The development team brains trust behind Verigreen Packaging and Teqal’s strategic alliance successes. Pictured in Verigreen Packaging’s Pinetown-based extrusion blow moulded container facility are MD, Gareth Elcox; factory manager, Logan Kunniah; executive director, Marco Baglione; business development manager, Nicholas Baglione; and Teqal’s product development & marketing director, Sean Kirkham.
According to executive director, Marco Baglione, Verigreen has grown into a key national supplier – producing 200ml, 500ml, one-litre and five-litre extrusion blow moulded containers for the lubricants market. ‘The next step in our evolution is expanding into the personal care market. Teqal complements this offering by supplying the caps, plugs and spouts for Verigreen’s lubricant bottles, as well as injection moulded rigid plastic packaging to the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries,’ Marco reports.
‘Our alliance, joint expertise and professional project management service represent a complete value and innovative turnkey packaging solution proposition for our customers,’ adds MD, Gareth Elcox. ‘Anchor customers frequently call on us as industry subject matter experts for all packaging and technical requirements.
‘Our team understands the lubricant supply chain exceptionally well and has tailored our business model to meet and exceed customers’ needs and expectations. We concentrate on manufacturing and have an innate ability to achieve exceptionally high repeatability, backed by a highly competent and diverse team, which has delivered unique results over a four-year period,’ Gareth notes. ‘It has been an exciting period with numerous project launches, which have been tailored to our customers’ branding and technical specifications.’
Sean Kirkham, Teqal’s product development & marketing director, points out that the alliance’s technical competence paved the way for pioneering the standardisation of necks on mass-produced motor oil and gear oil bottles in South Africa so that closure components can be made fit-for-purpose. ‘Our teams already have other layers of R&D in progress to make the next generation of packs more cost-effective and easier for operators to fill in the packaging plant.’
Nicholas Baglione, Verigreen’s business development manager, takes up the development story. ‘Never resting on our laurels, we spend considerable time in the market providing after-sales service support to and canvassing feedback from customers. These opinions, in conjunction with our mission to create value for customers by optimising their supply chains and speed to market, shapes our R&D projects,’ he comments.
‘We’re very proud of our near-perfect on time and in full delivery track record,’ Nicholas enthuses. ‘Consistency and replication are vital to future successes and made more easily achievable by the nature of our smaller, owner-managed businesses, which are staffed with highly-experienced people. This flat structure helps speed up decision-making and prepares key personnel for taking on more responsibilities and gaining a better understanding of the implications of changing certain processes.’
Sean Kirkham asserts that the dual partnership will accelerate market diversification strategies. ‘Teqal’s strengths include strategic registration of functional/ technical designs and patents plus in-house high-end packaging tool-making and design experience – both vital in generating value in the personal care industry. Combining Verigreen’s abilities to mould a good looking bottle with Teqal’s intricate cap injection capabilities is a winning proposition,’ he concludes.
