Tomra

Norwegian multinational corporation

For the Tibetan village, see Tomra, Tibet.

TOMRA

Company type| Public

Traded as

| OSE: TOM
ISIN| NO0005668905
Industry| Conglomerate
Founded| 1972[1]
Headquarters| Asker, Norway
59°49′30.22″N 10°23′57.69″E﻿ / ﻿59.8250611°N 10.3993583°E﻿ / 59.8250611; 10.3993583

Key people

| Tove Andersen (President and CEO), Jan Svensson (Chairman)
Products| Reverse vending machines and sensor-based sorting equipment for food, recycling and mining.
Revenue| NOK 8.596 billion (2018)[2]
Total assets| NOK 9.595 billion (end 2018)[2]
Total equity| NOK 5.077 billion (end 2018)[2]

Number of employees

|  4,025 (end 2018)[2]
Subsidiaries| 90+[2]
Website| tomra.com
A TOMRA T-820 BC (Bottle and Crate) machine.

TOMRA is a Norwegian multinational corporation manufacturing collection and sorting products, such as reverse vending machines for the food, recycling and mining industries.[3][4] With over 82,000 (RVMs) installed, 10,000 food sorters and 6,000 recycling systems worldwide, TOMRA is the market leader in its industries.[5]

TOMRA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSEBX) under the ticker symbol TOM.[6] The parent company, Tomra Systems ASA, is headquartered in Asker, Norway, with central departments located in Mülheim-Kärlich, Germany and Shelton, Connecticut.[1]

## History

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### 1970s

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TOMRA was founded by the two brothers Tore Planke and Petter Planke in 1972. It started out with the design, manufacturing and sale of reverse vending machines (RVMs) for automated collection of used beverage containers.[1] In 1974, the Swedish entity Systembolaget ordered 100 RVMs.[7]

### 1980s–2000s

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TOMRA was listed in Oslo Børs on 18 January 1985[8] and tried to secure a position in the American market to no avail.[7] It was then entered the market in 1990s. By 1999, sales in the US accounted for more than half of total revenues. In 2006, TOMRA delivered more than 8000 new reverse vending systems to Germany.[7]

TOMRA's sensor-based sorting technology business was first established in 2004 with the acquisition of TiTech Visionsort AS, a provider of optical recognition and sorting technology[9] (which was renamed to Tomra Sorting Solutions in 2012[10]), from Ferd AS for 219 million NOK.[11]

With the acquisition of Orwak in 2005, Tomra added compaction and baling products.[12][13] In December 2014, TOMRA sold the Orwak operations in Norway, Sweden, Poland and Japan under the name TOMRA Compaction to San Sac Nordic AB of Sweden.[14]

On 31 August 2005, TOMRA Latasa Reciclagem S.A., offering aluminium can collection and recycling assets services in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, was acquired by Aleris International, Inc.[15]

On 1 July 2006, TOMRA's subsidiary Titech Visionsort AS acquired Germany-based CommoDaS GmbH, a provider of recognition and sorting technology for metals, plastics, glass, minerals and gems, for approximately 100 million NOK.[16]

On 1 July 2008 TOMRA announced it bought Australian peer Ultrasort Group, a provider of advanced recognition and sorting technology to the mining industry, for 160 million NOK ($31.48 million).[17]

### 2010–2019

[edit]

Via several acquisitions, TOMRA had secured 75% global market share in RVMs, 60% in material recovery and 40–65% in sorting.[5]

On 12 December 2010, TOMRA's subsidiary TiTech acquired Dublin-based food technology company Odenberg, a designer of equipment used for producing 65 per cent of all French fries worldwide, for up to €57.5 million from ACT Venture Capital in Dublin and members of the Van den Bergh family in Belgium;[18] Odenberg's chilling/freezing unit was later considered a non-core business and sold in 2013 as to a newly formed company, Power Food Technology Ltd., of Ireland.[19]

On 31 December 2011, TOMRA sold the assets of Tomra Pacific, Inc., a recycler of used beverage containers in California, to rePlanet, LLC for approximately $25 million.[20]

In June 2012, TOMRA purchased Belgium-based food sorting specialist Best Kwadraat for €138 million.[21]

In October 2016 TOMRA signed an agreement to acquire Compac Holding Ltd., a New Zealand-based provider of packing house automation systems that sort fresh produce based on weight, size, shape, color, surface blemishes, and internal quality,[22] for $70 million plus up to $230 million in earn-outs available to Compac founders;[23] the transaction was completed in March 2017.[24]

On 26 February 2018, TOMRA signed an agreement to acquire BBC Technologies. The deal added BBC Technologies' precision grading systems and punnet and clamshell filling technology for blueberries and other small fruits.[25]

## Competition law compliance

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In 2001, the EU Commission performed an investigation of Tomra's competition law compliance. Based on this investigation, the Commission concluded in March 2006 that TOMRA in their opinion had foreclosed competition in the period 1998 to 2002 in the market for reverse vending machines in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden by implementing an exclusionary strategy. TOMRA appealed the decision to the European General Court in 2006.

In September 2010, the Court issued their judgment where they dismissed Tomra's appeal both on the substance and on the amount of the fine.[26] TOMRA consequently accrued €28.2 million (NOK 226.1 million) for the fine and accumulated interest in the third quarter financial statement for 2010.[27] TOMRA appealed this decision again but finally lost the case in April 2012.[28]

## See also

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* Container deposit legislation
* Infinitum AS
* List of Norwegian companies
* Reverse vending machine

## References

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1. ^ a b c "History: TOMRA". tomra.com. TOMRA SYSTEMS ASA. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
2. ^ a b c d e "TOMRA Annual Report 2018".
3. ^ "Sumitomo Corporation Establishes Joint Company with World's Largest Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) Maker, Tomra｜ Sumitomo Corporation". Sumitomo Corporation. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
4. ^ Fallan, Kjetil (2012). "5". Scandinavian design: alternative histories (English ed.). London: Berg. ISBN 9781847889119.
5. ^ a b "TOMRA: Presentation materials DNB Markets SME Conference". newsweb.no. Oslo Stock Exchange. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
6. ^ "TOM:Oslo Stock Quote – Tomra Systems ASA". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
7. ^ a b c Jørgensen, Finn Arne (2011). Making a green machine: the infrastructure of beverage container recycling. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0813550541.
8. ^ "Tomra Systems: Details". Oslo Børs. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
9. ^ "TOMRA acquires leading recycling company". Tomra. 12 July 2004. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
10. ^ "Titech Rebrands as Tomra Sorting Solutions". Waste Management World. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
11. ^ "Formal closing of TiTech acquisition completed". Tomra. 25 August 2004. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
12. ^ "Tomra Systems ASA Acquires Orwak Group AB; reverse vending manufacturers secures shares in baling operation". Recycling Today. 4 March 2005. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
13. ^ [1] Archived 21 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
14. ^ "TOMRA Compaction acquired by San Sac". Tomra. 15 December 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
15. ^ "Company Overview of Tomra Latasa Reciclagem S.A." Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
16. ^ "Acquisition of CommoDas GmbH". Tomra. 7 June 2006. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
17. ^ "Tomra buys Australian Ultrasort for $31 mln". Reuters. 1 July 2008. Archived from the original on 24 March 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
18. ^ Hancock, Ciaran (15 December 2010). "Irish food tech firm Odenberg sold for up to €57.5m". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
19. ^ Knights, Mikell (13 May 2013). "Mergers and Acquisitions in Inspection Systems". Food Engineering. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
20. ^ "TOMRA divests its California operation". GlobeNewswire. 2 January 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
21. ^ Harrington, Rory (4 June 2012). "Best acquired by TOMRA Group for €138m". Bakery and Snacks. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
22. ^ "TOMRA acquires NZ Sorting Machine Manufacturer Compac". Scoop Business. 12 October 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
23. ^ Smellie, Pattrick (1 March 2017). "Up to $230 million in earn-outs available to Compac founders". National Business Review. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
24. ^ "TOMRA completes COMPAC acquisition". Tomra. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
25. ^ "TOMRA acquires BBC Technologies". TOMRA acquires BBC Technologies. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
26. ^ Judgment of the General Court (Fifth Chamber) of 9 September 2010. Tomra Systems ASA and Others v European Commission., ECLI:EU:T:2010:370
27. ^ "Third quarter 2010 results". TOMRA. 19 October 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
28. ^ "When will discounts and rebates in supply agreements be anti-competitive?". Taylor Wessing. 9 May 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2017.

## External links

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* Official website