Page 127 from: May 2008

May 2008 127

steel mills where they raised quality issues.

In his quest for solutions, Emil Karle visited

the USA – at that time, the El Dorado of car

production and thus in the vanguard of tech-

nological developments aimed at their dis-

posal. Here, he learned the key value of sepa-

rating materials by shredding and subsequent

automatic sorting of the metallic fractions.

Back in Germany, he was able to convince the

management of German company Lindemann

to start producing shredder systems under US

licence. For Lindemann, this tip-off was turned

into a real success story: the company, now a

subsidiary of Metso, has since become one of

the world’s leading manufacturers of shredders.

One-stop shop concept
‘When I took over from my father in 1970, the

transition was not too abrupt since there was

no major difference in opinions or policies,’

explains Mr Karle. Like his father, he closely

monitored developments in the sector and

adapted the company to discernible new

trends. Among the key business philosophies

he shared with his father was the ‘full service,

one-stop shop’ approach: in other words, a

customer with a recycling or disposal require-

ment should be served in all aspects of that

problem. The company thus diversifi ed inter-

nally as well as externally, starting new opera-

tions such as the treatment of wood, con-

struction debris and bulky household refuse.

Furthermore, services such as container hire

and transportation were offered.

Such ‘additional legs’ eased the potential prob-

lem of depending on a scrap market character-

ised by fl uctuations, price squeezes dictated by

a handful of powerful customers and the need

to invest heavily in capital equipment without

any guarantee of a

suffi cient return.

At the same time,

this diversifi ca-

tion required the

taking on of addi-

tional manpower, workspace, capital equip-

ment, etc. But in many cases, the quantities of

incoming feedstock for a given process were

not suffi cient to justify an investment in relat-

ed equipment.

Joint ventures and subsidiaries
In view of such limitations and of the restricted

prospect of any signifi cant expansion of the

company’s premises, which were located in an

urban residential area, Mr Karle thus adopted

the policy of building up these activities else-

where, mostly in collaboration with regional

partners with matching activities and interests.

Among the fi rst partners in such joint ven-

tures were Otto Bausch and the companies of

Scholz and Schuler Rohstoffe Deislingen, co-

owners of the SWH Herbertingen shredding

facility in Herbertingen, Germany. Since then,

eight joint ventures and/or subsidiaries have

been created, the latest being Süd-Rec in

Illingen, a state-of-the-art facility for the

treatment of electronic waste. Furthermore, a

network of regional partners has been con-

structed whereby JKS has either joined forces

with other companies to optimise capital

equipment utilisation or engaged in upstream/

downstream processing of material provided

by suitable partners.

The success of this policy is tangible: the

modest scrap yard

with 10 employees

which Mr Karle

took over in 1970

has since evolved

into a multi-fac-

eted enterprise with a combined turnover of

well over Euro 100 million (US$ 157 million).

In the process, he became aware that his rath-

er basic education had not fully prepared him

for the demands of running such a complex

business. And he had the energy to overcome

this defi cit by attending evening classes and

qualifying as a Master of Business Adminis-

tration (MBA).

Readying the next generation
‘My father has always felt handicapped by

having been denied the opportunity of a more

in-depth education,’ explains 31-year-old

Stephan Karle, who represents the third gen-

eration of the family to become involved in

the business. In line with family tradition, he

showed up at the scrap yard to assist his father

as soon as he was old enough to be useful.

‘My father made me work
more or less like a slave.’

Neatly-piled car scrap forming
an alpine silhouette.

Success(ion) story:
at JKS Karle Entsorgung und Recycling,

Jürgen Karle (left) and his son Stephan seem
well prepared for a smooth handover.

RI_016_Father&son-germany.indd 3 15-05-2008 09:02:46