The Copaco Group (Mainz) closed the business year 2008 with an over-average, up to two-digit turnover growth in the sophisticated brand packaging markets. The markets pharmacy/healthcare (36.3 percent turnover part, cosmetics/body care (15.7 percent) and confectionary (13.8 percent) developed with much dynamics. In total, the four companies of the packaging cooperation generated a turnover of 327.7 million Euros in 2008 (previous year 319.5 million Euros).

The medium-sized packaging producers of the Copaco-group, August Faller KG (Waldkirch, Binzen, Schopfheim, Großbeeren), Karl Knauer KG (Biberach/Baden), Limmatdruck/Zeiler AG (Spreitenbach and Köniz/Switzerland) and rlc | packaging group (Hannover, Berlin, Posen/Poland), produced approximately 6.8 billion cardboard packages for national and international brand item manufacturers in the past business year. The group achieved high increases in the production of pharmaceutical package inserts (1.7 billion pieces) and  labels (approximately 1.2 billion pieces), which form the basis of the full service offer for the pharmaceutical industry. The Copaco-Group defended its position as one of the leading suppliers in the European folding box market with a broad customer base among the large brand item manufacturers.

The number of employees increased by more than 5 percent in 2008 to approximately 2,350. “Sustainably managed medium-sized companies like the members of the Copaco-group show themselves once more as the support of the labour market even in times of crisis. They see safe workplaces for well trained specialist workers as a basis for their strength of performance”, says Copaco-manager Karl-Reiner Müller.

Copaco will continue to advance the main focal points of content of the previous year also in 2009. With the integration of future technologies in packaging, they gain new functions in the areas identification, information, and marketing. The status of technology are codes readable by scanner or mobile camera phones that identity packaging as originals and enable continuous Tracking & Tracing. Such codes can also offer additional product information or the participation in sweepstakes as  a “Quick Link” into the Internet. In parallel, the Copaco-group advances the development of printable electronic elements, like for example illuminated displays or the future goal printed RFID-Chips.

A further focus lies on the process management in the value added chain. “In all branches suppliers are in demand that help to make the production and logistic processes faster, more flexible, and efficient. The Copaco-Group therefore consistently expands its full service strategy on order to accompany the stretch of the value chain between the development of a product up to its positioning on the shelf as comprehensively as possible with its service offers”, explains Müller.

The Copaco group also strives to maintain its high investment rate even during the current economic and finance market crisis... “We will surely not invest towards capacity expansion, but continue to invest in the long-term planned continuous renewal of the units and buildings, in order to offer our customers the newest in manufacture and refinement of their packages”, says Müller. The goal is to make customers fast, flexible, and efficient in their production, and to present their products at the P.O.S. as attention-grabbing as possible. “This is the main factor of success for them and for us”, Müller explains the investment politics. Regarding the demand development approximately 7.5 percent of the group turnover shall be invested also in 2009 according to careful expectations.

Efficiency in material use, which has not increased in 2008 in spite of the increased number of produced packages in 2008, stays trendy also for 2009. Müller: “Sustainability is an important topic today and in the future. Not only the turnover successes of the consistently growing assortments of biological items in retail trade, environmentally compatible production and according presentation of the products gain an increasing significance in all brand name companies.” Next to modern resource-sparing production procedures the Copaco-companies rely on lightweight packaging constructions that ensure full functionality with less weight and volume. This makes an additional contribution to the environment responsibility as well as to the cost efficiency. “Because in the CO2-balance we already offer model values with the packaging material cardboard made of regrowing raw material from material recycling”, says Karl-Reiner Müller.