It was a busy weekend for Het Packhuys. Friday and Saturday were entirely dedicated to the machine supplier's 10th anniversary, which also included two new machines on display, a celebration of founder Pierre Hagenaars' 50th birthday, and to top it all off, a new house style was also presented. "We are good at coming up with reasons to throw parties here, so it was nice to combine all this in two beautiful days, during which we could also thank our customers for the past 10 years. We can definitely call it a successful weekend," Pierre said.
The weekend kicked off on Friday with a celebration day in honour of the 10th anniversary, during which customers and suppliers were invited for snacks and drinks. "We had put up a tent outside, so we had to wait and see if the weather would cooperate. Normally, in the middle of summer you can be sure of nice sunshine, but of course this year was different. Fortunately, it was cooperative and there was a nice turnout."
Pierre continued: "Besides celebrating the anniversary, this was also the ideal opportunity for us to show two new machines to customers. This was a bit exciting because we had already planned the days before the party. We worked hard to have our new Sepia TL3 Casepacker ready on time. We are happy that we succeeded. We also had lines of machines from all our other suppliers on display. It was like a mini-version of our Open House days."
Pierre Hagenaars.
Machines still standing
The new machines that the company had in its showroom for the occasion were the REV 5 top sealer and its new high-speed Sepia Casepacker. "The REV 5 is a top sealer from a series, and this was the first of the series we had here. So in addition, we were also able to show our new Sepia TL3 Casepacker to the public. We developed this fully automatic casepacker, together with J-TS, in-house. It packs about 180 trays per minute compared to the 100 of its little brother, the Sepia CP01. The TL3, like our other lines, will remain on display this week for companies who couldn't come by last weekend but are interested. After that, it will go to a customer."
New house style
Saturday, it was then time for the party to celebrate Pierre's 50th birthday. "This was more of a personal affair. Of course there were still some customers from the day before, but Saturday I mainly celebrated my birthday with family and friends. There was a band and I can say we ended it well. All in all, we can speak of a super weekend. I may be a little less fit this Monday than other Mondays, but it does make me feel very fulfilled."
Besides the machines, a new house style was also launched last weekend. "10 years of Packhuys also means time to revamp the house style, we thought. We specialise in dosing, weighing and packaging and this trinity is now reflected in our logo by means of the three icons. We also made everything just a bit fresher and tighter. The new logo and the new leaflets are already in use. In addition, the cars will be rebranded and our new website will go live later this month. With this, we can look forward to the next 10 years with a fresh look."
Automating
Pierre does indeed view the future as bright. "It is not always easy in these times, but I think we are doing well. For the time ahead, we are going to look at where we can improve our processes and service even more. I think this is already going very well, but you should never stand still. We are also looking more and more at automation. Good, technical people are just not lining up anymore, so automation is becoming more and more important for many companies. For us, it is therefore important to keep up with this. With the machines, but also the element in the lines before and after the machines, so that there is less give-away and less labour needed. It is something we are looking at for the future and with this group, I expect we still have a bright future ahead of us."
For more information:
The Packhuys
Vang 19
4661 TX Halsteren
Tel: +31 (0)166 700215
[email protected]
www.het-packhuys.com