Thinking outside the box

What do an elegant box for a parfum bottle and a folding carton for pills have in common? “When it comes to production, quite a lot”, says Florian Binder-Krieglstein, Managing Director at MM Packaging. “For both packages, the quality requirements placed on the material, processing and finishing are very demanding.” And there is one more common aspect connecting the two: in both industries, MMP has extensive competence and continuously develops the respective markets together with the customers.

Until now, the Beauty & Personal Care (B&PC) and Healthcare & Pharma (HC&P) business units comprised a relatively small portion of MM Packaging’s total business volume, and a few plants in France were primarily responsible for it. This is currently changing. 
In the B&PC business unit, MMP is now expanding their competence and know-how in several locations outside of France to be able to offer their customers high-quality products along with excellent service – including product development and innovation – across national boundaries. 

Apart from organic growth, MMP is also relying on acquisitions in the HC&P field – and this year they completed two of them: Eson Pac and Essentra Packaging (*closing expected for Q4 2022). “This move places us in a leading position internationally as a supplier of secondary packaging for the pharmaceuticals industry, more precisely for folding cartons, package inserts and labels,” Binder-Krieglstein explains.
 

 

3,800 new employees
Eson Pac operates three production sites in Sweden and one in Denmark with roughly 300 employees and has been part of MM Packaging since April. By the end of the year, the acquisition of Essentra should be completed as well. Essentra is a big player in the realm of pharmaceuticals secondary packaging, producing at 21 locations in ten countries in Europe and North America. Essentra supplies over 800 customers around the world, among them 19 of the top 20 pharma companies, and has over 3,500 employees. “All of the new locations of both companies perfectly complement our existing footprint in France with Packetis. Together with our new colleagues – as MM Packaging – we can now offer our customers global service for the first time,” says Binder-Krieglstein. 

Knowledge transfer and synergies
For Binder-Krieglstein, the two acquisitions mean more than just increased revenue: “We have gained a host of competent employees who are contributing their experience and new ideas. We look forward to a lively exchange that will allow us to provide our customers with even better service. Our promise: consistently high process, quality, performance and service standards across all locations.”
At Eson Pac, this exchange has already begun, at Essentra it is about to start.

Finishing: Product safety and marketing right on the shelf
The pharmaceuticals market shows that the finishing of packaging is more than a marketing aspect. For instance, special inks and coatings and different coding processes help to guard against counterfeiting. Functional finishing techniques like Braille embossing are essential to ensure that the blind and visually impaired can use the medications safely. 

In the Beauty & Personal Care sector, the focus is on first-rate design performance with comprehensive finishing techniques to uniquely present brands and content. This involves the entire range of printing and finishing techniques: from UV offset printing to structure and hot foil embossing, lamination, screen printing, special inks and coatings all the way to cold foil printing. 

“The function of packaging is to sell the product on the shelf, represent the value of the brand, and also to create a shopping experience. High-quality finishing has been proven to positively impact sales,” explains Florian Binder-Krieglstein. 

With the environment in mind
Especially when it comes to high-grade packaging, sustainability is a major issue. But don’t sustainability and elegant finishings contradict one another? “No, not at all,” Binder-Krieglstein stresses. “We work with our customers to continuously optimise existing products, for example by using thinner foils.” In addition, all business units within the group are continuously working on innovations, starting with the processing of fibres and production of cartonboard and paper. And even outside of the main production processes, there is great potential to be tapped: special energy concepts, for example, allow us to use the exhaust heat generated by machines, and the large network of MMP locations guarantees short delivery routes for our customers.

Paper over plastic
Wherever the product development and innovation team of MM Packaging sees an opportunity to make a product more sustainable, the issue is addressed proactively. 
“In joint customer workshops, we look for potential and develop new concepts,” says Binder-Krieglstein. In future, paper with barrier properties will be able to replace more and more plastic packaging, like plastic sleeves for example.