By Michael Lauzon
CORRESPONDENT
Published: June 4, 2014 1:17 pm ET
Updated: June 4, 2014 1:19 pm ET
Image By: Coperion GmbH
Coperion GmbH's office in Pitman, N.J.
Coperion GmbH is consolidating its U.S. operations to more fully integrate the Coperion and Coperion K-Tron businesses.
Most of the positions at Coperion’s U.S. head office in Ramsey, N.J., will be relocated to Pitman, N.J., Wytheville, Va., and Houston. The relocation will occur over 18 months as Pitman and Wytheville will be modified to accommodate additional responsibilities.
Houston will become the main support office for sales and engineering. Wytheville has been a screw manufacturing operation but its future functions were not described by Coperion in a June 4 news release. Coperion did say Wytheville will do manufacturing.
Ramsey will conduct order processing and schedule equipment inspections and demonstrations, and extruder testing until renovations in Pitman are complete. Pitman has contained an extrusion test laboratory.
Ramsey had been a major producer of compounding extruders until Coperion decided to shift most production to Germany in 2003. Its predecessor, Werner & Pfleiderer, started producing the equipment in Ramsey in 1976. Coperion was formed in 2000 when it bought Werner & Pfleiderer. K-Tron became associated with Coperion when Hillenbrand Inc. of Batesville, Ind., owner of K-Tron, bought Coperion in 2012. K-Tron is a manufacturer of bulk materials handling systems that neatly dovetail with Coperion’s extruder business. Hillenbrand also owns Rotex Inc., a diverse screening and material-separation equipment supplier.
“We are realigning our assets to take advantage of available space and to bring the management and operation teams closer together,” noted Coperion President Thomas Kehl in a news release issued from Coperion’s head office in Stuttgart, Germany. “We expect this realignment to improve our efficiencies and provide even stronger support for our customers in the Americas.”
Coperion employs about 2,500 and runs nearly 40 sales and service companies globally.
| 
