Hats off to Hatzopoulos

Just as in 325BC that most famous Macedonian of all time Alexander the Great successfully led the Greek expansion to lands as far away as Egypt, Persia and India, in 2006 AD Thessalonians in the shape of flexible packaging converter Hatzopoulos are planning increased exports – this time to Northern Europe.

Dedicated to high quality gravure and flexo print, lamination, bags, pouches, roll on labels and sleeve production the company claims top spot in the Greek flexible packaging converting industry. Customers include global names such as Fritolay, PepsiCo, Nestle, Kraft Foods, Sara Lee and Douwe Egberts. With a turnover of €26M in 2005 “this could reach €32M this year,” said vice president Athanasios Thanasis Hatzopoulos. “Our total exports were €12M last year compared to €9.6M in 2004. And we expect to sell €1M of exports to the UK this year.”

Founded in 1931 by another Athanasios Hatzopoulos (the vice president’s grandfather) who saw an opportunity to supply hand made paper bags to the vegetable markets in town, the company has seen steady growth and investment through his vision and that of his son, the current president Lefteris Hatzopoulos. Following automatic bag making and four colour flexo investment in the mid 1970s, in 1980 the company acquired a Rotogravure six colour Holweg press and a solvent based laminator. “We continued printing paper,” explained plant manager Ovidiu ‘Ovi’ Serb, ”but it slowly became obvious that plastics was going to be the future. So in 1993 we invested in the first rotogravure eight colour press in Greece – an Andreotti Rotostar as well as solventless lamination in the shape of a Nordmeccanica Simplex machine.” Automatic slitters and rewinders followed.

“By 1996 our location was full,” said Ovi Serb, “so it was decided that we would build a new factory and equip it with up to date flexo production – both a press and plate making.” Investment that year totalled €4.4M.

The armoury comprises a Windmöller & Hölscher 1.27m wide, eight colour Olympia Stellaflex (rated at 365m/min) with one gravure station in line (typically used for registered coldseal) and AVT Vision Pro, and a triplex combi laminator from Nordmeccanica. “The only one in Greece,” boasted Ovi Serb, “the 1.3m wide line can produce solvent/solventless and coldseal in line. We bought it with double carriages so we can do all combinations. It gives us competitive duplex for coldseal and triplex for coffee laminations.”

The converting equipment is also housed in the new factory where amongst a myriad of bag makers one is a wicketter with zipper applicator. There are five Euromac slitter rewinders, one of which is fitted with an interesting MLT laser scorer that allows scoring in both machine and transverse directions.

The new location allowed the older factory to be devoted to gravure. The Holweg was upgraded to eight colours. “The Andreotti proved to be our best investment; we have since upgraded it to nine colours and rebuild the unwind and rewind,” added gravure enthusiast Thanasis Hatzopoulos. AVT Vision systems are used on both gravure lines. Gravure is the process used to print all the sleeves supplied by the company.

Hatzopoulos began producing sleeves as long ago as 1988 on a Rotograv seamer. “It really was too early for sleeves in Greece,” he said, “but things started to pick up here two years ago.” There are believed to be just four seamers within Greece.

“One of our most recent investments is in an SM10 Seammachine supplied by Stanford Products. Our reason behind the purchase was because we wanted to cover the double digit growth we are seeing in this market. We also purchased a DM10 Doctor Machine Inspector to be sure we were producing the right quality.” When Converting Today visited the plant in early February the equipment had been installed for just two months. “Our acceptance trials of the seamer were completed at 500m/min,” said Thanasis Hatzopoulos, who was extremely complimentary about the level of service and help given by the installation engineer. “Joe was not only very skilled, but he was also an exceptional communicator.”

Aside from the higher than usual speed in this market, the Stanford machine offers a patent pending solvent application method where no matter the speed of the equipment, by adding less solvent consistently, is said to reduce waste of sleeve material dramatically. Said Ovi Serb: “We are still in the early phases of production, but the waste is within acceptable limits.

“At last we have the spare capacity in sleeves and a machine that offers higher productivity. But, of course we are expecting increases in demand.” He added: “We already have the big names in the dairy industry – we’re supplying sleeves for PET containers for milk and chocolate milk and we see more in the yoghurt business. We also have a customer producing fruit juices in Bulgaria.

“PVC and PET sleeves accounted for 9.4 per cent of our turnover in 2005 – that’s €2.5M, up from six per cent in 2004 (€1.3M).” Far more growth is expected now that the new seamer is on line.

The sleeve seamer is just part of an exceptional €4M level of investment over 2005, partially subsidised by an EU low interest loan. Installed just a few weeks before Converting Today’s visit was a gearless Comexi FW1508 eight colour gearless press with ability to reverse print and reprint in register. The 820mm wide line is fitted with an AVT Print Vision Jupiter system and is rated at 350m/min. “It has increased our print capacity by some 30 per cent and also has the ability to print on foil,” added Ovi Serb. A Creo CtP system was also part of the latest investment and still to come is a new automatic slitter rewinder with automatic knife setting and automatic take off. Last year a Kmec machine allowed the company to enter the cut and stack market.

The plant is impressively clean. “Mr Lefteris Hatzopoulos has always understood the importance of this in the factory,” stressed Ovi Serb. The money he has spent over the years has clearly paid off when it comes to attracting and keeping blue chip customers. Marble showers, polished steel lockers without mirrors or glass, an in-plant laundry where all the employees uniforms are washed, an airlock between incoming materials and print hall, free medicals and canteen all pay off, not only in terms of health and safety and certification (ISO9001:2000, AIB - score superior, ISO14001, ISO1416 HACCP), but also in staff relations. The company philosophy is “to put people at the centre of our business endeavours whether they are customers, employees or our next door neighbours.”

A new laminate conditioning room, waste compacter, ink store and maintenance shop are housed outside the production area, as is prepress. A well equipped R and D area and laboratory is on the first floor administration area.

“The thinking behind all our investment is the need to be faster, better and cheaper. If you can adapt to the market with the same or better quality than others you can succeed. That’s why we have to look at new technology,” said Thanasis Hatzopoulos.

And the future? Solvent abatement will be mandatory in Greece by October, 2007, so the company has to install equipment. This is part of a further investment programme of €10M, which will also account for land purchase, for a plant extension and a warehouse and more equipment.