Storopack Benelux simplifies its company structure
Tags: Reorganisation / Storopack / Storopack AIRPlus GTI / Storopack FOAMplus / Storopack PAPERplus
* Fusion of operating companies and change of legal entities
Effective 1st January, 2010, Storopack will be concentrating all operative business processes for Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands together in one company – Storopack Benelux NV with its headquarters in Machelen. Nothing will change for customers, market and business partners except the name, as the sales strategy and business activities will remain unchanged and differentiated according to countries, despite the merger of the companies. With this administrative process, the new realignment and consolidation of the Benelux activities initiated by Storopack in 2005 will have a formal conclusion. The now simplified business structure will reduce internal administrative operating expenses. In this way, additional resources will be available to be used efficiently in customer service and the acquisition of new customers.
Up until the end of 2009, two operating companies were allocated to the Storopack Reichenecker Holding NV. The corporate objective of Storopack NV with headquarters in Wuustwezel was the manufacture of loose-fill as well as the distribution of the core product portfolio with the product families AIRplus®, PAPERplus® and FOAMplus™ to packaging materials dealers throughout the entire Benelux region. In this capacity, the company also functioned as an internal supplier of its own brands to other operating companies of the holding, the Storopack Packaging Distribution Benelux NV with headquarters in Machelen, a packaging materials trading company with activities in all Belgian provinces and Luxembourg.
Within the new structure effective 2010, all operating and administrative functions of Storopack in the Benelux, such as packaging lab and showroom, technical customer services, warehousing and logistics, purchasing as well as administration and financing, will now be unified under a single umbrella. In addition to the sales office in Machelen, which is responsible for customers in most of the Belgian provinces and in Luxembourg, the regional sales office in Harelbeke will continue to support the provinces West and East Flanders. The office in Gooreind will also remain operative; since the fire at Wuustwezel it has functioned as a sales and distribution office for new customer acquisition and services, as well as for trade partners and customers in The Netherlands.
Since Daniel Wachter took over as the head of the Business Unit for Storopack in Benelux as General Manager in 2005, it has been one of the cornerstones of the strategic approach to clearly establish country-specific customer support and the separation of distribution channels. As a manufacturer, the company distributes its core product portfolio with the product families AIRplus®, PAPERplus® and FOAMplus™ and the range of loose fill products in the Netherlands indirectly via trading companies in the packaging sector. In Belgium and Luxembourg, Storopack works together with trading partners, as well as addressing customers directly as an integrated manufacturer and trading company supplying a complete range of protective and transport packaging via a packaging catalogue and regional packaging consultants, in addition to its own core product portfolio.
The main focal point of business in the last few years has been the market-related strategic realignment and positioning of all activities focused on core product growth, in conjunction with a consolidation. Milestones were the fusion of the divisions Packaging Distribution and Packaging Systems (2005), the move to Machelen with the facilities as central warehouse for Benelux (2006), as well as the integration of the regional warehouse in Kuurne (2007). The production unit for loose fill in Wuustwezel, which was completely destroyed by fire on 12/12/2007, has not been rebuilt. Since then, Storopack supplies its loose fill customers in the Benelux and will also continue to do so with the support of its own logistics division, which is specialized in volume transport with EPS and Bio-Loose Fill from production locations in Germany and France.
The fusion is in fact the final administrative step in a strategic realignment and consolidation. However, Daniel Wachter announced at the same time not to rest on one’s laurels with what has already been achieved. “We will continue to initiate further sustainable applied and designated projects, all with the aim of improving our own orientation and that – which has been jointly achieved together with our trading partners regarding market presence and the needs of our customers – in a consistent and continuous manner, in order to grow together further within the scope offered by the circumstances in the Benelux market”.
Storopack Benelux N.V.
Bedrijvenpark Beaulieu, Nieuwbrugstraat 79, B- 1830 Machelen, Belgium; Telephone +32 (0)2 756 80 90 – Fax +32 (0)2 756 80 70 – www.storopack.be
About Storopack
Storopack is a leading manufacturer and service provider in the fields of protective and transport packaging as well as molded parts made of expanded foams. The sales of the worldwide operating group of companies with headquarters in Metzingen (Germany) are generated by the three divisions Molding, Packaging and Logistics. The Packaging Division specialises in the “interior cushioning” market and covers the customised integration of complete packing lines for flowable cushioning materials (loose fill), air cushions, paper padding, and foam packaging systems. To supplement these interior and protective packaging, Storopack also provides service and technical advice on all packaging questions to manufacturing and trading companies in Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland and supplies a wide range of products in the field of transport packaging.
