Kenray

PIONEERING THE PACKAGING INDUSTRY

Kenray Forming is an innovative player within the VFFS & HFFS packaging sectors, with more than 40 years’ experience designing and manufacturing vertical forming sets. Commercial Director Mark Evans discussed the latest company developments, in an exclusive interview with Inside Food & Drink. Report by Imogen Ward.

Innovation is a word that goes hand-inhand with Kenray Forming. As a company, it single-handedly revolutionised the manufacture of forming sets.

“We turned what was once an art, into a science,” Commercial Director Mark Evans said. “Anyone can manipulate a piece of metal, and if they spend long enough on it, they can produce the right shapes; but the difference is in being able to achieve that consistently, over and over again.

“A lot of our competitors are still very much stuck in the art form stage.”

Kenray is the global leader in the design, development and manufacture of HFFS forming sets. With a vast range of vertical and horizontal products available, the company is primed to meet its customers’ needs.

Initially set up in 1981, Kenray has been continuously improving its solutions ever since. Motivated by its philosophy of ‘the quality is never enough’, the company has a major focus on product improvement and enhancement.

“The previous owner said to me, on the way out the door, ‘don’t let the quality slip,’ and in fact, we have gone above and beyond to improve it,” said Mr Evans. “If the shoulder shape is good, our customers can benefit from improved performance and don’t need to use as much film. It also allows us to explore the reduction of film sizes, product flow issues and any constraints our customers are experiencing that are directly related to the forming set.”

The perfect formula

Backing this development is a strong R&D function that is quick to assess and solve any customer problems and queries.

“We’ve had an R&D function for at least 10 years now,” Mr Evans said: “It continues to grow and become more sophisticated as time passes. R&D is a big part of what we do, and we encourage anyone that has even just the flicker of an idea that

they aren’t sure how to execute, to give us a call: because even if it’s something we wouldn’t normally do, we’d be able to point them in the right direction.”

Some of the impressive work being accomplished by Kenray’s R&D team, ( headed by Phill Loxley), includes research into sustainable films. Working in collaboration with several blue chip companies, Kenray is in the midst of developing and trialling these films.

“We are at the cutting-edge of producing paper and sustainable film,” Mr Evans explained. “This project really feeds into our expertise and has been very successful so far. We have had the privilege of working with material specialist Mark Tilly, who has applied his knowledge and expertise to

educating our customers on what films work

best.

“A lot of customers approach us too late in the process regarding film; the selection of that material is key for the forming set –especially when it comes to paper film. If that first choice is wrong, then the customer will be chasing errors all day.”

Forming innovation

Due to a 12-year ongoing partnership with Greener Corporation, Kenray has been able to diversify its product offering. Located in the US, Greener Corporation introduced Kenray to the world of horizontal sealing.

“We have an excellent relationship with Greener,” said Mr Evans. “The company designs and manufactures products that complement our own. We came together to combine our knowledge, and now, we are experts in both the vertical and horizontal side. We also represent each other in our respective countries.”

Most recently, Kenray has developed horizontal tooling to offer its customers equipment that runs paper film. As an added bonus, during trialling the company realised this tooling also runs normal film more efficiently, allowing for tighter packs, smaller seals and less movement within the pack.

“This product is very new to the market, but we has completed rigorous trialling, that have resulted in a lot of positive feedback,” Mr Evans said.

By using this product, customers can look forward to cost savings and a reduction in

the amount of film required in production. Not only is this a win-win for the client, but it has positive environmental implications as well; an area that Kenray has been focused on more recently.

Setting a sustainable standard

As part of its own commitment to sustainability, Kenray offers its customers a refurbishment service to prolong the life of forming sets. As part of this longstanding service, Kenray’s engineers are able to assess a company’s forming sets to decipher whether they are in

need of restoration or repair. This can save customers a considerable amount of time and money and is an area of the business that Kenray is planning to invest more into.

“We have been working hard over the past few months to create more capacity within the company,” said Mr Evans. “Having been successful in this endeavour,

we intend to apply that spare capacity to our refurbishment department to really enhance its effectiveness.”

As part of its improvement in capacity, the company is currently opening a new assembly and testing plant in Poland, which should be operational by the end of 2023.

“We have a lot of big-time customers that require a more global reach, and we were more than happy to oblige,” Mr Evans continued. “Growth was always a part of our corporate goals, but our customers’ desire helped to boost us into action. They need easy access as well as the most appealing price, and the best way for us to offer that to them is by going global.”

This new facility also avoids the more stringent customs charges that come with exporting from a post-Brexit UK.

“Our customers already have the ability to claim back their VAT and charges, but sometimes this can be quite inconvenient to have to do repeatedly,” said Mr Evans:

“Supplying from Europe solves that dilemma. We are currently in talks with one company who want us as its sole supplier, but only if we supply from Europe. That’s how important this development is to our customers, and their happiness is a top priority for us.”

Technical Director Andrew Dennis (Right) & Commercial Director Mark Evans (Left)

Going forward, Kenray Forming plans to continue on a path of growth, all the while ensuring the quality and craftmanship of each and every set.

“We always aim to develop products that our customers want,” Mr Evans concluded.

“We are actively exploring new products and services to achieve this, and we are more than happy to discuss any and all requests that our customers bring our way.

“As a company, Kenray values 100 per cent customer satisfaction above all else: profit is nice, but it doesn’t compare to the feeling of knowing we’ve developed a product that is effective and makes our customers’ processes more efficient. That is something we are very passionate about.”