Multivac Marking & Inspection, a global company firmly rooted in the eastern part of Westphalia, Germany, celebrates 50 years of delivering high-quality solutions for labelling, marking and inspection.
While the core market for Multivac has always been the food industry, companies in the life science and healthcare sectors have also benefitted from the proven solutions and innovative technology offered by the company.
The success story for the labelling specialist began on 1 July 1972 – a company called MR Etikettiertechnik was founded in the town of Enger in Eastern Westphalia, a region with many large meat processors and sausage manufacturers. The first product developed by the start-up company was a cross web labeller. Its primary task was to apply labels automatically and efficiently to a wide range of meat and sausage products packed on thermoforming packaging machines.
A flourishing company developed over the years from these early beginnings. Thanks to systematic investment in technology and know-how, the range of products and services was continually expanded to meet new demands and trends in the market. The number of employees continued to grow.
And in addition to the proven cross web labellers, a new group of products was also developed – high-performance conveyor belt labellers, which have since made a major contribution in many applications and markets to increasing efficiency, process reliability and labelling accuracy.
Out of MR comes Multivac
When the company founder decided to withdraw from the business in 1993, Multivac came into the picture. The many years previously of close cooperation made the decision easy – MR Etikettiertechnik became part of the Multivac Group. The integration of the company only became fully transparent to the public, however, in 2010, when MR Etikettiertechnik was officially renamed Multivac Marking & Inspection.
Today, the subsidiary is an extremely successful and agile supplier of labelling, printing and inspection systems.
Almost 50 million euros turnover, 257 employees, and a tightly knit sales and service network worldwide, which stays close to its customers and ensures, that all systems sold maintain a permanently high level of reliability and performance.
As joint managing directors, Karsten Strothmann (executive vice-president sales) and Dr Hendrik Frank (executive vice-president Ttechnics) are setting the future direction for stable growth in the designated target markets, and developing new potential customers worldwide.
Unique product range
Labelling solutions are not the only cornerstones of the company's success. Thanks to well-established knowledge of the industry, Multivac Marking & Inspection developed direct web printers at an early stage.
When printed upper web came into fashion on thermoforming packaging machines, customers did not want to apply yet another label to the printed upper web, but rather to print a best-before date or batch number directly onto the film. An expanding branch of the business, as it soon became clear.
Since 2010 the company has also been developing and producing checkweighers, metal detectors and X-ray inspection systems in Enger.
And lastly, thanks to the company's systems for visual inspection, which provide label and print inspection by means of sensors or cameras, a new level of product safety and manufacturing transparency has been achieved.
The latest product in a very diversified range is the L 312 full wrap labeller with weigh price marking, which sets a new benchmark, when in comes to material efficiency, saving resources, and recyclability in labelling.
But it is not only the product range, which has expanded over the years –in addition to the food industry, Multivac Marking & Inspection today also serves the life science and healthcare sectors, as well as industrial and consumer products manufacturers worldwide.
Synergies and added value
A large proportion of the labelling, marking and inspection systems are used in Multivac lines, and thanks to the close cooperation over several decades between the companies, a high level of integration has been developed, which offers customers significant added value in terms of ease of operation and ergonomics.
All the components of the line are perfectly integrated, and they can be operated conveniently and reliably via one central control terminal.
In addition to these products, Multivac Marking & Inspection also develops and manufactures special labelling solutions, which are independent of Multivac packaging machines. These include labellers for sealing pack leaflets or mailshots closed with a label, as well as conveyor belt labellers downstream of filling, and sealing machines for pots or glass bottles.
All the company's solutions are manufactured specifically to order, and the broadly designed modular construction of the assemblies allows the systems to be built flexibly to the specific application, so that customers benefit to a high degree from both a technically and commercially optimised solution.
Market trends - challenge and opportunity at the same time
Multivac Marking & Inspection always sees the development of the market as a genuine opportunity.
“Only in a dynamic environment can we remain flexible and focused on the needs of our customers,” explained Strothmann.
Frank added: “An essential building block of our success is the ability to create new products and to optimise what is already proven. By making constant improvements and alterations, we are able to feel the pulse of the times and remain equipped for the future.”
Today, there is a particularly strong trend towards visual inspection and food safety.
“In many automated lines today, it is no longer possible to have labels or the print on labels and packs checked by the human eye. So much is also box packed and palletised automatically – and the whole labelling and printing process has to keep step with this development,” said Strothmann.
It is for this reason, and also as an expression of the desire to stay close to customers, that this year's roadshow features label and print inspection. The roadshow truck visits customers at their own premises, where they can learn all about the benefits and opportunities of automated inspection of print and label.
Digitalisation – with giant steps towards the future
One challenge, which Multivac Marking & Inspection is currently facing, is the big topic of digitalisation.
Even though there are still some misgivings about digitalised machines and processes in some more sensitive sectors, there is a conviction in Enger that digitalisation offers potential in many areas.
“Thanks to digitalisation, we can for example offer our customers much more transparency about their production equipment and its outcomes,” Frank said.
Cloud-supported analysis also enables customers to access important data in real time, so that well-founded decisions can be made quickly. And last but not least, digitalisation makes it possible to detect and rapidly eliminate weak points or problems in the process – or even prevent them in the first place.
Overall, those at Multivac Marking & Inspection look optimistically to the next 50 years.
“Our expertise is currently in demand in the market like never before, and the market potential is also huge. Our solutions are state-of-the-art, and our order book is full. And our passion for what we do remains unbroken,” both MDs agree.
