Delocalising Italian style

INDIA Mac Due tells the story of a joint venture started on the Indian subcontinent in order to produce semi-automatic packaging machines with Western quality standards at Eastern costs, with the objective of winning over emerging markets and of being more competitive on the Western markets.

The semi-automatic packaging machines, which were at the basis of Mac Due’s starting off, designed 30 years ago but still current to this day, are at the center of a forward-looking project. «Indeed - explains Fiorenzo Donetti, the Bologna concern’s AD - while demand is alive and well for simple Made in Italy machines, which enable taking a first step toward processes automation without disproportionate investments, the prices imposed by competitors in developing economies limit their widespread use. We therefore asked ourselves how we can make the most of our legacy of competencies and technologies, and it occurred to us that the answer could be found… in developing countries».
Thus began the Indian adventure of Mac Due, an SME deeply rooted in the Emilia-Romagna region that owes its growth to the two front of standard packaging machines for general products using heatshrink film and complete packaging lines dedicated to specific industries such as Tissue, heatformed trays and products and insulating panels, providing a completely automatic process going from the output of the processing machine up to the “stretched” pallet ready to be loaded onto the truck.
This adventure has led to a joint venture with an Indian partner, a manufacturer of stretch wrapping machinery, as well as the founding of a manufacturing company called Italindia: «A simple name that succinctly captures the union of skills and the strong points of the two nations».

An eye to the East
and the other to the West
The initiative’s setting up in Coimbatore, as Donetti explains, «in the South of India, in the heart of an area ripe with sub-suppliers able to undertake any kind of processing task» marks a turn in the Emilian concern’s internationalization process. «Mac Due in the past catered to foreign markets on the tails of producers of processing systems, that completed the lines with our packaging machines and sold across the globe. Then we began to develop our own independent business, promoting it through sector fairs and managing it through an ever-expanding commercial network.

Along this path, far from running its course, the founding of Italindia represents a unique move, both because we are also manufacturing through it and because it has enabled us to implement a new development strategy». Put simply, this consists in proposing in both the East and West Italian quality machines at Indian prices, capable of competitively meeting the requirements of a wide user base, thanks to a quality/price ratio that fears no comparisons East or West.

«In India - Donetti explains - production volumes are growing and a significant number of mid-sized concerns are beginning to introduce elements of automation. Today operators can find, alongside the offer of local suppliers, ours as well, made “European style,” employing much more advanced technologies but with prices in line with the market. Mutatis mutandis, the same thing happens in the West: here the most widespread level of automation is incomparably high, but in any case the many concerns who are not producing multinational-level volumes are orienting themselves toward basic solutions and, thus, toward simpler machinery. We therefore offer them machines at a highly competitive price with a quality level in line with Western standards».

The benefits of a good cooperation
Italindia PackPlus Pvt. Ltd. thus results from an agreement between Mac Due, which controls 40% of the new company, and Penguin Engineers, a qualified producer of machinery for wrapping with heatshrink and stretch films and machines for wrapping industrial cables operating at international level. The majority partner manages the concern and is responsible for a sales and assistance network which covers the entire area of the Far East (and more). Mac Due, for its part, has brought to the table its machine designs and the skills of its specialists, many training courses, its sales network in the West and, last but not least, a different kind of market vision which, in the meeting of experiences and attitudes, will contribute to stimulate new approaches to the international market.

«Even though we have many things in common - Donetti continues - in order to collaborate to the greatest advantage with our new partners, we had to resolve some important issues, many of which centered on the concept of quality. In fact, Indian users have a set of values that are different from our own, as far as machinery is concerned: as long as it does its job well, a piece of machinery might be roughly welded, poorly painted, with components of obscure brands, basically appearing to be third hand even when new… We thus needed to speak firmly in order to affirm the principle that packaging machines produced in Coimbatore must be the same, in every aspect, to those which Mac Due makes in Bologna, lest we risk losing Western markets.

Putting in a strong commitment on both sides we managed to do it. Another obstacle of no mean measure was posed by the substantial differences between the two countries in legislation governing safety in the workplace: it is by no means to be taken for granted, for example, that the Asian user is willing to pay for accident-prevention measures that the law does not impose as necessary. But also in this case we managed to find a balance without compromising on our standards: indeed we can honestly say that we are able to compete economically, while at the same time offering more».

Happy End
And so, since 2011 Italindia has been producing quality-certified wrapping machines with components from the world’s top brands («available everywhere, even India») and, since the end of last year, has begun exporting to the West as well, sustained by the efforts of Mac Due to continue to develop an adequate network of distributors. The first results are enough to give comfort to its partners in the success of a well-founded strategy that committed much at all levels.
«Italindia owns two warehouses, for carpentry and assembly, built from scratch in a coconut field, and today, after intense training work, especially in mechanics, it works at full capacity. The response of the market is encouraging: our standard machines are welcomed everywhere, as much in the East as in the West; furthermore, they may serve as a bridgehead for the subsequent introduction, even in developing countries, of the next step, comprising machines with even higher performances and completely automatic turnkey packaging lines».                            

In fase di progressiva espansione, anche grazie ad accordi commerciali con altri produttori affini e complementari, la società esporta in quasi cinquanta paesi e vanta un portafoglio clienti di prestigio (Sca, Kimberly Clark, Knauff, Linpac, Basf, ecc).
Mac Due progetta, realizza e collauda al proprio interno tutte le macchine e relativi software e, nel 2008, ha avviato il progetto sfociato nella nascita della joint-venture manifatturiera Italindia.  
Fra i brevetti che ne hanno segnato la storia tecnologica, segnaliamo quello relativo a un nuovo tipo di confezione per rotolo singolo di carta tissue da cucina per “vestirlo”  e dare l’immagine richiesta per spiccare nello scaffale del supermercato, e a un sistema di accoppiamento film da installare su macchine confezionatrici che, partendo da due bobine, crea direttamente in macchina un'unica grande bobina monopiega, raddoppiando l’autonomia dell’impianto e semplificando sia la sostituzione sia la stampa del film usato nel confezionamento.
                              
From packaging to handling
Mac Due was founded in 1981 by two partners, one of which - Valentino Donetti - is the concern’s current president. Based in Bologna, with about thirty employees and an annual turnover that ranges from 6 to 7 million euro, the concern produces packaging machines for various products (most importantly tissues, thermo-formed trays and insulating panels) and well-integrated and engineered complete packaging lines that also comprise the “handling” of the products from stacking devices to palletizer robots.
Now in continual expansion, also thanks to trade agreements with similar and complementary producers, the company exports to nearly fifty different countries and boasts a prestigious customer portfolio (Sca, Kimberly Clark, Knauff, Linpac, Basf, etc). Mac Due designs, constructs and tests in its own facilities all machines and related software and, in 2008, the concern began work on the project which led to the joint venture manufacturer Italindia.

Among the patents that have marked its technological history, worth mention are those relating to a new type of packaging for single kitchen tissue rolls to “clad” the same and give it the right image to stand out on the supermarket shelves, and a film lamination system that is installed on packaging machines, which, starting with two reels, creates on board machine one large single-fold reel, thus doubling the autonomy of the installation and simplifying both the replacement and printing of the film used in the operation.