An exclusive Q&A with the automatic packaging machinery manufacturer about the anniversary as well as pharmaceutical packaging trends.
Marchesini Group USA, a manufacturer of primary and secondary automatic packaging machinery, is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. Originally founded in 1992, the company’s USA headquarters are located in West Caldwell, New Jersey and support North America as well as parts of the Caribbean.
Backed by a worldwide staff of 1,200 employees, the Marchesini Group USA has a full range of equipment, including cartoners, blister and deep draw thermoformers, form/fill/seal machines, labelers, vial, ampoule filling-stoppering closing units and sterilization/depyrogenation tunnels, and solutions for track and trace/serialization.
Roger Toll, executive vice president, Marchesini Group USA, participated in an exclusive Q&A with Pharmaceutical Processing on the milestones leading to this year’s anniversary as well as industry trends in pharmaceutical packaging. His edited responses are below.
Could you describe your company’s history—specifically, what are some of your roots and founding principles? How has that affected where you are today?
Roger Toll:
Our founding principles are based on quality equipment and solutions, belief in our customers, and dedication to innovation:
- Quality Equipment and Solutions: Marchesini lines make their mark especially for their outstanding modular design and completeness. The end result is tailor-made machinery that can package any type of pharmaceutical and cosmetic product tailored to the customer’s specific need.
- Belief in Our Customers: Marchesini’s mission is to offer complete packaging lines, tailored specifically to each client’s end goals: an ‘on-demand’ request, customized and adapted to meet the needs of different clients. A ‘tailor-made’ approach for packaging line projects, focused on sales, after-sales, and assistance worldwide.
- Dedication to Innovation: For us, innovation means growth. Thanks to our research and development efforts over the past thirty years, we are able to continually develop original solutions and ideas for the packaging industry.
In these 25 years of operation, what have been some of the greatest advancements you have made in your field?
Toll:
Generally, the significant and continuing growth of the company and our ability to provide complete line solutions. Without a doubt, our advances in in-house robotic solutions have revolutionized the industry. Thanks to their modularity, our robots can be installed on board of rotary or sliding units. They have pick up heads with different axis of rotation (according to the function of the product to be handled), a wide working area, and high loading capacity.
Did you focus on a different industry or on a different aspect of the pharmaceutical industry 25 years ago?
Toll:
Our focus has always been mainly towards the pharmaceutical industry, where we are a major point of reference—not only for multinational enterprises, but also for small- and medium-sized businesses, companies working in generics, and pharmaceutical contracting businesses.
However, we are strongly present in the cosmetic sector where we offer innovative cosmetic packaging solutions tailor-made for top level clients. We have an extensive presence in other markets too, such as nutraceutical and contact lens markets, among others.
What are companies you work with typically asking for?
Toll:
With the upcoming mandate (DSCSA), there is a strong focus on serialization and track-and-trace solutions across the industry. We are deeply involved with this and have been for many years across the globe.
What are the upcoming trends in pharmaceutical packaging lines?
Toll:
In our opinion, track-and-trace solutions (including end-of-line equipment) are what our industry is currently focused on. This means there is a lot of attention on complete end-of-line solutions. Our track-and-trace machines are able to accommodate the pharmaceutical serialization software produced by the most important firms of the industry. These machines address the legal requirements on this topic (for both new machines and for existent packaging lines) and the real production requirements of pharmaceutical producers.
How has your company endeavored to address high-level industry issues, such as serialization and supply chain management?
Toll:
When the initial implementation of serialization was made, Marchesini Group took the approach to introduce equipment that would provide a solid foundation to achieve the goal. This is recognized today by the fact that the majority of all other solution providers have sought to work with our platform. In the meantime, we have provided over 1,500 units globally to the pharmaceutical industry.
In your opinion, what are your greatest accomplishments?
Toll:
Generally, our continued investment in R&D/innovations has enabled us to stay at the forefront of pharmaceutical packaging technology—the primary example being our industry leading robotic solutions.
In your opinion, what are your greatest strengths as a company?
Toll:
We strongly believe in our solutions and the strong team of people that form the company. Flexible packaging solutions (complete lines), customer service, and project management are just a few of our strengths.
What are some of your greatest markets to date? Are there markets you hope to tap into in the coming years?
Toll:
We will continue to focus on the pharmaceutical sector that is around 85 percent of our business, with cosmetic, nutraceutical, contact lens, etc. taking up the balance.
How do you hope to grow your business in the future?
Toll:
The pharmaceutical sector, along with others, is continuously evolving and growing, and we are growing and evolving by meeting their needs and requests.
What are you most excited for at INTERPHEX 2017?
Toll:
We are looking forward to meeting with our customers and discussing the latest solutions we can offer. INTERPHEX is a primary platform where we can meet with a large selection of our customers in one strategic location; and, of course, we are excited to celebrate our 25th anniversary with them.
This article originally appeared in the March 21 edition of the 2017 INTERPHEX Show Daily.
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