Miller Magazine Issue: 148 April 2022

38 MILLER / APRIL 2022 NEWS Tomra, the global provider of advanced collection and sorting solutions, celebrates its 50th anniversary today. Each of the Group’s four divisions - Collection, Food, Recycling and Mining – marked the mile- stone by declaring a collective mission for the future to “transform how we all obtain, use and reuse the planet’s resources to enable a world without waste.” Tove Andersen, Tomra’s president and chief executive officer, explained: “We live in a world that needs big trans- formation. We urgently need to improve sustainability, de- velop the circular economy, and make more efficient use of resources - challenges which TOMRA’s solutions can help address. “Fifty years after its humble beginnings, Tomra can be proud of the fact that it is a highly respected global market leader. This is living proof of our ability to adapt, innovate, and provide the solutions our customers really need. This is also a time to look forward because we are now opening the chapter in TOMRA’s story where we step up our role leading the resource revolution.” Tomra was founded in Norway on April 1, 1972 by broth- ers Petter and Tore Planke. After seeing a local grocer struggle with the manual collection of empty bottles in their store, the brothers developed the first fully-automated re- verse vending machine (RVM) in their family’s garage. This invention was quickly embraced by retailers and spawned an entire industry for efficiently handling the return and re- cycling of deposit beverage containers. Tomra’s pioneering and transformative approach led to its continuing devel- opment over the years, from designing and manufacturing RVMs to providing advanced sorting solutions for the food, recycling, and mining industries. These technology-led, customer-tailored solutions op- timize resource recovery and minimize waste – benefits that are in ever-greater demand as sustainability gains im- portance with businesses, governments and consumers. Tove added: “Transformation is at the heart of everything TOMRA does. TOMRA transforms ideas and technology to create intelligent and pioneering tools. We transform com- panies into more profitable, sustainable businesses and transform how the world’s resources are obtained, used, and reused, which also helps transform people’s everyday lives.” Today, TOMRA employs more than 4,600 people world- wide and has annual sales of €1bn. 20 percent of the Group’s workforce and eight percent of its revenues are dedicated to research and development. Michel Picandet, executive vice president and head of Tomra Food, said: “We are proud to participate in celebrat- ing 50 years of Tomra. Tomra Food is a fairly new division compared to others but has a strong sense of belonging to ‘One Tomra’, with a shared company culture and purpose Looking to the future, Tomra is committed to leading the re- source revolution in a world where Every Resource Counts. We are on a mission to transform and help our customers feed the world, improve yield, minimize waste, and create sustainable value.” Tomra celebrates 50th anniversary by announcing world without waste mission