The Vetipak factory in Oss has a new and superfast mixing line that offers endless possibilities. This line has a new elevator and servo-driven counters, enabling us to mix as many as eight product types in at least sixty packs per minute, and eventually even eighty. Head of Technical Services, Niels Kanters explains.
New production plant in Oss
We moved into a new production plant at the Vorstengrafdonk industrial estate in Oss. The new factory (which previously housed Heineken) provides us with 13.000 m2 of production facilities with extra storage capacity, which is necessary to accommodate the growth of our newest division: Personal Care.
We will be using the new production plant primarily to support a growing top international Personal Care brand. We recently signed a ten-year cooperation agreement with this party and will be taking care of chain management, from sourcing packaging materials to packaging and preparing the final products for collection and shipment. “This includes things like gift sets, luxury gifts, Advent calendars and holiday-related gift items,” says our Chief Commercial Officer Mark van der Burgt.
Good for humans and the environment
At the new plant, we will be processing direct shipments and direct deliveries to European e-commerce centers, for example. Mark: “We can now receive, process and prepare the products for distribution. This saves on expensive interim storage and additional in- and outbound storage in external DCs, such as in ‘s-Heerenberg and Zaltbommel. We’re also shortening the supply chain, working more cost effectively, and positively influencing the chain’s ecological footprint.”
Employment boost
The new DC will also boost employment in the Oss region. Mark expects to create around 100 new jobs, which he hopes will be filled by the second half of 2022. “We deliberately decided to stay in the Oss area so that we would have the option of taking some existing employees along with us. This is important because they are already experienced in working on our complex production lines. After all, it’s always our people – alongside our customers and stakeholders – who live up to our slogan each and every day: making the difference together.”
Investing in robots
The Vetipak production site on Landweerstraat in Oss (6,000 m2) will stay in place for the time being. Mark: “The capacity of these machine lines contributes significantly to our business. What’s more, we are planning to expand them even further in May this year, with new, complex state-of-the-art robot packaging technologies.”
Ambitious plan for growth
The commissioning of the Vorstengrafdonk plant and the activities at Landweerstraat align perfectly with Vetipak’s ambitious growth plan. Mark says: “In the next few years, we want to continue growing in our various business divisions, including Food, Confectionery, Pet Food, Consumer Electronics and Personal Care. We’ve also set ourselves some challenging goals outside of these segments. For example, we’ll be looking for new segments and business models with our LAB51.”
“Revenue growth and expansion are not our primary aims,” concludes Mark. “Instead, we want to deliver quality and provide added value for our business affiliates: not only our customers, but also our employees and suppliers. A healthy operating result is a nice consequence of that.”
Full page in newspaper
Daily newspaper Brabants Dagblad devoted a full page to our new production plant:
Newspaper reports about our new location
