One of the most important success factors is recognising changes in the market and keeping pace with them. In this respect, Orkla Confectionery & Snacks has set the right course. The confectionery manufacturer has optimised its secondary packaging processes for liquorice bags in order to expand its export activities.
Whether sweet or savoury, liquorice is one of the most popular sweets in Scandinavia. Swedish, Finnish and Danish manufacturers are therefore not only among the leading liquorice producers. With more and more new variants, they also develop the original recipe further in many ways. This also applies to the Panda brand, which is an integral part of Orkla Confectionary & Snacks Finland AB's portfolio. Customers have valued the market leader for Finnish liquorice for its numerous varieties since 1927. The Finnish company is part of the Oslo-based Orkla Group, which comprises consumer goods companies with a total of 70 brands.
Orkla Confectionery & Snacks produces confectionery such as chocolate and liquorice at its Vaajakoski site in Finland - and exports the latter mainly to Scandinavia, the UK, Central Europe and overseas to the USA and Canada. The forward-looking company recently decided to expand its Adapt packaging processes to changing demand. A central role is played by the Flexible and modular Elematic 3001 WA Compact case packer from Syntegon.
„About two years ago, export countries such as the USA and Canada imposed new requirements on the secondary packaging of our liquorice varieties. Instead of so-called double-row packs, they demanded single-row packs. This meant that we no longer had to pack our products in two rows next to each other, but only in one row. However, our two case packers did not cope well with this configuration at the time.“
Arto Liimatainen, Technical Director of Orkla Confectionery & Snacks
Due to the high demand, Orkla Confectionery & Snacks also wanted to expand its Increase production volume and realise even more packaging formats at the same time. After all, multiple export countries mean differentiated packaging. All of this should take place on a limited footprint and with as little downtime and maintenance work as possible.
„We were therefore looking for a space-saving alternative to our two case packers. The aim was to achieve a high infeed speed with the new machine and reduce format changeover times as much as possible.“
Jari Leinonen, Project Manager at Orkla Confectionery & Snacks
The company's decision-makers therefore looked for suitable suppliers - and set high standards: in addition to a higher throughput, the solution should of course achieve reliable results, be flexible to use, and and be easy to operate. „At our plant in Vaajakoski, a system fills the liquorice into different bag sizes, after which two parallel conveyor belts transport the bags flat, bottom first, to our case packers. Therefore the new solution combines the lanes, sorts the bags, erects the blanks and seals them in accordance with the retailers' packaging and export requirements can,“ explains Arto Liimatainen.
For the practitioners, the Elematic 3001 WA Compact from Syntegon seemed to offer the optimum solution to minimise the to place different bag sizes in different pack formats. „After the product presentation, it was clear that the machine lives up to its name and we were delighted,“ adds Arto Liimatainen. Orkla was particularly impressed by two advantages of the compact, easy-to-clean and easily accessible case packer: its Format flexibility and speed.
The Elematic can Ten pack formats at a feed speed of around 150 pouches per minute process. Despite the different bag sizes, feeding and sorting are efficient. The modular design makes it possible: the two-pull system can be easily converted to the next format. Syntegon has also developed the Total number of format parts significantly reduced to enable time-saving changeovers. „From our point of view, the flexibility of the machine is unrivalled and, together with the company's versatile service, tipped the scales in favour of Syntegon,“ emphasises Jari Leinonen.
Orkla packs its bags standing upright in rows in ten different pack formats. „During project realisation, we were faced with the challenge that the Elematic was unable to process one of the formats,“ explains Bernhard Vaihinger, Product Manager for case packers at Syntegon. „That's why we used the format and showed the customer our proposal together with an explanatory video.“ „Syntegon achieved a small feat: the dimensions of the blank had to remain the same so that the packaging with full wrap and perforation could still be implemented for easy opening after transport,“ adds Andreas Gund, Area Sales Manager at Syntegon.
„A total of ten pack formats with different bag configurations can now be realised, including two or three times six bags - or even eight.“ Thanks to its high level of flexibility, the Elematic 3001 WA Compact Produce full wrap and braces cartons as well as trays for various applications.
As liquorice bags do not have a fixed shape, they presented the two partners with another challenge. „Our flat bags offer no counter-pressure as they contain loose products and air. On one careful handling and precise grouping is therefore unavoidable, to mould the transport packaging, insert the bags and seal them. The packaging literally has to be ‚built around‘ the bags,“ explains Arto Liimatainen. Orkla then palletises the packaged liquorice products for transport. Depending on the shelf requirements, the company packs the bags as a full wrap with or without perforation, thus presenting its own brand in an appealing way at the point of sale.
Syntegon's Elematic 3001 WA Compact case packer therefore fulfils all tasks and covers the production volume of Orkla's former two case packers. The Elematic currently runs daily with an average of two format changes per day.
The good thing about optimisation is that Orkla is able to production line without having to expand its floor space. „We are very pleased that we have been able to secure our competitiveness with a much leaner plant,“ says Arto Liimatainen. „Not only our production has benefited from the successful project. With Syntegon, we now also have a strong partner with whom we want to work together in the coming years.“
