Transpak has over 25 years of experience integrating complex packaging lines for the global food and beverage industry. With its customised approach to clients’ projects, the Slovenian-based company has a booming order book for 2024, including its first contract in the USA. Andy Probert spoke to Head of Operations Simon Suhadolnik to learn more.
INthe integrated, ever-moving world of packaging lines,
Transpak is a name that resonates with respect. Clients, including some of the biggest names in food and beverage, have turned to its expert innovations to deliver custom-made solutions. The company is as much at home dealing with the integration of complex packaging lines, project management, line upgrades and relocations as it is with creating robot grippers, palletisers and depalletisers, craters, and conveyor systems.
Transpak machines are now running in plants across Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, thanks to a strong support network of partners across the globe. Having clinched a contract in North America, the company is firmly looking to fulfil several contracts thanks to an order book which stretches to the end of 2024.
Pushing the limits
“We always try to push the limits of our imaginations to get the best problemsolving ideas for our customers,” explained Head of Operations Simon Suhadolnik. “Our customers, and solving the obstacles in their way to success, stand at the core of our focus.”
Transpak has a team of project managers, engineers and technicians with years of experience and know-how to bring any solution to life. Together with its partners, the company delivers technical and commercial concepts for turnkey bottling line projects and end-of-line packaging systems.
From its headquarters and 7,000 square metre facility in Murska Sobota, a town nestled at the northeastern tip of Slovenia, Transpak’s 130-strong workforce assembles all the equipment and tests them before shipping to different locations. The company has a sales and project preparation office in Belgium, as the Benelux region is one of its leading markets.
“Our main focus is on the dry part of the packaging line,” said Mr Suhadolnik. “That expertise means we can offer either part of the line that can be integrated with the existing infrastructure or a complete turnkey project.”
As automation has increased its influence in the market, the company now offers custom-made robotics based on flexible and portal robots. Its range of innovative head solutions covers shutter, clamping, vacuum and magnet head executions for cartons, crates, bottles, cans and kegs.
Transpak’s specialties lie in delivering a range of equipment for the mid-to highcapacity lines. These process between
20,000 bottles per hour and up to 60,000 and, even, 90,000 units an hour.
Mr Suhadolnik clarified that Transpak’s clients included some of the largest brands in the beverage sector, including AB InBev, Carlsberg, Heineken, Asahi, Diageo, Radeberger, Molson Coors, Coca Cola and Irish Distillers. The company has also completed projects for Unilever.
Project focus
Transpak’s milestone projects have included a bottling line, with a capacity for 36,000 bottles per hour at the Lindemans Brewery in Belgium in 2014. Four years later, it was called on to create and install a 24,000 bottle per hour capacity line for Maspex, in Poland. These installations have been followed up with involvement in packaging lines
for the du Bocq Brewery, in Belgium in 2021, and for a Diageo plant in Runcorn, UK, in 2024.
“Throughout 2023, our orders had been increasing and were consistently strong,” continued Mr Suhadolnik. “By December of that year, we had received more orders for 2024 than at any time preCovid. This year will be an exceptionally strong year and we already have orders in the book that will cover the entire year.”
He acknowledged that one of the most significant contracts for 2024 was with Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewer in the US, to develop several key innovations. “The US project is a proud moment in Transpak’s history, and we hope it will be the first of many in the North America in the coming years,”
Mr Suhadolnik said.
However, he noted that Europe, traditionally a primary market for Transpak, was slowly declining as the leading corporate groups in the
beverage sector were not investing in big projects.
“That focus has now shifted to other markets, such as Africa,”
Mr Suhadolnik explained. “Here we have completed two projects in South Africa and Namibia, and contracts are being fulfilled for clients in Uganda, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“We are also primed to look at increasing our presence in the US and Canada, as well as investigating potentia l partnerships in Australia.”
Transpak also offers servicing and maintenance for clients as part of their customer support programme. The company is supporting its global reach by adopting a local partner approach.
The company is also adopting a more sustainable approach in reducing the carbon footprint at its Slovenian plant. In 2023, solar panelling was installed with a capacity up to 360 kilowatts to help meet its electrical needs, and when there is spare energy, to supply the local grid.
“In terms of sustainable products, we are also looking at several components, such as the gearmotors, in trying to push greater energy efficiency,” said Mr Suhadolnik. “This is also aligned with our clients who are demanding a more sustainable approach in adopting ‘greener’ technologies.
“These advances are being achieved with an interactive and communicative approach for both suppliers and clients. Our approach is entirely adaptable to a client’s project. We listen because we care and we want to deliver a perfect fit for their packaging needs to as near to, if not spot on, their vision and plan.”
To remain at the top of its game, Transpak has a dedicated R&D unit that is actively looking to the next innovations to
further energy efficiencies and streamline clients’ operations.
“As a company of our size, we are always going to be battling against two or three big competitors,” said Mr Suhadolnik, in conclusion. “However, the ability to listen and give the client customised equipment that they want helps to push our reputation as a proactive company. Just looking at our order book for 2024 confirms that we are definitely doing something right.” n
