ROCKWOOL Group has issued a statement last week regarding the company's factories in Russia. According to the stone wool producer, these have been placed under external management by the Russian authorities.
CEO Jes Munk Hansen calls this "a violation of all international rules." It is suspected that Russia has taken this step due to dissatisfaction with donations made by the ROCKWOOL Group to the Foundation for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. The company says it is doing everything possible to ensure that the companies do not now fall into Russian hands.
Grodan is part of the ROCKWOOL Group. The Russian entity supplies only within Russia. ROCKWOOL Group states that developments at the Russian factories will have no impact on Grodan's activities outside Russia.
Four factories
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, ROCKWOOL has held its four factories in Russia in passive ownership. Since then, the Russian branch of ROCKWOOL has no longer been supported by the Danish headquarters or other companies within the group with expertise, equipment, spare parts, investments, raw materials, or anything else.
"We did not keep our factories in passive ownership to make a profit, but to prevent assets worth billions of kroner and the profits from falling into the hands of the Russian state or an oligarch. We succeeded in this for almost four years, but now that the companies are under Russian management, the situation has changed," said Jes Munk Hansen.
During nearly four years of passive ownership, ROCKWOOL focused on withdrawing capital from its Russian activities. In total, this amounted to just over 400 million Danish kroner, according to the statement, approximately 53 million euro.
"No insight into Russian activities"
ROCKWOOL Group says it is doing everything possible to ensure that the companies do not now fall into Russian hands. "We have always believed that passive ownership was the best solution," says the CEO of ROCKWOOL Group — and the company still believes this to be the case.
"The Russian subsidiaries of ROCKWOOL have their entire operations and supply chain within Russia. Russian employees produce goods for the Russian market using Russian raw materials. This allowed the company to continue its activities without support from the rest of ROCKWOOl. For the same reason, shutting down operations in Russia was not an option after the invasion. Instead, we chose passive ownership."
When asked, Munk Hansen says that developments in Russia will not affect Grodan's activities outside the country, since the Russian entity supplies only within Russia. "Because we have had no insight into Russian activities over the past four years, I cannot comment on the consequences for growers in Russia."
