Let’s look back to the beginning of the year. The first hope began to emerge. The great dark shadow of the pandemic that had settled over us in the last few years seemed to be gradually receding. We looked forward eagerly to the coming months and were ready hit the ground running again. Yet barely had the first breaths of relief been felt when the next disaster was looming more or less right in front of us. As late as mid-February, hardly anyone really dared to believe that foreign troops could invade a European country in these days – it wasn’t even March and war was raging in Ukraine. This criminal act plunged the world into the next crisis. The consequences: rapidly rising inflation, exploding energy costs, extremely volatile markets and, above all, an incredible amount of human suffering, which is what touches us most.
Due to external circumstances, but also due to our continuous growth and our ongoing internationalisation, a lot has happened again in the Brüning Group this year.
New products such as biochar have found their way into our product portfolio. The “Waste-to-Energy” (WtE) unit was split into “WtE international” and “WtE national”. In addition, we have worked on a new logistics concept for the transport of RDF, within the framework of which we now use the possibilities of intermodal transport. Units installed in the previous year, such as plastics and roundwood, have already established themselves well and are growing steadily.
The waste paper unit, Schneider Rohstoffe GmbH & Co. KG, dissolved its location in Buchholz in der Nordheide and moved into office space in Bremen, bringing our units even closer together. This is a good omen in view of the big move in the middle of next year, when we will relocate to the new office building in Bremen, which will replace the location in Fischerhude as our headquarters.
The concept of full supply continues to be increasingly popular – new contracts were concluded and existing contracts were extended, in some cases ahead of schedule. To ensure that we can continue to be a reliable partner for the supply and delivery of our customers and suppliers, we have updated the vehicle fleet at Brüning Logistics. A total of 17 vehicles were renewed. In addition, the logistics department is pleased to have more female reinforcement in the driver team.
Nevertheless, there were also worrying moments. One of the big bangs was the announcement that the EU wanted to exclude the combustion of fresh wood for renewable energies with a further revision of the Renewable Energy Directive. The associated end of subsidies for biomass in power plants caused a tremor in the industry. It was not to remain the only problem in the renewable energy sector. Recently, the German cabinet paved the way for the planned gas and electricity price brakes in a corresponding bill, which among other things provides for the skimming of electricity market revenues from renewable energy plants. These are issues that of course concern us and which we will continue to pursue intensively.
It has indeed been a very challenging year – whether in terms of world politics, the economy, the pandemic – for us as a company or perhaps also personally. In such difficult times, good business relationships and partnerships at eye level are particularly valuable, which we appreciate very much. However, we also know that we are doing comparatively well. For that we are grateful! Tragically, it is especially those who are already needy and sometimes have to live in inhumane conditions who experience even greater hardship. They all depend on our solidarity, support and quite simply humanity. We should and want to keep this in mind in all our entrepreneurial endeavours.