Acma and Volpak confirm regional expansion plans ahead of Gulfood Manufacturing

Equipment businesses Acma and Volpak are preparing for a notable appearance at this year’s Gulfood Manufacturing event, as the firms, part of the Coesia Group, plan a sustained expansion drive within the region, reports Neill Barston.
Exhibiting at (Shk Saeed Hall 2, booth S2-F43), the companies have targeted growth in the MENA region, with their combined offerings, including machinery for confectionery, snacks and bakery markets, offering solutions devised for the needs of the industry and region.
As the company explained, in 2022, the food market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region was worth more than $383 billion, aggregating industries such as Meat, Bakery, Cereals, Dairy and others. This remarkable value is paired with an equally striking growth forecast, as it is estimated to increase by 33% annually until 2027.
Consequently, as the company noted, these projections are encouraging industry players to look with particular interest at this area, developing packaging solutions suited to specific consumer trends. Companies such as Acma and Volpak offer a long-standing experience and advanced technologies that have been designed to handle the specific requirements of the Middle East and African environments.
Equipment ranges
For its part, Volpak has specialised in HFFS (Horizontal Form Fill Seal) machines for flexible packaging, specifically targeting the food and dairy industries, with a portfolio covering products such as tomato paste, sauces and condiments, dried fruits, rice and cereals, dairy, juices, and more.
The Spanish company also offers a wide range of flat-pouch packaging solutions for the Pharma industry, through the Coesia brand Enflex. Acma, a renowned player in the design and manufacturing of solutions for consumer goods packaging, serves the Food industry especially focusing on confectionery, bringing its long established engineering expertise to a segment showing encouraging signs of growth within the MEA area. It offers a broad selection of solutions for primary packaging, including flow packing for snacks and bars, fold wrapping for chocolate pralines, candies and gums and Bottle Filling for edible oils. Acma portfolio also features a selection of secondary packaging solutions, enabling the company to offer comprehensive systems for the packaging of edible products and more.
The specific demands of this region have led Volpak to develop machines for the high-speed packaging of liquid and semi-liquid products such as juice and other sauces. Among the most popular solutions are the SP and SI series machines, which can form, fill and seal pouches at medium and high speeds.
According to the business, the most popular formats are sachets (or flat-pouches) and doypacks (stand-up pouches). Depending on how the product will be consumed, Volpak machinery also offers a wide range of pouch re-closing options such as corner cap, top cap or zipper.
Meanwhile, Acma’s long experience in confectionery has made it a strong industr partner for projects involving chocolate pralines. Among its offerings is the CW series of multi-format machines was designed to package pralines of different shapes in many different styles: from side and double fold, portfolio with or without banderol, up to napolitains, bunch, fancy, boero, viennese and rolled. Paired to these advanced Fold Wrapping solutions, with Smart Handling ACMA offers different automated systems for feeding (VL and Carousel), distribution and product orientation (single or multiple grip Robotic Distribution). These systems are developed according to the shape of chocolates to be handled, how they are to arrive at the machine, the type of wrapping to be applied and the production speed required.