Sales up by almost 20 per cent

CEO Hans-Joachim Boekstegers announced these figures at a press conference given at the IFFA. The packaging specialist, recently renamed Multivac Sepp Haggenmüller SE & co. KG for strategic reasons, thus bucked the trend, as Boekstegers pointed out. He was particularly pleased with the almost 160 per cent increase in sales of the top-selling R085 Thermoformers and T250 Traysealers. He sees general trends towards attractive vacuum packaging, convenience food at a higher level, and individual portion packs.

North and South America were particularly important markets in the last year, but the CEO sees strong growth potential in a different continent: "Asia remains a sleeping giant," said the Multivac manager, referring to the 90 per cent of foods which are sold there in a non-packed state.