Innovative products made from natural plant fibres

The administrative offices of J. Rettenmaier & Söhne GmbH + Co. KG (JRS) and its main production site for vegetable fibre products lie surrounded by fields and forest on the edge of the Swabian Alb in the South German town of Rosenberg, close to Ellwangen. In the midst of this picturesque landscape, special milling and processing facilities turn out various fine fibre products and compressed materials for a large number of applications that have an impact on virtually all areas of modern life.More than 1 100 employees at eight production plants in Germany, a factory in Finland and three production facilities in the USA now supply the markets with innovative, high-quality products - "designed by nature". At JRS refined fibre products for a wide range of industrial and technical applications are manufactured from wood, grain and fruit fibres, along with cellulose. All of them are products derived from renewable raw materials, processed in an environmentally responsible manner using the latest technology, for reliable use in industrial production worldwide. JRS utilises functional properties such as the capillary effect and moisture control of the ultra-fine fibre structure. Application areas range from functional fibre materials that are used in a purely technical way in industrial production, via pharmaceutical fibre products such as tablet binding and breakdown agents or cellulose coatings, food fibre ballast materials in the food industry and in pet food, filtration aids and fibres for construction chemistry, to quite specific nano-celluloses such as are required in the paper or plastics industry.The JRS Pet Care Division specialises in pet litter products and is concerned with the development, production and global marketing of high-grade litter products made from natural plant fibres.As an independent company that has been family-owned and family-run for several generations, JRS attaches importance to reliability and continuity as well as perfect quality and state-of-the-art technology at its German base - because its head office, development and logistics facilities are expected to remain concentrated at the headquarters in Rosenberg in the future too. Richard Salzer, the sales/marketing director, leaves no doubt about this: "The Rettenmaier family stands by Germany in the face of all the challenges of the globalised world markets."And yet, the tenet that always holds good at JRS is proximity to the customer, proximity to the way of resolving the…