Pictured above: Karl Ömmer, CEO and one of the Co-founders of Austrian converter, packit!
Austrian packaging manufacturer packit! serves the food industry with high-quality offset laminated corrugated board packaging solutions. Operating out of one of the most modern production facilities in Europe, the specialist in E flute, F flute, and laminated doublewall materials, has recently invested in a complete MASTERCUT 1.65 PER die-cutting line.
Today, packit! boasts an experienced team, two automated warehouses with a capacity of 53,000 pallets guaranteeing extremely short delivery times, and a suite of state-of-the-art die-cutting equipment from BOBST. But 23 years ago, the idea to found packit! only started thanks to a discussion at a coffee dispenser.
At the time, the packit! founders were working in another company which had just bought a new litho-laminator. This machine, however, was destined for another site. Karl Ömmer, CEO and one of the Co-founders, explains, “The machine in my factory was 18 years old, worked three shifts, six days a week, and needed replacing. I was very angry. So we decided to buy our own machine and founded packit!”
The company has grown into the primary supplier for offset laminated corrugated board in Austria. Based on the idea that investment is an essential part of business success, the new company rapidly grew, moving from a 200-year-old industrial area and a few second-hand Bobst machines, into a brand-new greenfield plant in 2009 with the latest Bobst equipment.
Walter Freimüller, CEO and Co-founder, adds, “These Bobst machines are really flexible, enabling us to change things to meet our production requirements. Our engineers are constantly innovating and creating new types of cardboard packaging, and the knowledge of our engineers, combined with the flexibility of the Bobst equipment, means it can offer a unique selling proposition for the market.”
Flexibility was also one of the reasons why the company decided to invest in a Mastercut 1.65 PER die-cutter in 2022. The machine provides specialist capability for cutting large-size cardboard and strong corrugated sheets, while being delicate enough to process litho-printed surfaces with varnish thanks to top feeding. The machine is also the only solution on the market for blanking in size VII.
This Mastercut 1.65 PER proved to be the perfect fit for packit!’s needs, enabling it to die-cut all the corrugated board products from its range, making production planning much easier.
As well as versatility, the quality of the final product, and the fast setup times of the highly automated Mastercut 1.65 PER, a key criteria for choosing this particular die-cutter was the availability of the matching peripherals. Equipped with a FLAT TRACK and PALLETIZER, the batches with the stripped and blanked blanks can be palletized in various patterns. Freimüller adds, “This is not possible with a normal die-cutter line for cardboard. This enables fully automated palletizing of the blank batches, regardless the product substrate, according to box design requirements and customer needs.”
Collaboration with the Bobst Service technicians has hugely contributed to the sustainability of the longstanding partnership with BOBST over the last two decades. Timo Bergmair-Russmann, Maintenance Manager, appreciates the Service offer, including its digitalization. He said, “Together with Bobst, we can solve 80% of our issues via remote connection. This gives us a huge reduction in downtime when we have a more serious issue.”
But in most cases, the intervention of a Bobst Service technician is no longer necessary. The machine operators have participated in Bobst mechanical and electrical machine-specific training courses, granting packit! extensive knowledge of machine processes and functions and helping operators to deal with potential issues themselves. Combined with maintenance training and the availability of machine spare parts, this has translated into much faster troubleshooting and less downtime.
“Possible causes of downtime can be recognized and rectified at an early stage thanks to the knowledge acquired and almost all issues can be resolved without the need for a BOBST Service technician”, said Bergmair-Russmann. “Overall, the training and the Helpline save a lot of money, time and resources.”
Marco Lideo, Head of Product Line DSF LLAM, Bobst, said, “The last 23 years have seen our relationship with packit! go from strength to strength, and we’ve been delighted to support them with Bobst converting equipment at every step of their journey. packit!’s reputation for supplying high-quality corrugated packaging with fast turnaround speeds is well known, and their recent investment in our Freimüller 1.65 PER will only enhance this capability further. We look forward to working with packit! in the years to come and building on this partnership to ensure maximum quality and value for their customers.”
