‘The co-located shows covered the broad spectrum of packaging, food processing, printing, labelling and plastics, providing exhibitors with an excellent opportunity to generate sales and leads, as well as valuable business networking,’ Michelle adds.
During the three-day event visitor numbers totalled 5 727, up by almost 7% over the 2008 figure, and 20% were from outside the Western Cape, with more than half travelling from Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, and others from Free State, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Limpopo and North West. International visitors came from Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya and Libya, as well as from further afield – Europe, North and South America, and China.
Of these visitors, 49% were owners, MDs, directors and senior management and the majority claimed influence over purchasing decisions.
Michelle concludes: ‘Many exhibitors have already signed up for Propak Cape 2014, based on their successes at this year’s show.’
The PPM team was out in force and the following pages contain a round-up of photographs of exhibitors and visitors, plus the many positive stories that emerged from interviews at the show.
Eco-friendly fish boxes launched in Cape Town
With the launch at Propak Cape of innovative fish boxes from Tri-Pack (UK) and South African-based Ampaglas Plastics, South African seafood producers are now able to ship products effectively in an eco-friendly manner.
Tri-Pack and Ampaglas Plastics, each with 30 years’ experience in the plastics industry, have joined forces to launch CoolSeal SA, a range of flat-packed 100% recyclable polypropylene boxes.
Replacing traditional expanded polystyrene boxes the CoolSeal range, already successful in Europe, is designed for cold chain delivery of fish and, once used, can either be stacked or baled for collection or disposal.
The box edges are sealed by a patented technology previously unavailable in South Africa, said to offer stronger, more hygienic packaging.
Beneficial show for Advanced Packaging and partners
Advanced Packaging Technology has built a sterling reputation in South Africa and, with its international partners, has concluded several impressive installations during the last year.
Providing back up for Gary Kieswetter and his team at Propak Cape were Vivian Auer, Hudson-Sharp’s sales and marketing manager, and Aleix Mas, Comexi’s MEA & India area manager, who report positive results from the show.
‘Propak has been a great show for Comexi and there was a high level of interest in our products. Visitors had a broad knowledge of packaging and flexible materials and knew what they were looking for,’ comments Aleix. ‘We found this interesting and predict new sales from the event. Overall, Propak Cape was a good platform for meeting customers in South Africa and it offered the opportunity to assess the local flexible packaging industry,’ he continues.
‘We want to thank Advanced Packaging Technology for the impressive booth and, as usual, the professional attitude of the team,’ Aleix concludes.
Also on show at Advanced Packaging’s stand were two LMC wrapping machines. With 70 models already installed in South Africa there was no shortage of visitor interest in their reliable and functional engineering.
Future sales galore
The tills were ringing at Future Packaging’s stand and MD, Claus Hennings, and his team had their hands full with visitors from across South Africa wanting to know more about strapping, printing and complete packaging solutions.
The show was also the perfect opportunity to launch Future Packaging’s newest product range from OMS Packaging, Italy.
‘We signed our agency agreement with OMS in October and hit the ground running at Propak Cape,’ Claus comments. ‘With OMS’s wide range of fully-automatic strapping, shrink and hooding machines, semi-automatic shrink and stretch wrapping machines, and fully-automatic rotating arm stretch-wrapping machine, we’ve added an extra dimension to Future Packaging’s portfolio and created a one-stop-shop for our customers,’ states Claus.
Tony Lowther is responsible for growing the OMS brand in South Africa and he’s confident that customers will embrace these technologies. ‘The OMS brand is already widely used, with a great reputation, in the ceramic, corrugated and PET industries,’ Tony remarks. ‘PET strapping has achieved enormous growth because of its strength and flexibility and handles any size operation with equipment built to customer specifications.
OMS also supplies pneumatic and battery-operated strapping tools, which were on show, and Future Packaging continues to extend the OMS range to meet local market requirements,’ Tony confirms.
Also demonstrated on Future Packaging’s stand was the nifty PrintWiz security tape dispenser, available with regular, coloured and pre-printed tapes. The fully-automatic version, PrintWiz Auto and the Acrylglas X-Bagger, for hermetic sealing of light or heavy products, and the APSS 5022 second-generation high-speed, fully-automatic side-seal packing system, were also on show.
‘Overall, we had a very successful show and took several orders for the products showcased, as well as other equipment and consumables from our catalogues,’ Claus concludes.
Pakmatic pulls in the crowds
As the saying goes, big things come in small packages and, if the popularity of the Kruger & Salecker (K&S) table-top moulding machine was anything to go by, then it’s going to be a huge success for local agent, Pakmatic.
Demonstrating K&S’s latest phenomenon was Holger Sudeck, from K&S, who joined Ray Shaftoe, Myles Davis and Kevin Shaftoe on the Pakmatic stand for the show’s duration.
‘We had an amazing response to the K&S machine and some promising leads are emerging,’ Myles commented. ‘The show also gave us an opportunity to discuss our filling lines and complete line solutions for the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, food and confectionery sectors in an informal environment. After a positive 2011, we foresee strong performance in the year ahead,’ Myles summed up.
Important interactions at Polyoak
Wessel Oelofse, regional executive at Polypet and Dairypack (divisions of Polyoak Packaging), reported a successful show with some good networking opportunities.
‘There was a lively atmosphere and it’s always pleasing to interact with customers and players in the broader packaging industry,’ commented Wessel.
Alan Caldwell, regional executive for African Closures and Blowpack (also divisions of Polyoak), was also impressed with the show: ‘Propak Cape gave us the opportunity to promote new products and to interact with our customers in an informal environment,’ he declared enthusiastically.
A new benchmark for label application
Premier Labellers, locally represented by Pakmax, has manufactured pressure-sensitive labelling systems for many of the world’s leading FMCG manufacturers since 1994. At Propak Cape the company unveiled its innovative new Label Centralisation Technology (LCT).
The LCT system is featured on the new P250 high-speed front, back and wraparound labeller and is the latest addition to Premier Labeller’s extensive range of quality labelling solutions.
The system was developed in response to demands from brand owners and contract packers for a highly-accurate and dependable labelling system, especially for glass containers.
According to MD, David Palmer, LCT is an innovative software-based development for the Siemens S7 series PLC control system on the P250.
In simple terms, LCT actively measures each container, calculates its centre point and instructs the labelling head to place the label in the correct position, relative to each container that passes the product sensor. This eliminates a major cause of inaccurate label placement. No additional sensors or complicated set-up is required as the LCT system is fully automatic and requires no user input.
LCT for the Premier P250 was developed and tested at several UK companies during the last 12 months. ‘No matter how accurate some labelling machinery is, only our P250 is able to compensate for variations in size between containers being labelled,’ remarked David. ‘We’re currently achieving label placement accuracy of around 0,4mm and, judging by response from customers, I’m confident that once the market fully understands this positive step forward in label application technology, everyone will want LCT.’
No loose loads with Win-Pak
Cape-based Win-Pak showcased its ingenious palletising Slip-Stop and Grip Sheet at this year’s show, attracting much attention with its gravity-defying demonstrations.
Slip-Stop is a biotic and environmentally-friendly stabilising product that protects pallets of boxes or bags from slipping, allowing for fast and safe transportation at factories or during distribution.
‘A simple spray of Slip-Stop liquid on top of boxes or parcels before palletising is all that’s needed,’ explained André Kraukamp, who had visitors riveted to his demonstration.
‘After it’s applied, Slip-Stop’s bonding force, in a horizontal direction, has exceptionally high shear strength with no slip or separation, but controlled vertical tensile strength for easy depalletising,’ confirmed André.
Slip-Stop eliminates the need for bands, straps and stretch films and is available with automatic spray, manual spray and hand spray applicators and is versatile enough for any size operation.
Another crowd-puller on Win-Pak’s stand was the Grip Sheet, a non-slip protective paper sheet used to reduce breakage and protect products distributed on pallets.
Inserted between box layers, it holds loads in place by increasing the coefficiency of friction between the stacked layers on pallets.
Imported from Endupack, in France, Grip Sheet, made from recycled kraft, is available from Win-Pak. It’s also available in a waterproof version in a variety of standard paper weights, widths and lengths.
‘Grip-Sheet can be reused up to ten times and is completely recyclable,’ confirmed Edupack’s Frederic Demonfort, who was present on Win-Pak’s stand throughout the show.
A positive outcome for Bircraft
When PPM caught up with Gerhard Jans van Rensburg, business development manager at BirCraft, he had already received numerous visitor enquiries.
‘From the first day of the show we handled queries from local and other African visitors,’ confirmed Gerhard. ‘We’re especially geared for the packaging industry and, although we chatted to existing customers, lots of our enquiries were new leads from other market sectors,’ he added.
Based in Midrand, Bircraft manufactures AC and DC electric motors, gear motors and linear actuators serving industries such as packaging, printing, plastics, materials handling, paper and pulp, signage, mining, steel and aluminium.
‘We would like to thank everyone who participated in Propak Cape, for their support and interest in our products,’ declared Gerhard. ‘Visitor numbers to our stand reinforced our ongoing desire to serve our customers to the best of our abilities, as we have done for more than 30 years.’
USS Pactech’s show success
With deals concluded on almost every machine on show, the USS Pactech team went home happy from Propak Cape.
On show were the OCS X-ray scanner and OCS checkweigher, SBC Master Filler, Inever stickpack, Variovac thermoformer, Trepko’s rotary-cup filler and sealer, the PFM flowrapper and a PFM multihead weigher. ‘Visitors were impressed with our comprehensive range and knowledgeable, personal service,’ commented USS Pactech’s director, Lars Fröhlich.
According to Lars, the real show-stopper was the patented PE roll-fed Adhesleeve labeller from PE Labellers, which made its South African début at Propak Cape. ‘It’s considered the cheapest and most ecological solution in the field of roll-fed labelling and uses reels with glue strips that are applied to the label during the film converting process.’ Lars explained.
‘The pre-glued transparent or white reduced-thickness roll-fed film is thermal-shrinkable, meaning it easily handles shaped containers and creates sleeve-type packaging at minimal cost. With no hot-melt process, environmental, sanitary and ecological advantages also abound,’ Lars remarked.
According to PE Labellers, there’s no need to adjust Adhesleeve’s cutting unit for various film thicknesses. Additionally, it takes just ten minutes, at most, to replace the cutting devices, without tools or adjustments, and they last longer than the conventional cutting system.
Ultimately, production stops due to imperfect label cut, film stretching or different film thicknesses are eliminated and non-standard film thicknesses may also be used.
The innovative Adhesleeve is soon to be installed at Fair Cape Dairies and further custom-built installations are planned for 2012 (see article on page 97).
Inspection and weighing equipment on show
At Propak Cape, Mircrosep showcased its latest range of Mettler Toledo, Garvens and Safeline product inspection and weighing equipment for industrial, production and quality control applications in the food processing, pharmaceutical, chemical, mining, transport and logistics industries.
Garvens, part of the Mettler Toledo product inspection division, is renowned for dynamic in-line checkweighing systems, designed for monitoring and automatic control of filling processes for the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, chemical and non-food industries.
Mettler Toledo Safeline is a global leader in industrial metal detection and X-ray systems for the food processing, pharmaceutical and packaging industry.
Its metal detectors inspect products in all formats, from packaged conveyorised food products to bulk powder or granular materials, including liquids, pastes and slurries, offer maximum detection sensitivity with minimal false rejects, and provide compliance with industry standards.
Safeline X-ray inspection systems provide product safety and integrity, assisting manufacturers to achieve HACCP compliance and meet national and international regulations.
Product inspection combination systems consist of checkweighing, metal detection and X-ray systems in one complete unit. They are primarily designed for food, snack and ready-meal applications where high-level brand protection is required and floor space is limited.
Mettler Toledo CI-Vision designs, manufactures and installs machine-vision inspection systems for the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, packaging, personal care and household chemical industries.
These systems ensure products consistently meet manufacturers’ quality standards by inspecting a wide variety of packaging and products at speeds of up to 2 500 products/minute.
The Mettler Toledo range of industrial weighing instrumentation includes compact weighing systems, high-precision scales and balances, loadcells, weighing components and accessories, all manufactured to HACCP guidelines and ideal for the food and pharmaceutical industries.
‘Propak Cape 2011 was an excellent platform for Microsep, providing an opportunity to demonstrate the versatility of our Mettler Toledo product inspection systems and weighing equipment. Our focus is to provide integrated technology solutions and efficiencies to customers in the various industries we serve,’ concluded Microsep’s Peter Anderson.
Good results for Pantone
Manning the Pantone stand was Roger Kear of Kear Graphics, an authorised Pantone distributor, showcasing the Pantone Plus Series. This is the latest release from Pantone, including formula guides – the updated version of the Pantone Matching System tools for selecting, specifying and matching solid Pantone colours.
Among other exhibits were Pantone’s Solid Chips (comprising six chips/solid Pantone Matching colours); Pantone Colour Bridge (for four-colour process matching); Pantone’s CMYK guides; and Pantone’s Premium Metallics, Pastels & Neons.
Visitors could also inspect replacement chips pages; Pantone’s Solid Guide Set for designers, prepress and printers; Pantone Essentials (for upgrading the Pantone Collection); and the Pantone Reference Library (the most popular Pantone publications).
‘Propak Cape was a success for Pantone. Sales were good and I received some important leads,’ commented Roger Kear. ‘As Pantone’s leading distributor for Africa, I believe it’s essential to exhibit at Propak,’ he added.
‘Personally, I didn’t see many international visitors as I would have liked, and I believe the organisers should focus on this aspect, as Africa is an emerging market for Pantone. However, the number of visitors was up compared to the last Propak Cape, and the quality of visitors was good,’ Roger concluded.