Corrugated cardboard: new balances and successes

The possible horizons and challenges for Innova Group, which has released the data on its 2015 performance, delineating a balance of strategies implemented for the long and medium term in order to overcome the troubling economic climate of the last decade.

After a long period of crisis, Italian industry is gradually but steadily regaining ground. In particular, in the corrugated cardboard sector, the excess supply of the last ten years has caused prices to drop to unsustainable levels, precipitating a selection and concentration of the actors on the market. This process has led to a healthy rebalancing of supply and demand, and by consequence quotations have once again reached sustainable levels.
As has happened in the case of many important sector players, the manufacturing “district” of Innova Group (owned and managed by the Pedrotti family) has also had some major mergers.
One of the Group’s executives, Diego Pedrotti, described the merger of two subsidiaries, COB and IBO, as «our most important project of the past year regarding the company’s structure. The union of COB and IBO’s respective accounting and decision-making apparatus, which are now designated under the name Innova Group, has carried major benefits in terms of rationalizing and optimizing resources».

Investing in ideas and technology
In this context, as in the past, what has been rewarded is the foresight of the Pedrotti family, whose managerial efforts have focused on the ongoing improvement of quality combined with persistent measures to reduce production costs.
Convinced that the best reaction to a challenging economic outlook is never to close up on the defensive, but to develop far-reaching strategies, the company has leveraged ambitious and sophisticated projects to enhance efficiency.
«This is shown - explains Pedrotti - by our 9 billion euro investment for a 9000 m2 expansion of the production site in Caino (BS), where a new 200 m cardboard converting line is now operational. The jewel of the installation is the new Göpfert RCD 16/18 Evolution HBL rotary die-cutter, which can process cardboard formats up to a maximum of 1600x2800 mm at a speed of 10,000 beats per hour. This is a very high performance installation that will make a decisive contribution to enhancing our productivity: we expect that by early 2017 it will even be necessary to establish two shifts in order to make the most of its potential».

Improving in the field ...
In terms of labor management and human resources, the implementation of Lean Production principles and instruments, which began in 2014 as a pilot project at Polikart in Bergamo with the consulting help of Porsche Consulting, has proven a success, considerably optimizing the site’s efficiency.
Now that the pilot phase has come to a close, under the guidance of outside consultants, the challenge has been to apply the new model to the rest of the business. To this end, Innova Group has created the Innovation and Development Division, a team dedicated exclusively to strategic enhancement projects, innovation and R&D.

... to design the future
In 2016, Innova Group is launching other major investments, allocating 5 million euro to expand the Erbè (VR) facility by 7500 m2.
Among the structures to be built, following the most advanced architectural standards, a warehouse will definitely be included. It is also highly likely that new, state-of-the-art machinery will be installed.