Established in 1939, P. Van De Velde Group is a fourth generation family-owned business. Today, they operate nine sites and are ISO, FSC® and BRC certified. In 2018 the company generated a turnover of €105m and they convert around 70,000 tonnes of solidboard into a wide range of packaging solutions.
About 18 months ago, the Belgian packaging producer opened a dedicated facility in Poland. It was opened to help service the Group’s expanding customer base, especially those customers who needed a dedicated production unit in Poland. As the demand grew in the territory, so came the need to equip the site with new, state-of-the-art equipment. High on the list was the need for a new speciality gluer.
“We know the customer well,” explains Jasper Kruizinga, Co-owner, JD Engineers. “They have used our equipment at their plants in Belgium and they know the levels of service and support we are able to offer.”
Sooi Beckers, Plant Manager – Poland and Willem Wijnand, Plant Manager, Wetteren Belgium, made several visits to see BoxR gluers in action. “We took them to see installations at existing customers in Europe,” says Doeke Holtrop, Co-owner, JD Engineers. “When they had seen the machines in action and ran some tests, they discussed it with Philip van Belleghem, who is the owner of the Van De Velde Group. They made the decision pretty quickly and we installed a JD BoxR 1700 at the plant in Poland in August.”
Core Values
“In our business, we focus on consumer interests, human rights and social, ethnic and environmental issues,” explains van Belleghem, owner of the company. “P. Van De Velde Group aims for sustainable development based on three Ps – people, planet and profit. In order to guarantee this, our values are set down in a Code of Conduct, the principles to which all our team members have to adhere. What’s more, it also forms a guideline for the interaction between P. Van De Velde Group and its business partners, employees and customers.”
He continues, “P Van De Velde Group is an international business that focuses on the production of high-quality products and services within the packaging industry. We position ourselves as an important player in the market. We develop innovative, high-quality solutions for every packaging issue, packaging solutions that deliver added value. We do this with creative, expert team members who have an eye for detail and with state-of-the-art equipment. We try to choose the best equipment from the market.”
Rugged Design
The machine is the Tanabe JD BoxR 1700, equipped with feeder, T-unit (including press section), A-unit, B-unit, final fold and with a compression section of 1200mm in width. “We chose the machine because of its rigid and sturdy build quality and it’s capabilities for minimising waste, quick set-up times, low energy consumption and high production speeds,” confirms Beckers. “The Polish plant is growing nicely and we will be installing additional machinery in the future, including a flat bed die-cutter and a new offset printer.”
Discussing the new gluer, Beckers continued, “In the near future, we will be adding a Robot feeder and fully automatic palletiser to help enhance output levels.”
“We are proud to be the supplier of this new speciality folder gluer and playing a small part in helping with the growth of the new production site in Poland,” concludes Holtrop.
