Klaas Johannink
Klaas Johannink answers his phone already after the second ring, it sounds like he’s doing it hands free in the car. Ah yes, you want to do an interview for a book? Sure, he can do that! More about his own company or about his role as chair of the trade association in the County of Bentheim and thus more about business in general?
Hearing that it will be about his company, business in the county but above all about him as a person, Johannink laughs and says: “Fine, then let’s meet on the premises at Ringoplast.“ Even before meeting him in person, his extraordinarily pleasant voice leaves a lasting impression – but more about that later.
Ringoplast has its headquarters in the small village of Ringe near the Dutch border between Emmen and Nordhorn. The company makes containers
with injection moulding dies. Injection moulding what? To put it simply, those are the large tools that make plastic stacking crates– highly practical products that find universal use in industry, above all in food manufacturing, but also in the skilled crafts, in horticulture, in warehouse logistics or at any farmer’s market. Founded by his father in 1985, Klaas Johannink now runs Ringoplast together with his brother Hendrik who is four years older.
Ringoplast – that automatically leads to the question that Klaas Johannink has probably heard more than enough times: Where does the name come from? Has it got anything to do with Ringo Starr? Johannink laughs again and adds in his pleasant voice: “No, even though I’m a real fan of the Beatles. The name comes from the village of Ringe where we’re based. After founding the company, my father sat down with his workers over a few cold drinks and they gave some creative thought to finding a well-sounding name: one of them came up with Ringoplast.“ The name has stayed the same ever since, and the Ringoplast workforce hasn’t changed either. So could the company that specialises in plastic theoretically also make vinyls with Ringo Starr’s music? Another laugh: “No, that’s a totally different kind of plastic.”
The plastic they work with at Ringoplast is extremely durable: the products demonstrate this by showing they’ve got what it takes each and every day. And plastic can also take a lot of criticism: Klaas Johannink is well familiar with all the debates about plastic and recycling, and even has a little story to tell: “A farmer’s wife from an organic farm sells her products on farmer’s markets using our typical green crates. She’s also a very active Instagram user. Her use of the crates triggered a little shitstorm about the role of plastic in organic farming, so she turned to us for advice.” What should she do? He advised her to look at the date stamps on the crates that indicate the year of production. Lo and behold, “most of the crates were many years old and still in use: that’s sustain-ability too, when you think about it”. While we’re on the topic, Klaas Johannink adds: “Our products are made from just one kind of plastic, which means that when it comes down to it, they are easy to recycle, and that in turn is also good for the environment.”
Environmentally friendly use of resources was also a key concept behind the construction of the company’s new headquarters in Ringe-Neugnadenfeld a few years ago: “We need large amounts of energy for our production processes. To ensure that this energy is put to really efficient use, the modern architecture of our new building allows for the premises to be heated in winter and cooled in summer practically as a side effect of the production processes.” So shouldn’t it also be possible for houses in the neighbourhood to benefit from additional waste heat in future?
The words “future” and “neighbourhood” then prompt Klaas Johannink to move on from his own company to the economy in general in the County of Bentheim, given the role he plays in representing business interests as the trade association chair: “If you go around the county, you’ll see how we’ve gone through an exemplary structural transformation from the hitherto dominant textile industry and its decline into a diverse, innovative and thus efficient and resilient mix made up of many different sectors, trades, products and skilled crafts.”
This diversity with a mixture of both small and large companies is the great strength of the county’s economy and thus also of society itself: “Fortunately, we no longer have any really big players that bring everyone down when they stumble. Instead, we have a strong network with a healthy SME sector.” It is exactly this mixture that makes the County of Bentheim stand out, says Johannink, who was born in Nordhorn in 1976. It is also exactly the reason why he returned to Nordhorn again with his wife after graduating in Osnabrück followed by a really good time in Hamburg. “We’ve known each other since our school days. We got married in Hamburg and really enjoyed living there, but we wanted out children to grow up here at home in Nordhorn.”
He kept in touch with things back home all the time, to the benefit of the region in general: “Father was already an enthusiastic friend and sponsor of HSG, and we at Ringoplast are naturally still eagerly on the ball.” For those who aren’t in the picture, “HSG” refers to Nordhorn handball club, which is also the region’s figurehead sporting team. The club moves up and down between the 1st and 2nd national division and even won the European EHF cup. Other clubs and associations also benefit from Ringoplast’s regional roots, which in turn is a real location advantage for the firm. “Fortunately, people who work here are often good ambassadors for our company. You may even find that their own children or other relatives or friends also start to work here” – something that certainly shouldn’t be underestimated in view of the current skills shortage, says the entrepreneur.
Klaas Johannink’s own great passion also has to do with sport, but with wind and waves rather than halls and balls. He is an enthusiastic and inspiring sailor, who has loved being on water ever since he was a child. “I started the way you usually do, on small boats like the optimist and dinghy.” Nordhorn isn’t far from the North Sea coast, and eventually he was tempted to try other water sports such as windsurfing in addition to sailing. “It wasn’t just the great sport itself: it was also, without doubt, the whole lifestyle.”
But since he became the father of two children a good ten years ago, his focus has shifted back to sailing again. “We’ve got a boat on the Ijsselmeer that we’ve been using for family holidays for years now.” The man from Nordhorn and his current boat even appeared on the website of the renowned “Yacht” magazine with a report, talking about the advantages of his sailing boat that is a good ten metres long. The accompanying pictures are well worth see-ing. Furthermore, Johannink is happy to share his knowledge about various kinds of sporting and leisure activities involving wind not just in Nordhorn boat club. With his companions in the boat club, he was also the first in the state to share his knowledge about standup paddleboarding with teachers as well as school children. “In Nordhorn we offer courses for sports teachers and want to inspire them to introduce stand-up paddleboarding at their schools.” These courses for teachers are very much in demand and are meanwhile also offered by other sailing clubs.
The story about stand-up paddleboarding teachers gives Klaas Johannink yet another prompt. The discussion could now easily turn to the great respon-sibility that teachers have and how society often fails to appreciate them properly: being married to a teacher, he is very familiar with the situation. It would be great to listen to him talking for ever, particularly thanks to his remarkably pleasant voice, as already mentioned at the beginning, with the promise of more details, so here we go: When Klaas Johannink was a student, he just happened to do some freelance work during the vacations with the local radio station “Radio RST”, where he loved researching and presenting reports: “It was really exciting to interview well-known politicians like Genscher or Merz.” With this voice he definitely could have had a career in radio broadcasting – and could have even announced a song by Ringo Star.
Ringoplast GmbH
Sie sehen gerade einen Platzhalterinhalt von Standard. Um auf den eigentlichen Inhalt zuzugreifen, klicken Sie auf den Button unten. Bitte beachten Sie, dass dabei Daten an Drittanbieter weitergegeben werden.
Mehr Informationen
