MULTIVAC at the interpack 2011 in Duesseldorf: 50 years of BETTER PACKAGING

Today MULTIVAC has a presence in more than 115 countries. The Allgau-based packaging specialist applies for patents for several innovations every year. “Customer proximity and innovative strength are two of the reasons that MULTIVAC has been so successful over the last 50 years,” said Hans-Joachim Boekstegers, speaking for the MULTIVAC company management at the interpack 2011.

MULTIVAC has a worldwide distribution and service network that has a unique density in this sector: with around 300 sales consult-ants and 500 service technicians, MULTIVAC can guarantee its customers a comprehensive service for all packaging issues and installed machines. Nevertheless, the Allgau-based packaging spe-cialist wants to expand its distribution and sales organisation: “We will be accompanying our customers on the way to a truly global-ised market. It is our goal to become a preferred partner in the ar-eas of technology and customer service,” said Boekstegers.

This plan is already being implemented: the foundation stone for one of the largest construction projects in the 50-year history of the company was laid on the 10th of May of this year. The new training and application centre in the company's headquarters in Wolfertschwenden with an area of 6,000 square metres will be ready by autumn 2012. This will mean that MULTIVAC will be able to provide its international customers with a significantly greater ca-pacity for packaging development and consulting services as well as for sampling packaging solutions. Our range of training services will also be considerably expanded. The company is investing around EUR nine million in the project.

MULTIVAC demonstrated a wide range of forward-looking products and technological innovations at the interpack. The packaging spe-cialist has expanded its range of thermoforming packaging ma-chines, vacuum chamber machines and traysealers with numerous new products and is displaying new solutions for all performance requirements – for processing particularly small batches as well as very large ones.

For example, in terms of the thermoforming packaging machines, MULTIVAC presented what is now our smallest model – the R 095. The R 095 has been designed for the production of vacuum and MAP packaging from flexible film. Sliced products can be fed in automatically from a Bizerba slicer via a special infeed conveyor. This means that the R 95 is ideal for manufacturing high quality fresh-seal packaging for small batches of sliced products.

MULTIVAC also presented an autoclave for the high-pressure processing of foodstuffs. The company have developed an innovative process which makes high-pressure treatment of MAP-packaged foodstuffs possible for the first time. Until now the proc-ess could only be used for vacuum-packed foodstuffs. Our exper-tise in the field of automation means that MULTIVAC can also inte-grate HPP autoclaves in automatic packaging lines which signifi-cantly reduces the processing costs for each packaged product.

To support its customers in handling tasks, MULTIVAC also dis-played a wide variety of belt systems as well as handling modules which can be equipped with multi-axis robots. The company has also expanded its product portfolio in the field of labelling and in-spection technology and is offering a complete range of metal de-tectors which can be operated both inline and offline.At the interpack, MULTIVAC exhibited an innovative vacuum pump which consumes up to 30 percent less energy than more familiar technology. In the context of machine development, MULTIVAC as-sociates sustainability with the reduction of resource consumption in our machines.

The group results for 2010 show that MULTIVAC's innovations were highly successful in this year. MULTIVAC attained a revenue of more that EUR 500 million. This was a considerable increase on the figure for the previous year.

The number of employees also grew. In 2010, around 3,200 quali-fied employees were working for the MULTIVAC group. At our Wolfertschwenden location, the number of employees was raised to over 1,300.