Discussing the future of the pharmaceutical industry, Friedbert Klefenz, President of Bosch Packaging Technology, said during interpack 2014, “For the coming years, we expect the pharma sector to keep growing strongly. This will be the result of new developments from research-based pharmaceutical companies and the growing importance of generic drug manufacturers.
“At the same time, this field of business is placing growing demands on the packaging industry as a result of increasingly complex substances and the ever-greater demands of manufacturers and lawmakers. This calls for major innovative strength. Last year, Bosch Packaging Technology spent about 4.5 percent of sales on research and development. This placed the company at the upper end of the industry average once again,” he said
Bosch is setting its sights on impressive growth for the future. As Klefenz told attendees at the interpack 2014 press conference, “We intend to increase our sales to 1.5 billion euros by the end of 2015. Last year’s figures show that we are on the right path.”
So what’s driving this rapid growth? Pharma and food, Klefenz said, which generated more than 90% of Bosch’s sales in 2013. “The pharmaceutical arm of our business did especially well, with a nine percent increase in sales,” he added.
Full-service supplier
In both food and pharmaceuticals, Bosch is positioning itself to meet consumers’ need for a full-service supplier. Klefenz said that Bosch offers flexible products that can be combined with one another. These include single units, modular systems, and full packages. Its portfolio also comprises everything from processing and packaging machinery to technologies for product handling, automation, and inspection.
Bosch also plans to venture further into packaging materials, consumables, and packaging. An example of material innovations already in the market cited by Klefenz is the company’s PreVAS—pre-validated, pre-assembled, and pre-sterilized—single-use filling system for the pharmaceutical sector.
“Regarding the expansion of our fields of business,” he said, “we intend to build on our offer and our presence in the pharmaceutical, food, and confectionary sectors, and perhaps also in related fields. In addition, with acquisitions and innovations, we will further enhance our technical expertise and value-added chain.”
According to interpack 2014’s “Final Report,” the May 8-14 event in Düsseldorf featured some 2,700 exhibitors and 175,000 visitors in the 19 halls. The report noted: “The dominating themes at interpack 2014 were resource efficiency for plant and machinery as well as for packaging material usage, quality, and safety to guarantee perfect and counterfeit-proof finished products–especially in such touchy segments as Food/Beverage and Pharmaceuticals–as well as diversity and flexibility for an ever wider range and shorter product cycles. These themes were addressed by a particularly high number of innovations in the halls.”
The next interpack event will be held at Messe DĂĽsseldorf in May 2017, with specific dates to be determined.
