Mpac Group plc

Speed of service

With a proud history of delivering innovation and excellence, Mpac Group plc is now embarking on an exciting new era, one that is to be defined by making service a business and achieving continued growth

What is in a name? For businesses, it can be a lot, after all a good name should not only capture people’s attention, but also reflect a company’s expertise, history and values.With such importance placed on selecting the right name, it is little surprise that it has been known in some cases for the process of picking a new identity to take a number of weeks of painstaking brainstorming sessions.This was not the case however for the Mpac Group team when they embarked on renaming the global packaging solutions group, Molins PLC, during 2017, following the sale of its instrumentation and tobacco machinery business.

“Following the typical consultancy work that occurs during a renaming process, the name Mpac actually came about rather quickly,” explains Mpac Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Tony Steels.“The ‘M’ is a nod to our past and the Group’s rich heritage, while ‘pac’ is a reference to our future role as a world leading end-toend packaging machinery provider. Since the turn of the year we have been rolling out the new branding of the Group and the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to continuing this process at several international exhibitions in the coming months.”

The heritage that Tony speaks of dates back to 1874 and the revolutionary work of Jose S Molins and his two sons, Harold and Walter, which would help to create The Molins Machine Company, and later Molins PLC.“The engineering history of Molins is incredible, with the company being the first to introduce flexible manufacturing systems, which were precursors to a lot of what we see in modern manufacturing today, however the Molins name is synonymous with tobacco and cigarette making.With the divestment of this area of the Group complete, we saw it as a great opportunity to move forward with a fresh identity.”

Today, the Group operates as a single business overseeing regionally focused sales and service organisations, employs around 350 people worldwide, and focuses on the supply of innovative high speed packaging solutions and related support services, principally for the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and food and beverage sectors.

2017 was, as Tony describes it, a “transformational” year for the Group and one in which it made excellent progress in embarking on its strategic initiatives. Among the figures released in the Group’s 2017 end of year report are those showing an increase in order intake from continuing operations of 21 per cent and a 35 per cent increase in its order book compared to the start of 2017.“Strategically, we are moving in the right direction, but we know there is more work for us to do, after all, as the old saying goes,‘the first swallow doesn’t make a spring’, but with a fresh brand name, a renewed focus and a new leadership team in place we are teed up nicely for 2018 and beyond.” Other developments to occur in 2017 included the sale of the Group’s freehold property in Mississauga, Ontario, and the subsequent move into a purpose-built facility in the same region.The newly constructed facility includes a customer showroom, and assembly and acceptance facilities, and provides a platform for further growth in the Americas. Similarly, the Group also invested in a new expanded facility in Singapore, which not only features a modern office environment but also allows it to concentrate further on supporting its global customer network.

Moving forward, the Mpac Group is focused on achieving what it calls its ‘three strategic priorities’, these being ‘Going for Growth, Making Service a Business and Operational Efficiency’. The first element of this is the desire to grow organically.“In identifying pharmaceuticals, healthcare, nutrition and beverages as growth markets we know that the opportunities are out there for us to capitalise on, and these will assist us in securing the double-digit growth we are committed to achieving,”Tony adds.

“From there it is about making service a core part of our business. By this we mean offering more than just a traditional breakdown service, but servicing our customers on a 24/7 basis, providing round-the-clock machine monitoring and focusing on delivering continuous improvement,”Tony continues.“Making service a business will provide a path to building even stronger working relationships with our customers, allowing them to truly maximise their Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), which is something that we know they demand from a partner such as ourselves.”

Having joined the Group in mid-2016, by the end of that year Tony and his team had already developed a comprehensive strategic review, with the resultant strategy being launched in January 2017.“We made excellent progress against this strategy throughout last year, and now it is a question of focusing our efforts on building upon the efforts we have made to date, capitalising on the strong order book we have for the coming months and solidifying our commitment to making service a central part of our business,”Tony states.“After our fantastic efforts in 2017, we are suitably geared up to make continued good progress throughout 2018.”

MPAC Group plc
Products: High speed packaging solutions