It was a big sentence that Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) said in the Bundestag last week: "SMEs will be protected." Thousands of companies that receive less attention than listed corporations, but who have nevertheless created millions of jobs in their niches and make up Germany as a business location.

Normally, medium-sized companies are not in the first row when it comes to help, such as rescue packages or programs to reduce energy costs.

But nothing is normal right now.

Progroup AG from Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate is a typical medium-sized company, one of the largest manufacturers of corrugated board and corrugated base paper in Europe.

At production sites in six European countries, Progroup recently achieved sales of almost 900 million euros, and the trend is rising.

The energy crisis is hitting the entire paper and packaging industry hard, says Maximilian Heindl, the founder's son and deputy chairman of the board.

The gas price on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange has recently more than tripled, which is why he expects additional costs in the double-digit million range for companies in the event of a gas levy - with electricity prices rising at the same time.

To a certain extent, Progroup is secured via futures markets, he says.

However, the market price for unsecured quantities is so high "that energy-intensive industries can no longer cover their costs in the long term".

If costs stay at this level next year, the company would have to "immensly raise" its prices to stay viable.

"This means that not only ours, but the national and international competitiveness of the entire industry is at stake - and in the medium term Germany as an industrial location."

The glass industry is even more energy-intensive, where temperatures of well over 1000 degrees are common in the production process.

This is also the case with Heinz-Glas from the Upper Franconian town of Tettau, an impressive 400 years old and manufacturer of high-quality perfume bottles.

The family business is managed by Carletta Heinz.

In 2019, she had total costs for gas and electricity for two glassworks and a processing plant in Germany of around 11 million euros.

She says: “If you take the prices currently called on the futures market, we would be around 77 million euros for 2023.” If that were the case, “then we would no longer be able to obtain energy and would have to stop production”.

She assumes that prices seven times higher than those forecast on the futures market "do not occur" and "our government will act beforehand to save the German economy and thus the backbone of our country".

Heinz-Glas currently has full order books and secured energy purchases for this year.

Production is running at full capacity.

However, at higher costs, which could only partially be passed on to customers.

The company has to bear a large part of the additional costs itself, partly from reserves that were intended for other purposes.

That's how it is for many people at the moment.

Investments would be checked carefully and only necessary ones implemented, others were postponed.

"Nevertheless, we still have investment plans because we want to keep our German locations," she says.

The chemical industry is also energy-intensive, but in this context people usually talk about calibers like BASF or Bayer.

Harald Wack can't keep up with that.

In Ingolstadt, his Wack Group mainly produces cleaning agents for cars and motorcycles, has sales in the double-digit millions, but is very active internationally, as is appropriate for German medium-sized companies.

Wack, who assumes annual energy costs of 150,000 to 200,000 euros and an imminent tripling, has recently "lost high profit margins" and then significantly increased the prices for his products twice.

He had to reduce all costs and expenses.