Month: January 2019

Employee-owned business Kite Packaging has extended its in-the-box packaging offering by introducing new dividers.

A dynamic, recyclable packing solution, these self-locking universal dividers are the perfect solution for carton boxes where goods need segmented protection, according to the company. With their easy-tear perforations, users can slot and configure a different, customized size which suits all the different dimensions of individual requirements. The product’s ability to adapt makes it ideal for a huge variety of applications, as they ensure box contents are soundly segmented with an array of light cushioning intervals.

Therefore, if you need to divide and protect bottles, ceramics, cosmetics or electrical goods, these dividers can cater for all specifications across a wide range of industries.

They are 100% recyclable, making them another useful eco-friendly product that will help the Kite team achieve their 2019 goal of reducing their plastic footprint. Kite Packaging announced their plastic challenge last September, where the company made a bid to reduce its own plastic waste as well as its customers’ waste by a united 120 tonnes.

B2A Technology (Alstef and BA Systèmes) has been awarded Grand Prix of the Kings of the Supply Chain 2019 for the design and implementation of an automated fiduciary centre for Banque de France in Paris.  The technology has shown its great agility in this very demanding context and offered a customized automated logistics process meeting the very high level of safety required to handle the flows of more than one billion banknotes per year.

One of the primary objectives of this project is to provide a safe and effective service to fund carriers by receiving, sorting and processing the values of the banks, and by delivering orders to supply cash dispensers. To achieve this, a complex logistics process has been designed and implemented around banknote sorting machines. The solution is based on two automated warehouses (pallets and parcels), a network of conveyors and AGVs (BA Systèmes’ Automated Guided Vehicles), goods to person order picking stations and mixed palletizing / depalletizing robots. Process automation allows to increase the overall productivity of the centre with very short preparation times (less than 3 hours) while improving receiving and safety conditions and strengthening the level of service provided to institutions.

The control of the installation is ensured by Stockware® management software developed by Alstef and interfaced with Banque de France’s WMS. The infrastructure created guarantees the integrity, availability, confidentiality and traceability of the processed data. Ahead of the implementation of this reliable and robust information system, advanced emulation and simulation tests have been carried out to check all the process’ functionalities, including in degraded modes, since no service interruption could be tolerated.

Conveyor technology expert Interroll says it grew substantially in 2018. It reports that orders received rose to CHF 592.6 million (+29.4% compared with previous year), and net sales rose to CHF 560.1 million (+24.3%). In terms of net profit margin, an above-average improvement of at least 30% is expected. The Group says it will “start the 2019 financial year confidently with full order books”.

With a record value of CHF 592.6 million, the orders received in 2018 were up 29.4% on the previous year’s value (+27.9% in local currency). Thanks in part to a large order in South Korea, the Asian-Pacific region had above-average growth (+49.5%).

Boosted by a particularly strong Q3 and Q4 in 2018, net sales increased by 24.3% to a new high of CHF 560.1 million (+22.9% in local currency). The biggest growth driver is the Conveyors & Sorters product group (up 54.7% on the previous year). Interroll’s innovative platform-based solutions and services as well as a continuous and robust demand, especially from the postal, logistics and e-commerce sectors, support this positive dynamic.

In terms of net profit margin, the company anticipates an increase of at least 30% compared to the previous year.

“The above-average improvement in results can primarily be explained by the strong increase in sales, our highly disciplined cost and investment management and our globally implemented improvements in productivity,” explains Daniel Bättig, Chief Financial Officer at Interroll Holding AG, adding “The Group will start the new financial year of 2019 confidently with full order books.”

The full annual report for 2018 with the final audited figures will be presented at the annual results media conference on March 22, 2019 in Zurich, Switzerland.