Sacmi expands packaging and equipment business with tray forming unit
The SACMI Group has reported a key milestone in its packaging and chocolate business investment strategy through establishing a new Tray Forming Business Unit, writes Neill Barston.
As part of the move production operations are moving to the company’s Castel San Pietro (BO) facility, home to SACMI Packaging & Chocolate’s wrapping operations since 2018.
The company continues to produce a broad range of equipment and systems targeting the confectionery sector, including developed two new lines in the form of its Beta X2A tempering machine, as well as releasing a new continuous moulding system this summer.
According to the business, its latest move, which was formalised this month, involves the SACMI Packaging business branch ceded to SACMI Packaging & Chocolate. The firm said creating a distinct new unit strengthens its strategic standing by developing additional production and business synergies.
Acquired by SACMI in 1986, the company (then Inpak) saw the SACMI Group become a producer of complete packaging and palletising systems for both the fruit and vegetable sector and industry. Established as SACMI Packaging in 2004, the company has since grown considerably, developing strong sector skills – especially in the medium-speed segment – thanks to high-tech solutions and an integrated product range that spans from initial design to after-sales services.
The company’s SACMI Packaging&Chocolate operation has become a market leader providing complete lines for the preparation and moulding of chocolate (Carle&Montanari), wrapping systems for all types of chocolate or sweets (Carle&Montanari and FIMA), flow-pack lines and secondary packaging solutions (OPM) for a variety of food and non-food sectors.
This latest addition brings the number of business units within SACMI Packaging & Chocolate to four, working out of three separate facilities: Wrapping and Tray Forming (Castel San Pietro, BO), Process & Moulding (Rozzano, MI) and Packaging (Monticello d’Alba, CN).
Giovanni Campolungo, managing director, said: “The establishment of the Tray Forming BU within SACMI Packaging & Chocolate completes a strategic plan, initiated some time ago, that aims to further strengthen and diversify the range in all SACMI’s packaging and chocolate-related businesses.
“More specifically, the operation reinforces potential production and sales synergies in the secondary packaging segment by integrating the range of solutions already offered under the OPM brand name”.
Roberto Bucchi, former CEO of SACMI Packaging, has been appointed to lead this latest business unit, and believed it would make a key difference.
“This new set-up”, stated Bucchi, “will allow us – thanks to comprehensive plant engineering skills that combine strong customisation of the range with high technological content and automation, all with an eye to 4.0 – to focus more sharply on the SACMI Packaging & Chocolate product range to boost its standing in confectionery and bakery, extending the strong leadership it already enjoys in sectors such as fruit & vegetables and food in general (dairies, meat, snacks, etc.), not to mention non-food areas such as e-commerce, detergents, ceramics, tissue, etc.”
“SACMI Packaging’s inclusion within the Packaging & Chocolate Division is a natural progression in our more than 30 years as leaders in the food sector, a period in which long-standing companies and brands have joined the SACMI Group, bringing skills of the highest level with them. This operation”, adds President Paolo Mongardi, “reinforces SACMI’s positioning in what is a strategic industry for our company and Made in Italy in general”.