making everyday things
packaging machines in the two countries. The current price for an individual machine ranges from $100,000 to $6 million, and it’s not unheard of for a complete line to cost $40 million. “I quoted one last year for $20 million,” Hrivnak says with a chuckle. He’s been in the confectionery machinery business close to 15 years, and with Carle & Montanari for 10 of them. When the 2008 recession hit, “Everybody went quiet a little bit, although (chocolate) consumption stayed the same,” Hrivnak recalls. Since then, half of Hrivnak’s business is for new machines to
the mature North American market. The other half of the time, he’s working with existing clients who want to refurbish, upgrade or move existing machinery — so-called asset optimization or productivity projects. A trend in asset optimization is to use the same machinery
to produce mini versions of a brand, such as the miniaturization of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Both the processing machinery and the packaging processors have to be retooled for those kinds of changes.
Meanwhile, the big market for new machinery is in Asia, Brazil, Mexico and Russia, Hrivnak says.
“Everybody tells me the same thing,” he says. “If you’re supplying new markets, most of the sales are overseas in the emerging markets.” Nevertheless, Italian exports to the United States of con- fectionery machines like those produced by Carle & Montanari increased by 47% in 2013 compared with 2012 fi gures, according to information from the 122-member Italian Association of Machinery and Equipment for Production, Food Processing and Preservation. In addition to turnkey solutions for cocoa and chocolate, Carle & Montanari-OPM also produces machinery for other candy, bakery products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and foods such as cheese, cookies and crackers. The fi rm’s packaging machines are installed
all over the
United States, including in manufacturing plants of multination- al companies, says Dave Madison, area sales manager (United States and Canada) for packaging at Montanari OPM. “The group has a lot of experience in specialized product handling,” says Madison. He agrees with Hrivnak that investment in new machinery has
made a comeback since the recession. He’s currently involved with an installation of two high-speed packaging lines for nutrition bars on the West Coast. Both Madison and Hrivnak declined to be spe- cifi c about clients, due to confi dentiality agreements. But Madison did say that one high-speed line can cost from $1—$5 million. Madison points out that Carle & Montanari has also steadily
improved its machinery, employing better controls, motors and software. “We’ve made a huge investment in making our software more
modular,” he says.
When it comes to manufacturing equipment for the food
industry, manufacturers’ representative John Cullum, of JG Cullum & Co. (Morristown, NJ) considers machines built by one of his clients, Zambelli Srl (Bologna, Italy;
www.zambelli.it) which are used for bundling secondary and tertiary packaging, to be almost like works of art.
“The equipment itself is elegantly designed,” says Cullum,
who’s been selling Zambelli machines for 10 years. “I sold one to Kraft [Foods Group, headquartered in Chicago] and I had the Kraft engineer crawling all over it and he said ‘This is such a simple machine!’”
The Italian-made Zambelli machinery is so popular that of his
company’s fourth quarter 2013 sales, which totaled $1 million, $200,000, or 20%, of the total was for Zambelli machines.
“The equipment itself is elegantly designed. I sold one to Kraft (Foods Group, headquartered in Chicago) and I had the Kraft engineer crawling all over it and he said ‘This is such a simple machine!’ ”
John Cullum, Manufacturing Representive, J.G. Cullum & Co
In addition to Kraft, other companies that use Zambelli bundling machines include PepsiCo (
www.pepsico.com), Coca- Cola (
www.coca-cola.com), Lea & Perrins (
www.leaperrins.com) and Carolina Beverage Group (
www.carolinabeveragegroup.com), Cullum says.
Finding a niche in leather In 2012, Italy’s tanning, footwear and leather goods machin-
ery industry included 230 companies employing 4,000 people. Machinery production the same year was $57 million, including $46 million in exports, according to fi gures from the 115-member National Association of Italian Manufacturers of Machinery and Accessories for Footwear, Leather Goods and Tanning Machinery (ASSOMAC) (
www.assomac.it). Exports to NAFTA countries dipped from $29 million in 2010 to $22 million in 2011, but bounced back to $29 million in 2012, according to the association. The strongest bounce back was with the United States, where exports in 2012 were $16 million, a $6 million increase over 2011’s $10 million. Even so, the American market has dwindled. Today, the biggest
1-888-italtrade
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