How strong paper is!

 
GOING AGAINST THE TIDE Innova Group celebrates the anniversary of IBO Ondulati and a balance for 2011 that despite market difficulties shows growth in turnover, profits and cash flow. First of all, thanks to continuous investments in the streamlining and strengthening of production.

COB (Carte Ondulate Bresciane), Innovacart Cartotecnica, IBO Ondulati, San Felice Imballaggi, Polikart Imballaggi: with this formation Innova Group (Cain, BS) closed 2011 with sales at best ever - 76 million euros, against the 67 million of the previous year - an increase in volumes and gaining of new market shares, despite the general drop in the consumption of corrugated board, that group analysts estimate at between 2 and 6%.

These results were achieved mainly on the north Italian markets, within a radius of 200 km from the company’s headquarters, primarily serving the food industry (where around 30% of the users of Innova packaging operate). Their main growth driver, investment in modernization of facilities and technologies, with the goal of maximizing the efficiency of processes and flows. An efficiency, as Luca Pedrotti, Managing Director of the group, declared in a recent press conference, that has a very concrete impact on product quality and price containment «that has allowed us to expand our customer base and grow in a time when most companies are suffering the effects of the crisis».
 
Analysing the figures
In Italy, the people at Innova Group state, a converting company rarely exceeds 5 million in annual turnover; hence the verve and momentum of the Brescia-based group is there for all to see: «It's like having created two new mid-size casemaking works from scratch in a single year», Pedrotti exemplifies, immediately stating: «However, this increase conceals a critical point. It is not only the result of an increase, all the same considerable, in volumes (7%), but it is also due to the continuing rise in the value of the raw materials.

Contextualized in a stagnant market like ours, with falling production volumes and rising manufacturing costs, it is putting a strain on the corrugated cardboard system and it is becoming increasingly difficult to pass on the increases incurred onto the end customers».And there is no indication that the spiralling of  paper prices will stop in the coming months: Innova Group has started 2012 going against the tide of the national economy and the industry in particular, with volumes and turnover up by 7% and year-end projections at around 80 million; but raw material costs have continued to rise.
 
All-round development
Last year, in the various companies that comprise the group, Innova’s increased volumes were not accompanied by an increase in staff, which stands at around the 190 units, but rather by an improved efficiency and use of its facilities. The objective is primarily to lower production costs, with the dual purpose of protecting margins and keeping price lists down, thus supporting the group’s trade policy with competitively priced products.
Among the results cited one has the increase in the number of customers (270 new ones in 2011 and 180 from January to May this year) further bolstering the company. «Our growth strategies, what is more, do not neglect any opportunity - says Diego Pedrotti - even, ultimately, the purchase of synergical industrial concerns, perhaps aided by a progressive decline in prices, which in the given situation also affects the prices of companies».

In order to save, however, continues the entrepreneur, the highway is and remains the rationalization and automation of processes that, in 2012, primarily involved the logistics of the Innovacart works. With an investment started up in August after four years of discussions and projects.
 
The keystone of automation
«The automation of the production is widespread in casemakers and corrugated board producers - considers Stefano Pedrotti - but rarely involves end-of-the-line operations. The consequences of this type of intervention are very different depending on the processes involved: in a casemaker or a corrugated cardboard producer, for example, raw material processing involves a maximum of a couple of steps, while in converting   semi-processed materials may even require seven stages of processing, engaging the department for many days and requiring complex management and traceability procedures. In addition, converting companies create many types of products that hence require different, often difficult and inconvenient, methods of pallet composition and management. In these cases, therefore, simplification and automation enable a great leap forward, overcoming critical points and eliminating "hidden costs". With the plant started in August in Innovacart we succeeded in doing this».
The plant comprises 6 automatic handling lines  running on Acetal belts for a total of 160 linear meters, semi-finished and finished product accumulation area which also act as phasers for the machines. The project is completed by new automatisms at machine infeed and outfeed, pallet and sheets inserters for product separation and stabilization, automatic panel inserters, in addition to 2 new strapping and filming lines with scanner and barcode encoding.

«Automating internal handling - said Pedrotti - has allowed us to better control the processing steps and related costs. In addition we have gone from two to three work shifts, increasing productivity and putting us in a position to write off future investments in the shortest time possible. Overall, we estimate that the new workflow has provided a 40 to 60% improvement of the performance of the works at the end of the line».