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Interpack at the centre of 2nd Audion quarterly

After six years, it’s once again time for Interpack, the trade expo for packaging. Reason for CEO Eugène Tangelder to reflect on the past six years in this second Quarterly. We’ll also discuss the Speedpack in e-commerce, paper packaging, and our growth in Germany.

We’re once again at the start of Interpack, Audion’s number one trade expo for packaging. These are the moments when you realise that time flies. The last Interpack was held in 2017, which is six years ago!
A good opportunity to reflect on this period. We have as an organisation transitioned from almost exclusively producing sealers to being a leader in the field of baggers. We’ve built an entire market around the Speedpack, which we introduced about six years ago. In Germany, where the expansion of the production facility is now complete, an entire bagger (Speedpack) production department is now operational which has become larger than the production of sealers in the Netherlands.

E-commerce packaging with the Speedpack continues to grow

We launched the Speedback in our existing strategic markets such as Industrial (parts), but the machine quickly found its way into other markets such as e-commerce, and is now proving its value in order fulfilment. Along with this development, we’ve also secured new dealers who are players within (semi) automatic packaging in e-commerce. E-commerce has now become the largest market for the Speedpack thanks to the efforts of our team, and not to forget our dealers, and I expect this market to continue developing in the coming years. I’d like to mention a nice client case, that of Wehkamp. They have the world’s largest automated distribution centre for online retail, and we made this video about the important role Speedpack plays in this environment.

Product launches at Interpack

Are we arriving at Interpack empty-handed? Of course not! For example, we’ll be introducing a bagger which uses paper for packaging. The amount of PE in this paper packaging is so low that it can be fully recycled. By the way, I expect that we will soon be sealing bags with organic adhesives. These paper pre-made bags have fixed bag lengths and are supplied in rolls. It’s conceivable that we’ll later be using our unique solution for variable bag lengths, like with the films. I don’t think paper will completely replace film. Film is much more efficient to produce (less energy) and already consists of up to 80% recycled material. Less and less material is required because films are getting stronger and thinner (from 50 to 30 microns).

We’re also presenting a new temperature-controlled Powersealer at the Interpack. This is ideal for markets such as the FOOD and High-Tech industries. The Powersealer with validation on three parameters (temperature, pressure, time) is already well known in the Life Science strategic target market, but this extensive validation is not necessary in Industries (high-tech), for example.

Audion continues to grow

We’re fully banking on growth. In Germany (Kleve), we now have 35 people working on producing baggers. We can and want to grow to 70 people as quickly as possible! We’re also looking for new colleagues in the Netherlands. That’s why we’ve let a few colleagues talk about their experience working at Audion. We hope these ambassadors will convince others to talk to us about a job full of development opportunities at a great company.

Conclusion

Our new website is live! It not only looks beautiful, but also shows the first step towards further digitisation. We will roll out the webshop for some of our product range in our own markets in the coming months; think Audion hand and tabletop sealers. We’re also working hard on a portal for our dealers, which brings together all product information clearly in one place.

As a team, we’re very much looking forward to the Interpack. Personally, I find these events a great opportunity to not only hear and feel what’s going on among our customers and within the relevant markets such as Food, Life Science, Industries, Consumables, and E-fulfilment, but to also together - meaning as a team together with our dealers - reflect on the successes of the past six years.

Hope to see you soon!

Eugène Tangelder (CEO)