Corrugated industry’s top players recognised at FEFCO’s Vienna with special awards
Date
16 Oct 2017
Sections
Innovation & Enterprise
Brussels, 16th October 2017
FEFCO, the European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers, honoured some of the most innovative and exciting names in packaging with awards in Vienna on October 13.
FEFCO Production Committee, chaired by Marc Van Damme, issued eight awards at the end of the three-day Technical Seminar.
The most prestigious FEFCO award was for Best Innovation, and this year there were two gold winners:
- BHS, for their new single facer Modul Facer MF-A. FEFCO jury said this offered, “a solution to the ever-increasing complexity on flute changes. The Modul Facer MF-A makes it possible to change flute positions in a very flexible way, without losing all the advantages of the traditional module facer.” BHS’s Thomas Murr collected the prize.
- BOBST, for their introduction of the online gap control on bundled boxes. The FEFCO jury said Bobst, “was taking the request of our industry seriously to check the gap control on boxes after the counter ejector.” This could help the industry reach the goal of zero defect deliveries. Bobst’s Yves Bletterie picked up the award.
A bronze Innovation Prize went to Fosber, for their new Pro/Care, which the FEFCO jury said was “bringing to our industry a structured, well defined comprehensive approach on collecting and analysing available data.” It was handed to Fosber’s Tim Straker.
The Best Presentation Award, out of some 60 six-minute spotlights delivered during the Vienna seminar, was won by Göpfert, Lena Bördlein collected it for her presentation, ‘Göpfert, the Next Generation’.
The Most Inspiring New FEFCO Member Award went to Elitron, which has moved from a supplier of digital cutting tables for Italian leather to the worldwide corrugated industry. It was handed to Elitron’s Luca Lui.
The Sustainability Award went to Metsa Board, which has invested in a next-generation bio-product paper mill in Finland, proving that businesses can support the goals of the circular economy goal by cutting the carbon footprint of paper production. The award was collected by Metsa Board’s Leena Ylinimie.
Two business leaders who have contributed hugely to the industry were awarded FEFCO’s first ever Lifetime Achievement Awards. One went to BP Agnati’s Renato Rossi, “in recognition of his lifelong commitment to developing the corrugator, enhancing the single facer to process lightweight papers and introducing ‘colder’ corrugators,” according to the jury citation. The other went to Daniel Tatti from Bobst, “for his long-term research and innovation in the field of printing, developing solutions for the Corrugated Industry.”
FEFCO Secretary General Angelika Christ mentioned that “over the last few days I could see overwhelming smiles honouring the efforts of many people that worked hard to make this event a real success.”
END
For additional information and pictures, please contact:
Nathalie Schneegans, Communications Director at nathalie.schneegans@fefco.org – Phone: +32 2 6500832
Note to the editors
FEFCO (European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers) represents the interests of the European Corrugated Board Manufacturers. Headquartered in Brussels, FEFCO has 17 Association members, all European national corrugated packaging organisations. The role of the Federation is to investigate economic, financial, technical and marketing issues of interest to the corrugated packaging Industry, to analyse all factors which may influence the industry, and to promote and develop its image.
Europe’s corrugated industry in Europe makes about 43.4 billion square metres of board per year, enough to cover Denmark. It has 412 companies, 701 plants and accounts for 91,100 jobs. Corrugated is already a complete, high-performance material design, and delivery system, with thousands of possible combinations of board types, depth, weight, adhesives, and coatings. The average box today is more than 5% lighter than 15 years ago and contains around 7% more recycled material.