Growth in the pharmaceutical packaging business: Körber expands its capacity

The Körber Business Area Pharma is expanding its capacities for the production of high-quality folding boxes for the pharmaceutical industry at three locations. New printing, gluing and labeling machines will be installed in Allschwil in Switzerland, Ejpovice in the Czech Republic and Camden in the USA by the beginning of 2022. They are intended to meet the increasing demand from the pharmaceutical industry for high-quality secondary packaging from Rondo Solutions in the future.

New high-performance Heidelberg Speedmaster XL printing presses are being installed at three Körber sites. "The latest machine technology is crucial for even faster, more flexible and more productive folding-box production. It enables us to shorten set-up times, reduce waste, and offer even more product variety," explains Joachim Hoeltz, Packaging Materials Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Körber Business Area Pharma. Intelligent support systems relieve employees of many routine tasks and assist with machine operation. "This allows us to increasingly call up the maximum output of 18,000 sheets per hour and further reduce set-up times for orders," says Giovanni De Luca, Head of Production at Körber’s Swiss site. In addition, thanks to the eight or ten printing units, the systems also meet special customer requirements such as printing with many spot colors, combining different grades and country variants, and inline reverse-side printing.

The challenges facing the industry are immense: "Expiring patents are increasing the cost pressure on pharmaceutical manufacturers. At the same time, the trend towards personalized medicine is causing batch sizes to shrink and packaging variety to increase. Very large pharmaceutical manufacturers in particular are therefore producing less and less on stock," says Joachim Hoeltz. Körber’s packaging experts responded to these developments at an early stage with product innovation, digitalization and process automation. The supply-on-demand service for short runs, for example, enables very short delivery times of two to five days, for order sizes of 100 to 5,000 sheets. 

In addition to expanding its printing capacity, Körber is also expanding its processing capacities at the Swiss site. A labeling machine and a folding carton gluing machine from Bobst designed for versatility and one hundred percent camera inspection will support Körber's pharmaceutical customers in their desire for more packaging functionality and further accommodate the trend towards zero-defect production.

All machines at the various locations are almost identical in design and equipped for mixed operation. "This means, we can meet special requirements of international customers worldwide uniformly from all locations at short notice," explains Joachim Hoeltz. For the packaging specialists at Körber, one thing is certain: the current investments contribute to being able to deliver at any time whilst at the same time meeting the extraordinarily high demands of customers for quality and product safety. Hoeltz is also convinced: “With state-of-the-art equipment, we are strengthening the attractiveness of our locations for qualified, committed employees." The interplay of know-how, technologies and processes on which Körber is relying will ensure the competitiveness and security of supply of pharmaceutical customers in the future and make the decisive difference for them. 

About the Körber Business Area Pharma

In the Körber Business Area Pharma, we make a decisive difference along the entire pharmaceutical value chain by offering a unique portfolio of integrated solutions. Drawing on in-depth experience in consulting, inspection, handling, packaging machinery and materials, track & trace and software, we understand the challenges in pharmaceutical processes and regulation that our customers face every day. For them, we have the right solutions to unlock the full potential of global pharma and biotech production:

www.koerber-pharma.com 

About Körber 

We are Körber – an international technology group with around 10,000 employees, more than 100 locations worldwide and a common goal: We transform entrepreneurial thinking into customer success and shape technological change. In the business areas digital, pharma, supply chain and technologies, we offer inspiring products, solutions and services that inspire. We respond quickly to customer needs, implement ideas seamlessly, and create added value for our customers with our innovations. In doing so, we are increasingly building on ecosystems that solve the challenges of today and tomorrow. Körber AG is the holding company of the Körber Group

www.koerber.com