Multivac back on the path to success - Machine manufacturer looks to new markets for growth potential

Multivac looks forward to the 2010 financial year with a good deal of optimism. At the IFFA, the leading international trade fair for the meat-processing industry held in Frankfurt am Main, Hans-Joachim Boekstegers, Multivac’s managing director and company spokesperson, announced that his company was expecting a good year. In the first four months of 2010, turnover at the packaging machine manufacturer, which is headquartered in Wolfertschwenden in the Allgäu region of Germany, increased by 30 percent on the previous year, returning to 2007 levels. Multivac is looking in particular to the growth potential of new markets.

Speaking to the international press in Frankfurt, Hans-Joachim Boekstegers was able to point to significant increases in the number of orders received and in the turnover when compared to the previous year. “We have registered an increase in orders from all over the world, including from countries we never would have expected.” In light of the healthy order volume, Boekstegers predicted that Multivac would match its 2007 result in the 2010 financial year. He also added, optimistically: “We may even be able to beat it.” The Managing Director and management spokesperson also revealed his satisfaction at how the company had weathered the financial crisis: the world's leading producer of thermoform packaging machines experienced a drop in turnover of only four percent in 2009, to 459 million euros. This means that Multivac came through the crisis in better shape than the competition. One particular piece of good news is that not a single employee had to be made redundant.

Multivac showed off a range of innovations at the IFFA in Frankfurt. Boekstegers directed the attention of the press to the high number of patents – seventy – submitted by or issued to the packaging manufacturer in the last two years. “We intend to continue setting standards”, he said. Among the technological highlights shown by Multivac in Frankfurt were a fully automated packaging line and the prototype of a thermoform packaging machine all of whose pneumatic components have been replaced with electric drive technology. Because it avoids the need for compressed air and water connections, this compact thermoform packaging machine can be set up in the packaging room wherever it is needed: only a power connection is required. Multivac's e-concept offers energy savings of 20 percent. Hans-Joachim Boekstegers and his management colleagues Guido Spix and Christian Traumann expect the new technology to become established in the medium term, despite the higher acquisition costs. This is because the payback period for the additional costs is only one year.

The Wolfertschwenden-based manufacturer is looking in particular to new markets in Asia and South America for growth. Boekstegers said that Multivac products had “excellent chances” in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Malaysia, the former Soviet Union, Turkey and Brazil. The company already has an annual turnover in these markets of about 60 million euros. And it’s on the increase. Hans-Joachim Boekstegers was proud to note that Multivac has been particularly successful at establishing a presence in Eastern Europe – the brand's market share in Romania, for example, is about 70 percent.

Hans-Joachim Boekstegers identifies Multivac's comprehensive customer service, where customers benefit from the fast response times and proximity of technicians, as a factor in maintaining the company's good reputation and the increasing demand for its products. Of the company group's approximately 3,000 employees, about 1,400 work in the sales and customer service division. 500 service technicians are there to guarantee that Multivac's packaging machines provide their owners with reliable service for many years.