People around a table testing water traps.

Prevex

Prevex saves a million kilos of new plastic a year, as all water traps will contain at least 50% recycled plastic. The goal is to create the most sustainable water traps in the world.

Prevex is one of the few companies worldwide with a focus on water traps for kitchens and bathrooms. The water traps from the company are flexible, easy to clean, and nowadays also environmentally friendly. During the year 2021, Prevex conducted a large-scale environmental product development project, in order to find more sustainable products.

The result of this project is that the company’s water traps will start to be produced out of at least 50 percent recycled plastic. The conversion will start during 2022, and by the end of the year all the products will be made of at least half recycled plastic. The same goes for the plastic packaging used for the water traps.

Turnover M€

Prevex turnover 2017-2021.

Will save a million kg of plastic per year

It’s worth noting that the quality of the water traps will be unchanged, despite the large amount of recycled plastic used. This is something Prevex can promise after having conducted innumerable test runs during the whole of 2021. High quality is of course of the utmost importance, since a leaking water trap can ruin a valuable kitchen or bathroom.

All together the change to recycled plastic will save a million kilos of new plastic per year. The water traps will also be completely recyclable, making them a part of the plastic material cycle.
The new, more environmentally friendly water traps have already gotten a warm reception by the customers. As well as the quality, other properties of the water traps will remain the same as before.

Carbon neutral 2023

The change to products from recycled plastic is but one step of Prevex environmental investments. The company is already using only electricity from renewable sources, both at the factory in Nykarleby in Finland, and at the factory in Poznań in Poland. In addition, waste heat of the production is being utilized to warm up the factory in Nykarleby.

Prevex is also planning to switch out some of the metal components in its products to plastic parts in the future, since life cycle analysis show that metal components often have twice as high environmental impact as plastic.

This measure and the switch to recycled plastic will together reduce Prevex total environmental impact by a third. The company is aiming to be carbon neutral in 2023.

Investments M€

Prevex investments 2017-2021.

 

New unit i Jakobstad

At the same time as the intensive work to switch over to recycled plastics in production has been going on, Prevex has continued growing. This has made the unit in Nykarleby too limited, and therefore Prevex has been searching for new facilities.

Suitable facilities were located 20 kilometres away in Jakobstad, where Prevex has established itself during 2021. The assembly lines, warehouse and shipping are now located in Jakobstad, where a quarter of the Finnish staff are now working. Offices and injection molding are still located in Nykarleby.

Personnel

Prevex personnel 2017-2021.

Investments in work safety

The largest challenge during 2021 was, as for many other companies, the access to materials and increased prices for raw materials – both caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
When the pandemic is over, Prevex is looking forward to once again being able to hold staff events. The well-being and occupational safety of the staff is a constant focus, an example being the popular bicycle benefit which was introduced 2021.

A step towards improved work safety and a higher degree of automation was the purchase of a new automatic truck, which started being used in the factory in Nykarleby during the end of 2021. During 2021, Prevex also conducted an inspection of all its machinery together with an external consultant in order to ensure that they are being used in a safe way.

Management

Marko Nylund, Camilla Wikman, Thomas Nyström & Peter Ehrstrand.

CEO Marko Nylund, CMO Camilla Wikman, CFO Thomas Nyström and Sales Director Peter Ehrstrand

Mikael Gäddnäs, Marcin Kowalski, Filip Jankowski & Krystian Kryskowiak.

Chief Operating Officer Mikael Gäddnäs, CEO for Prevex Poland Marcin Kowalski, Sales Director Filip Jankowski & Process Owner Krystian Kryskowiak