confidence in the platform, and sustains highly skilled engineering, manufacturing, and integration expertise here in the UK.

“It is a powerful example of what can be achieved when industry, government, and the British Army work together with a shared commitment to delivering operational effect.”

Alongside Challenger 3, Team BOXER UK recently celebrated another major milestone with the delivery of the 100th BOXER Mechanised Infantry Vehicle for the British Army.

Delivered through the collaborative efforts of Rheinmetall UK, KNDS UK, the Ministry of Defence, the British Army, and a nationwide UK supply chain, the achievement reflects the strength of British manufacturing and the power of partnership in delivering platforms at scale.

Built by British teams, in British facilities, for the British Army, BOXER continues to strengthen sovereign capacity whilst supporting highly skilled jobs, apprenticeships, future talent, and a more resilient UK defence industrial base.

For Richards, BOXER represents far more than a vehicle programme.

“It demonstrates what can be achieved when government, industry, and the Armed Forces work together with a shared commitment to delivering for our future force. It is strengthening British capability, supporting our supply chain, and creating lasting prosperity through investment in people, skills, and advanced manufacturing.”

Together, Challenger 3 and BOXER demonstrate Rheinmetall UK’s commitment to delivering platforms today whilst creating the industrial resilience required for tomorrow.

For Richards, Rheinmetall UK’s role does not end when a platform enters service. Through in-service support, digital integration, additive manufacturing, upgrades, and sustainment, the company remains a long-term partner to the British Army.

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE BATTLEFIELD

Whilst delivering today’s capability remains essential, Rheinmetall UK is equally focused on the technologies that will shape tomorrow’s battlefield.

A key example is the establishment of the Advanced Land Autonomy Centre of Excellence (ALACOE) in the UK.

Part of Rheinmetall’s wider global autonomy network, the centre brings world-leading autonomous systems expertise directly to the UK whilst strengthening cooperation between NATO partners and creating opportunities to localise advanced technologies.

At the heart of ALACOE is Rheinmetall’s PATH autonomy technology, developed by Rheinmetall Canada.

Demonstrated on more than 40 wheeled and tracked platforms, PATH enables autonomous navigation, leader-follower convoy operations, and dynamic obstacle avoidance in complex, GPS-degraded, and contested environments.

“The future battlefield will increasingly rely on autonomy, artificial intelligence, and digital integration. Through ALACOE, we are helping to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of those developments whilst creating high-value engineering and technology opportunities here at home,” Richards asserts.

The initiative also reinforces Rheinmetall UK’s commitment to strengthening defence capacity whilst supporting future economic growth.

SUPPORTING READINESS AT SCALE

Operational effectiveness depends on more than front-line combat systems – it requires mobility, sustainment, and operational resilience.

Through its HX family of tactical and logistics vehicles, Rheinmetall UK delivers the combat power required to survive in demanding environments.

Beyond manufacturing, Rheinmetall UK provides training, digital integration, additive manufacturing, and in-service support functions that ensure critical equipment remains available, effective, and mission-ready throughout its operational life. For Richards, this whole-life approach is fundamental to delivering operational readiness.

Just recently, British Army personnel successfully completed the first UK autonomous HX convoy using Rheinmetall’s PATH autonomous kit (A-Kit) technology as part of project MAIA.

Working alongside personnel from 8 Squadron, 27 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps, and Rheinmetall specialists from the UK, Canada, and Austria, the company activity explored how autonomous systems can enhance future logistics operations through the project.

The kit is now progressing to Project Convergence Capstone 6 in California, where experimentation will continue alongside international partners.

“Project MAIA demonstrates the pace of innovation taking place across defence. It highlights the value of collaboration between industry and the Armed Forces as we explore technologies that can improve readiness, resilience, and operational effectiveness.”

INVESTING IN SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY

Perhaps no project better reflects Rheinmetall UK’s long-term commitment to defence capability than the UK Gun Hall in Telford.

Now in production and preparing for its official opening, the facility marks one of the most significant milestones in UK defence manufacturing for a generation.

The UK Gun Hall restores large-calibre weapon barrel manufacturing back to Britain, strengthening national resilience, supporting future programmes, and reinforcing the UK’s ability to deliver critical defence equipment on home soil.

For Richards, the significance extends well beyond the facility itself.

“The UK Gun Hall is a landmark investment in sovereign capability. It solidifies our long-term commitment to the UK, strengthens industrial resilience, preserves highly specialised skills, and creates opportunities for future generations of engineers and manufacturers.”

Alongside continued investment in manufacturing infrastructure, workforce development, and supply chain growth, the UK Gun Hall represents another important step in Rheinmetall UK’s ambition to strengthen the country’s defence industrial base whilst supporting future export opportunities and long-term prosperity.

INNOVATING FOR TOMORROW

Alongside established programmes, Rheinmetall UK continues to develop future mobility and battlefield solutions.

Amongst these is Shadow Wolf, the company’s solution for the British Army’s future Land Mobility Programme.

Building on the proven pedigree of Caracal – Rheinmetall UK’s highly agile 4×4 assault vehicle already selected by multiple NATO nations – Shadow Wolf has been designed to provide a highly mobile, adaptable, and mission-configurable platform capable of supporting a broad range of operational requirements.

The vehicle demonstrates the company’s ability to combine proven technology, innovation, and UK industrial participation to deliver future-ready solutions for the Armed Forces.

“Programmes such as Shadow Wolf highlight how we are helping shape the Army’s future force whilst supporting British industry and strengthening domestic supply chains,” Richards points out.

ONE TEAM. ONE MISSION

Looking ahead, Rheinmetall UK’s priorities are centred around continuing to deliver Challenger 3 and Boxer vehicles and advancing future technologies through ALACOE and project MAIA.

It will also continue to invest in UK industrial manufacturing capacity through its UK Gun Hall, developing future solutions such as Shadow Wolf as well as expanding whole-life in-service support and sustainment expertise that ensure equipment remains available, adaptable, and ready throughout its operational life.

Yet, for Richards, success ultimately comes down to three interconnected outcomes – operational advantage, skills, and prosperity.

“We are delivering capability for the Armed Forces, developing the skills needed for future generations, and creating prosperity through long-term investment in the UK’s industrial base – priorities that guide every decision we make,” she confidently concludes.

As defence enters a new era defined by readiness, resilience, and technological innovation, Richards is helping to ensure Rheinmetall UK remains at the forefront of that transformation – delivering today’s operational capability whilst building the sovereign foundations for tomorrow.

RHEINMETALL UK PARTNER

The post Rheinmetall UK : Readiness Through Sovereign Capability appeared first on EME Outlook Magazine.