4 minute read
The Asian Market
Growing with the Asian Market
Daniele Bellante, MD and CEO of Cama Group
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Cama Group continue to establish themselves as a leading packaging company for the confectionery market with their new Manufacturing Centre opening in Shanghai meeting the precise needs of the Asian market. Kennedy’s spoke with Cama’s CEO, Daniele Bellante, to find out more…
New Asian Manufacturing Centre - Shanghai, China
This year, Cama Group have announced the opening of their new Research & Development and Manufacturing Centre in Shanghai, China. With enhanced operational capabilities in one of the world’s fastest growing economies, this marks a significant milestone for the global Italian company as they go forward with meeting the vast needs of the Asian market.
Cama has been present in the Chinese market since 2013, with a sales and after-sales service office, but, as a result of the increasing demand for secondary packaging automation technology in the region, the company decided that major investment and enhanced commitment was required.
CEO of Cama Group, Daniele Bellante told Kennedy’s, “We set our sights on the Chinese market firstly in 2010, which at the time, it was growing rapidly and so it felt like the right time to step in. Shanghai is the economic centre of China and offers a strong international background – the region offers an excellent supplier base, robust supply chains, convenient transportation and a high level of well-qualified people, making it the perfect base of operations for our new R&D manufacturing centre.”
The Shanghai Hub is Cama’s third global manufacturing centre and the overall goal of the operation is to develop a new range of machines specifically designed and adapted to the precise needs of the Asian market. The new machine series in development will be called CCM – Cama China Manufacturing. “The CCM series is designed to be scalable, flexible and adjustable with minor design adjustments,” Daniele continues. “The idea is once an order is made in China, our team will manufacture the machinery and direct the parts to specific suppliers from there. You can’t manufacture the same machine when transferring it over to a different country and that’s why we wanted the CCM series to stay true to Cama but to have a complete Chinese influence – that way it will respond well to the market. From that, we will know how to target different suppliers for specific purposes and develop it in our subsidiary.”
The group did consider other regions of the world for manufacturing facilities, such as India and the US, but having in-depth knowledge of the Chinese market ultimately lead to the decision of locating the facility to Shanghai. Daniele states: “India and the US are very advanced, but they have different systems, different methods and different know-hows of the market. We didn’t want to compromise our brand and believed that developing our machines in China would be the ideal solution as we have been intuitive with their market for a long time now. “We wanted to have a subsidiary that integrated with the market and transferred our technical know-how. We noticed that the Chinese markets did not have a lot of domestic knowledge in hi-tech packaging with a particular lacking in machinery innovation and so we wanted to inject our own expertise to come up with a fresh range of ideas.” Cama’s subsidiary will consist of a main office and a production area and inside of the industrial compound, there will be offices for service, project management and accounting. There will also be an assembly area where five to six machines will be able to be produced at one time and displayed to prospective customers. “We didn’t want to manufacture and move across two different regions with our machinery,” Daniele continues. “That’s why there will be enough space to produce an encouraging number of machines and use part of that surface to carry out domestic products. We will then be able to display these machines as well as our CCM series in a show room for our customers and that will be the main focus of our hub.” The impact of COVID-19 has ultimately meant a slight delay in the official opening of the hub with disruptions being most likely when the subsidiary facility is up and running to deliver machinery. However, the group remain positive for the future of their Shanghai facility and want to ensure their customers that the current climate will not affect their long-term endeavours. Daniele concludes: “Since 1981, Cama has never stopped developing and fine tuning its high technology solutions and strengthening the support it delivers to all markets around the world and this is something that has been reflected by our growing market share.
“Our drive is a combination of quality and know-how. Manufacturing this kind of line in China is difficult to develop in any situation and especially in the current climate, it’s been tough to navigate what to do. But sometimes, you learn more when times are tough, and at Cama, we are doing all we can to stay positive and resilient for our customers.”
