GÖTTINGEN, Germany, Nov. 21, 2007 -- Novelis today formally opened its new Technology and Innovation Centre, located at the company's Göttingen plant in Lower Saxony. The new facility, one of three such laboratories operated by Novelis in Europe, will provide specialist research and development support for customers and other Novelis plants across Europe. The main areas of expertise of the Göttingen centre lie in the development of aluminium sheet products for the lithographic printing, drink and food can markets as well as pre-painted aluminium sheet for other end-uses. Similar centres in Luxembourg and Switzerland serve a variety of markets including automotive and foil.
The opening was attended by a range of customers and local stakeholders who toured the state-of-the-art facilities and viewed a number of exciting product innovations. Göttingen mayor, Mr Wolfgang Meyer, officially opened the centre.
The exterior of the new centre gives a clue as to what lies within and acts as a “shopfront” for some of the company's latest architectural innovations. Products currently on show include Novelis' luminous aluminium sheet product, LuminalTM, which can be seen glowing gently at night at the entrance to the Innovation Centre.
Commenting on the choice of the Göttingen plant as the location for this new investment, Stefan Erdmann, general manager of Novelis Göttingen said: “It makes a lot of sense to have our R&D located in the plant as our scientists are able to work closely with the sales teams, our customers and our European production facilities. Innovation is fundamental to the continued success and competitiveness of Novelis.”
Thomas Wuttke, manager of the Technology and Innovation Centre, added: “Our vision for the new centre is to bring relevant, value-creating projects to our customers more quickly than we have ever been able to do before. We need to be ahead of the pack to remain competitive and we are very excited about the great potential we have created with the opening of this R&D centre.”
The specialist equipment in the new facility includes a “coil to coil” pilot rolling mill, which enables product ideas to be developed extremely quickly.
The Göttingen Technology and Innovation Centre is part of Novelis global technology network, which includes complementary technology centres in Sierre (Switzerland), Dudelange (Luxembourg), Kingston (Canada), Aurora (USA) and Ulsan (South Korea).
About Novelis in Göttingen
The Novelis plant in Göttingen is a specialist supplier of flat-rolled aluminium sheet. Its main products include high quality sheet for the lithographic and packaging markets as well as painted sheet for a variety of applications. Aluminium bottles, cartridges, cans and housings are also produced at the Göttingen plant using the impact extrusion process. The plant is part of Novelis Europe's Automotive, Painted and Specialities division, in turn, part of Novelis Inc.
About Novelis
Novelis Inc. is the global leader in aluminum rolled products and aluminum can recycling. The company operates in 11 countries, has approximately 12,900 employees and reported revenue of $9.8 billion in 2006. Novelis supplies premium aluminum sheet and foil products to automotive, transportation, packaging, construction, industrial and printing markets throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Novelis is a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Limited, Asia's largest integrated producer of aluminum and a leading copper producer. Hindalco is the flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, a multinational conglomerate based in Mumbai, India. For more information on Novelis, visit www.novelis.com.
Media Contact:
John Gardner
+41 44 386 2155
john.gardner@novelis.com