Fibertex Personal Care is a global textile company based in Aalborg, Denmark, with large non-woven production facilities in Malaysia and print factories in Germany, Malaysia, and the USA. The company produces non-wovens – which is textile made from fibers that are bound together in a proprietary process. The unique material is used in the production of diapers and other hygiene products.
Fibertex processes large volumes of material resulting in high electricity consumption and significant energy costs. With little purchasing expertise in energy, the company had used a procurement model focused on successive purchases over a 2 to 3-year horizon, but the model made it difficult to take advantage of market price changes. The challenge was to find a more efficient and cost-effective way to purchase electricity.
World Kinect’s trading team became an extension of Fibertex energy management operations, by designing the price risk management strategy, monitoring daily electricity markets, providing energy procurement and the concurrent sale of financial contracts for hedging.
Through a structured risk assessment process, World Kinect identified Fibertex’ electricity price risk and hedging preferences, which formed the basis of a flexible (rather than fixed-priced) portfolio management strategy.
World Kinect provides direct market access to Fibretex, by purchasing electricity from 3rd -party local reputable suppliers for the Fibertex facilities, coupled with a flexible price risk portfolio, making available to the customer a dynamic energy management program, without the need for locked-in multi-year hedging contracts as before.
With a combination of continuously updated reporting via World Kinect Online customer portal and regular status meetings, Fibertex now has the information they need to control costs –- without requiring in-house energy specialists.
Fibertex received a purchasing model that could keep pace with the market, protect against escalating prices, and at the same time be flexible enough to take advantage of favorable market rates to stay ahead of their competition.
World Kinect’s approach provided savings of 15% in electricity energy costs when compared to the previous year, or €0.4 million YoY savings.
