Entrepreneurial decisions with great foresight characterise the 113-year history of the Panther Group. As a medium-sized group of companies with all the positive freedom of action and the decisiveness of a family that has shaped its fortunes for several decades, Panther is constantly facing new challenges in the interests of its customers.
The Panther Group comprises four corrugated cardboard plants as well as companies for flexo-preprint, offset printing and multifunctional displays, a paper mill, a dispatch centre and a packaging plant. With these companies, the Panther Group is one of the leading providers on the packaging market. It is the only German packaging group that can offer everything from a single source, from paper production, corrugated board production and processing, flexo postprint, flexo preprint, offset and digital printing and displays to packaging and logistics.
The „nucleus“ of today's Panther Group, the Altonaer Wellpappenfabrik, was founded in 1902 in Hamburg-Altona by Wilhelm Landmann was founded. Just three decades after the invention of corrugated board and the patent application in the USA, courageous business personalities placed their trust in the long-term potential and expandability of corrugated board-related activities. They made a significant contribution to the unrivalled success of corrugated board as a packaging material.
Today and in the future, the independent group of companies is committed to realising its vision: the Panther Group wants to be the best company in the corrugated cardboard industry in the eyes of its customers with its products. By consistently investing in new technologies, the Group is securing its basis for sustainable development.
Living corporate philosophy
On the occasion of the opening of Panther Packaging's new corrugated cardboard plant in Wustermark in 2004 Axel Hilmer, Managing Director of the Panther Packaging Group, expressed this philosophy, which is still valid today, with the following words: „The motto for the opening of this plant is ‚Visions come true‘. The Panther Group still wants to achieve a great deal. Spurred on by our corporate philosophy, which manifests our desire for excellence and our focus on the customer.“
The Panther Group is renowned for its speed and flexibility in Development of successful PoS solutions thanks to intensive communication with partners on the customer side. To this day, the company's management is characterised by a Hanseatic business spirit. Panther stood and still stands for fundamental values that ensure long-term success: product quality, reliability towards customers, responsible treatment of employees and the environment and thus ecologically, economically and socially sustainable solutions for customers.
The course is set
As early as 1905, the Altonaer Wellpappenfabrik moved into larger premises in the new building in Hamburg's Schützenstraße. Under the founders Staub and Landmann, the company experienced very successful development, which led to further expansion in the 1920s and 1930s. More and more industrial companies were using corrugated cardboard to package goods securely. Wilhelm Landmann already decided in these years in favour of the panther as the company's heraldic animal.
For him, the panther symbolised the qualities that the company should have: strong and resilient. As early as 1930, the Panther head as a trade mark together with the slogan „Primal force, strong and elastic“ registered. The distinctive panther head and the „strong and resilient“ logo remain almost unchanged to this day. The Second World War brought a temporary end to the company, which was completely bombed in 1943. And yet the entrepreneurs managed to keep production going during the difficult war years: A time-sharing agreement with J. Köster Kartonagenfabrik made it possible to continue production temporarily in external premises.
Handover of the baton
Under the direction of Fritz Landmann, the son of the company founder, a modern plant was built from 1945; at the same time, he took over the management of the company and shaped the coming decades of the Panther Group. As early as the 1950s, numerous investments were made in the most modern technology of the time, from corrugated cardboard, printing, cutting and creasing machines to infrastructure and logistics. The demand for packaging was higher than ever in the post-war years and the company quickly returned to economic success.
Horst Hilmer joined the company in 1953 as a „career changer“: The trained hotel manager learnt all facets of corrugated board from scratch - he was to dedicate the rest of his professional life entirely to the economic prosperity of the Panther Group. He became managing director of the Altonaer Wellpappenfabrik in 1973, and in 1986 he took over the majority of the family business, making the Panther Group what it is today over the course of more than 40 years. He played a key role in company acquisitions and start-ups and led the plants to their current significance. Horst Hilmer was particularly dedicated to the Training and further education for the next generation of the paper and corrugated board industry. This commitment continues to this day.
Since 2000, Horst Hilmer's daughter Carin Hilmer-Brenzinger and his son Axel Hilmer have been the sole managing directors of the Panther Group in the fourth generation.
Smart investment policy
For years, extensive investments in state-of-the-art technology - from base paper production to all finishing processes, IT and logistics - have ensured the Panther Group's most important performance criteria: efficiency and delivery accuracy, adherence to delivery dates and flexibility. Independence and a lean management organisation allow us to react quickly to market changes and set the course early on for the active further development of all fields of activity.
One example of this is the takeover of Print-Pack in 2001 and the resulting offer of Offset-printed packaging and displays to complement the direct printing and preprint process. The founding of PaKa Packaging-Service (also in 2001) as a service company for logistics optimisation is also evidence of the further development. A permanent innovation programme in all associated plants supports the Group through the use of state-of-the-art corrugators, printing machines, die-cutters, inline machines and display gluing machines developed in-house.
Growth with core expertise
The company has developed a culture that consistently produces its own solutions in the packaging and display sector. All employees are committed to presenting customers with their different needs with independently developed, sustainable solutions that contribute to their success. Panther has been focussing on its core competencies for many decades. This applies to personnel as well as machinery, hardware and software, training and the acquisition of other companies.
Confidence in the successful continuation of this tradition is based on recognisable developments in key markets and responses to upcoming changes. For more than a decade, Panther has been introducing innovations for the Shelf-ready packaging a. The packaging solutions increasingly favoured by retailers, which can be opened without technical aids and are suitable for shelf-ready presentation, are becoming an important success factor.
Career aspiration: Panther
The Panther Group's willingness to always create the best possible conditions for success has a long tradition. Intensive training and further education in all plants is an important cornerstone for securing the future. During their apprenticeship, trainees become industrial clerks, packaging technologists, paper technologists, energy electronics technicians, mechatronics technicians and flexographic printers. In addition to technical and specialised skills and knowledge, the group of companies also works consistently to convey what is special about Panther to its trainees: the Holistic, customer-orientated thinking and acting.
For joint success
When the Panther Group celebrated its 100th birthday in 2002, the course had already been set for a new era. Through investments, new buildings, company takeovers and strategic decisions, the group of companies has continued to develop very successfully. This success is essentially based on two pillars: firstly, the Panther Group has always remained true to itself, the guiding principle of „For joint success“ is a reality for the family-run company. State-of-the-art production facilities are a second guarantee of success, underpinning the Group's strong market position. The past decade has been a time of certifications and investments in the latest technology.
The Group's plants undergo regular audits and thus fulfil all customer requirements. Even more decisive for the transformation of the Panther Group are new plants, new machines and new names: the creation of the Panther trio of Wepoba Wellpappenfabrik, Panther Display and Panther Print in Wustermark near Berlin in Brandenburg between 2004 and 2011, as well as numerous individual investments in all plants. In 2004, Otto Kriegsch Display, part of the Panther Group since 2002, is renamed Panther Display. The virtual brand JuicefulThings (2003) is introduced. This provides a think tank for packaging and displays that encourages customers to find innovative solutions together with Panther.
Step towards Brandenburg
After more than seven decades of corrugated cardboard production in Berlin, Panther Packaging opened a new chapter in 2004: Since then, a new plant in the state of Brandenburg has provided the entire group with the technical and spatial development opportunities required by the demanding customer markets. The new Wepoba corrugated board factory was born with the values of the medium-sized company group: Tradition in harmony with modernity, flexibility and trustworthiness, reliability, stable value and innovative strength.
The new building „on a greenfield site“ is equipped with the latest facilities in terms of hygiene, quality and performance optimisation. In addition to the development of corrugated cardboard packaging, a particular focus here is on the design and production of innovative preprint secondary placement systems and sales promotion elements. The expansion of activities at the Wustermark site reached a new high point with the start of construction of a new preprint printing plant and the installation of the completely redesigned flexo preprint machine in December 2010. In January 2011, Panther Print (founded in 2009) moved into its new premises. With this machine, the Panther Group is setting new standards. Shortly after the installation of the world's first direct-drive 8-colour+coating flexo preprint machine, production runs with paper and print tests could be run on the 2.80 m working width.
The future has already begun
With further new buildings and expansions, such as the Wepoba Wellpappenfabrik logistics centre, which will be put into operation in spring 2015, the Panther Group is systematically continuing its Investment programme continued. The coming years will be characterised by continued market growth for corrugated board packaging and displays. The most important sales markets, such as food packaging, packaging for electrical engineering or the chemical industry, but also for internet-based retail, are expected to see further increases in sales. Above all, market demand for highly refined, intelligent corrugated board products will contribute to the successful further development of the Group. Several awards currently attest to the company's expertise in this area.
