The Vetipak site in Zeewolde is home to our successful long-term partnership with Bakker Logistics, part of the STEF group. It’s also where we work for Dynamic Products Factory, which develops creative products for the retail sector. We recently ensured that a multitude of party items in 3,300 displays reached their destinations with a well-known German retail chain. We joined forces to run the whole process from A to Z for D.P. Factory.
How to combine a DAF with a Ferrari
“We recently did that for a big client”, explains Business Development Manager Joergen Pleijte. “The client – a quality chocolate and confectionery brand – needed extra capacity at short notice, and for a fairly complex product. That was a big challenge, but we love a challenge. And when you’re as creative as we are, the solution is often within arm’s reach. Plus, we have some old-fashioned ‘cowboy blood’ running through our veins.”
Dust off the Butler Twin
In his search for a solution, Joergen came across our holding’s machine pool. There he found one half of a mechanical duo: the right half of the Butler Twin. “So we dusted it off and brought it up to today’s safety standards”, says Joergen, grinning. “It was originally one big machine, but in 1999 we carefully took a grinder to it, developed an extra control system, and since then we’ve had two machines.”
“It was originally one big machine,
but in1999 we carefully
took a grinder to it”
Something old, something new
The Butler Twin is a transwrap machine made in Switzerland in 1993. It makes pillow bags from a roll of film, after which the bags are filled, of course. Joergen: “That’s done by our high-quality counting group. This machine puts the right amount of a mix of chocolates into a pour bin. One of the challenges of this assignment was that one product had to be measured out in a very different way to the rest.”
The looming deadline meant that a lot of factors were adjusted on the fly, but in the end the combination of old and new worked perfectly. “It’s like we combined a DAF with a Ferrari”, says Joergen. “And I loved watching it happen.”
Pragmatic solution
The Business Development Manager doesn’t just love the combination of technologies; he also enjoyed the way they approached the challenge. “Extremely pragmatic”, he says. “We had the process running in three or four weeks. That’s lightning fast. And it just goes to show: think in terms of solutions, because you’ll always find one if you look for it!”
