we in europe - esco

Edition 1|2012
we in europe
For esco – european salt company staff
News: esco welcomes Solné Mly´ny to the Group
It’s been official since 3 January 2012:
Solné Mly´ny a.s. (SMO) is part of the
esco Group.
To a good collaboration and a successful, joint
future! (Jirˇí Harenčák and Erich Krug)
As one of the most significant salt
processing enterprises in the Czech
Republic, with a more than 80-year history,
Solné Mly´ny, which means „Salt
Mill“ had been a long-term esco customer
before the acquisition. With
around 65 employees, the enterprise
sells more than 100,000 tons of different
table, industrial and de-icing salt
products and is a nationally known
brand with a high recognition value, in
particular in the table salt segment.
The SMO brand is well recognized throughout
Czechia
“We have been handling the Czech
market successfully with K + S CZ for
more than 20 years, the major sales
markets being concentrated in Bohemia,”
is the pleased comment from
Steffen Silvestry, who will coordinate
operations in the Czech Republic and
Eastern Europe from Prague in future.
“In the past, SMO has mainly supplied
the Moravian part of the country and is
the perfect complement for us to supply
the Czech Republic and the neighbouring
export markets even more efficiently
in future.”
“With the purchase of Solné Mly´ny we
have taken an important step in our
Eastern Europe strategy”, corroborates
esco Managing Director Erich Krug.
“The company is well established on
the market, works cost-effectively and
has a direct rail connection as well as
major storage capacities. The experienced
team knows the salt business, as
well as the relevant markets, in its
entire facets well and is highly motivated
to collaborate with us. All of this will
be a crucial contribution to strengthen
our position in the eastern markets.”
SMO General Manager Jirˇí Harenčák
also looks optimistically to the future:
“We are very happy that the long-term
business relations between esco and
Solné Mly´ny are entering a new phase
and we have become part of the esco
salt family. I am convinced that we can
jointly master the coming challenges
very well.”
Indeed, a lot remains to be done:
“Directly after the Closing on 3 January
we started with the successive implementation
of the many points of our
integration concept,” explains Holger
Bekemeier, Strategic Business Develop-
At the Day-One-Event on 10 January, the employees
in Olomouc were informed about the history
and activities of esco and the K+S Group. This was
followed by a champagne reception as well as a
small welcome gift for everyone.
ment Manager at esco. “Despite language
barriers and much need for coordination,
everything is running according
to plan and pleasingly smoothly,”
continues Bekemeier. “That’s most likely
also due to the successful kick-off
event, our Day-One-Event on 10 January
on site, and the good communication
between all those involved.”
And what have the SMO employees got
to say about the acquisition? “Of course
all are pleased that the uncertainty
linked to the insolvency of the previous
owner EQUUS is now done with,”
explains Elisˇka Mikulasˇková, Export
Manager at SMO. “We are particularly
pleased, however, that it was esco who
got the acceptance. We know esco as a
strong, reliable partner with long-term
orientation and are convinced that we
will develop our salt business together.”
Natalya Akhapkina

Editorial: esco in a state of change
Dear Members of Staff,
“Nothing is as constant as change”, is
something Heraclitus already discovered
in the 5th century BC. This is also a
perfect quote for our business and our
enterprise.
2011 was an extremely successful year
for esco. Thanks to your great achievement
and also thanks to the long lasting
winter at the beginning of the year,
we have generated the second-highest
result to date since the record year 2010.
However, 2011 ended with very mild
weather, so that we started 2012 with
full warehouses and only modest deicing
salt sales. Therefore, and although
we have successfully expanded our speciality
business over the past years and
are happy about increasing sales figures,
the writing is already on the wall
that esco will not achieve another
record sales year in 2012. Our road salt
business is and will stay subject to enormous
fluctuations of nature and once
again puts high demands on our flexibility
this year.
Nonetheless, we have good reason to
celebrate: For one decade, esco, founded
on 1 January 2002 as Joint Venture of,
at the time, Kali & Salz and the company
Solvay, has been handling the
European salt market successfully. We
will look back on special milestones in
our success story in a special edition of
“we in europe”. However, we would like
to express our heartfelt thanks and
appreciation here and now to all of you
who have contributed to this success
story and who have an active share in
its continuation! In particular our good
collaboration across all plant and country
borders has helped us to deal with
the numerous challenges and advance
the esco Group successfully.
Another reason for celebrating is the
addition we were able to welcome to
our group of companies at the beginning
of January: Solné Mly´ny, the salt
processing operations in Olomouc, in
the east of the Czech Republic, and a
long-term esco customer in the past, is
now a member of the esco Group since
the successful closing on 3 January 2012.
We cordially welcome the approximately
65 members of staff in Olomouc to
our team and will issue “we in europe”
also in Czech from now on.
Finally, there is also a change at esco’s
top in 2012: after more than 35 years of
successful activities in the K + S Group,
Reinhard Dust is switching over to the
passive stage of semi-retirement on
1 April, and will hand over the office of
Managing Director responsible for
Production and Engineering, as well as
Finance and Administration to Matthias
Mohr (in the photo on the left), who will
return from SPL in Chile for this position.
Therefore, 2012 will also be for esco,
besides the sometimes very erratic dayto-day
business, a year of retrospection
we in europe 1|2012
just as much as trendsetting changes –
and we can only affirm Heraclitus:
Nothing is as constant as change!
In this spirit we wish all of us cheerful
work(ing) and success for our numerous
enterprises and projects so that we may
continue to report about the development
of the esco Group in future. A
cheery “Glückauf!”
Reinhard Dust Matthias Mohr Erich Krug

we in europe 1|2012
News from the sites:
A bunch of approvals for Frisia Zout
At the beginning of January this year,
Frisia received several good items of
news from the Dutch Ministry of
Economics in the form of approvals,
which secure the future of the site. On
the one hand, the period of the extraction
approval for Barradeel II was
extended, on the other hand the green
light was given for the planned caverns
Havenmond* 1 and 2 below the West-
Frisian Wadden Sea.
“The extraction area Barradeel II lies on
land to the north-east of our site,”
explains Bart Hendriks, Manager Production
at Frisia Zout. “After a coalition
decision by the Provincial Government
in April 2011 we were no longer supposed
to extract salt here from 2015 on,
so that the basis for our production
threatened to break away.”
The period extension provides that
Frisia can brine a total extraction
amount of maximum 16.8 million tons
with a maximum soil lowering of 30
centimetres in Barradeel II until 2021.
The Dutch will soon begin with the
drilling for the new cavern BAS 3
Original.
“The extraction field Havenmond on
the other hand lies under the Dutch
Wadden Sea,” continues Hendriks. “The
issue of this concession is a major prerequisite
for us to be able to introduce
the next steps for the implementation
of our future caverns.”
Before the concession could be issued
for Havenmond, Frisia Zout had to conduct
an environmental compatibility
study in a tedious coordination process.
The next step is the submission of the
extraction plan, as well as numerous
applications under environmental legislation.
Only after all approvals have
been received can the site start with
the implementation of the demanding
project.
The technically challenging drilling is to
run from Frisia‘s factory premises over a
length of around 6,000 meters diverted
under the Wadden Sea and reach the
target coordinates of the cavern to be
established at a depth of approx. 3,000
meters. Leaching the cavern is planned
Havenmond
Frisia Zout
Harlingen
from 2016 on. Drilling the cavern
Havenmond 2 is presently to start in
2021. The concession for the extraction
area Havenmond is held for a period of
40 years.
“We hope that we can start the standard
production from the extraction
field Havenmond in 2017,” says Reinhard
Dust, Managing Director of esco.
“That would secure the future of our
largest vacuum salt plant.”
Jürgen Bunk
*Havenmond: Dutch for harbour
entrance
Barradeel I
Location of the extraction areas Barradeel I and II as well as Havenmond
Barradeel II
Franeker

esco personal: What do “Salties” do at Easter?
◆
we in europe 1|2012
1 What do you associate with Easter? What does Easter mean to you?
2 What do you do at Easter / on Easter Sunday? Which Easter customs do you practice personally? Are there typical
meals?
Will Leeuwen, Frisia Zout, Harlingen (NL), Sales Manager Specialties
◆1 For me Easter mainly means spending a long weekend with my family. ◆2 We personally don’t have any special
rituals or customs, but we love to enjoy a lengthy Easter breakfast, of course with Easter bread and eggs. After
that we’ll hopefully have nice spring weather for a long walk along the Wadden Sea coast alongside Harlingen.
Steffi Damme, esco Plant Bernburg (DE), CPI / QM-Manager
◆1 Of course, I know that Easter has a religious background. But for me personally it mainly means that winter is
over and spring will come at last.◆ 2 On the Saturday before Easter we like to go to the Easter Bonfires, where we
meet friends, neighbours and acquaintances. The two Easter days are usually spent with the family. With children
and grandchildren we hunt for chocolate eggs and small presents which we hide in the garden if the weather is
good. The traditional meal for Good Friday is fish. A must are also dyed Easter eggs, which we do ourselves and, of
course, pickled eggs. The rest of the meals can be decided by everyone in the family.
Blanka Skopalová, Solné Mly´ny, Olomouc (CZ), Laboratory staff
◆1 For me personally, Easter is mainly a spring festival. The children are on holidays and I can spend more time with
them.◆2 It is an Easter Monday tradition that the men go to the women with decorated willow withes and “hit”
them symbolically with these so that they stay healthy and beautiful. The men get a decorated egg for this or – at
least the older ones – a schnapps, usually Slivovic. Typical meals are Easter bread and sweet cakes in the shape of
a lamb.
Nádia Sousa, Vatel, Alverca (PT), Controlling
◆1 For me Easter means the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The symbols which I associate with Easter are bunnies,
eggs and almonds. ◆2 Good Friday, there is traditionally no meat. Easter Sunday the family meets for a meal of
lamb. There is also a special Easter bread which we call “Folar”: a sweet yeast pastry which has boiled eggs in the
shell baked in it. My godchildren get chocolate eggs from me, of course.
Vincent Morlock, esco france, Levallois (FR), Sales Manager Industrial Salt
◆1 For me, Easter is mainly a religious festival which is celebrated with the whole family.◆ 2 My mother is German
and also influenced our Easter customs. We go to church and then visit my parents and parents-in-law in Normandy,
they only live a few kilometres apart. There we hide chocolate eggs and bunnies as well as small presents
for my three children, in the garden if the weather is nice. A basket with hard boiled, decorated eggs always stands
on the table, and the typical meal is a leg of lamb.
Editorial details
Publisher: esco – european salt company GmbH & Co. KG
Telephone: +49 511 85030-0 | Fax: +49 511 85030-131 | E-mail: b.schanklies@esco-salt.com | Internet: www.esco-salt.com
Address: esco – european salt company GmbH & Co. KG, Landschaftstr. 1, 30159 Hanover, Germany
Layout: Träger & Träger – Medien- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Kassel | Printed by: Fischer Druck GmbH, Peine