With more than 100 years’ experience, Switzerland based Wipf AG has earned its place as one of Europe’s leading packaging manufacturers. The company, founded in 1914, develops and produces high-barrier packaging films and pouches for the food, pharma and non-food industries. It employs some 200 people, which Wipf Business Development Manager Stefano Di Maiolo says makes it a “manageable size”, and incorporates a competent development division and modern infrastructure assets in the laboratory, production. This, Stefano says, allows the company to develop flexible problem-solving approaches to live up to its mission of Innovative Packaging Solutions”.
“Coffee by its nature sets free gases once it is freshly packed straight after roasting respectively grinding. The challenge is to expel these gases as soon as the pressure starts building up inside the pack, and at the same time prevent penetration of outside air into the pack, so that it tastes the same throughout the entire shelf life. In order to ensure long shelf-life and aroma preservation, roasted coffee beans, as well as ground coffee, must be protected against aroma loss, exposure to oxygen, vapour and light.”
Wicovalve does exactly this, states Stefano Di Maiolo, Sales & Business Development Manager of Switzerland-based Wipf AG. “Last year alone Wipf sold around 650 million valves globally. We have a large customer base in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Australia, and also the Far East, including Japan, which is known to be very critical in terms of quality expectations. However, our customer base in the Middle East up to late 2019 was still small, which is why we took the decision to re-introduce our products into this region through our new local partner Excel International Fz LLC Dubai, a packaging supplier.”
Shakul Rai, Managing Director, Excel explains more: “Wipf has been very successful in these products in Europe, the Americas and the even Far East for over 40 years, but in the past did not consider the Middle East market to be a big one. We noted: per capita consumption of coffee is increasing in this region, therefore we are now trying to expand their customer base. “We are very happy to have partnered with Wipf, a market leader in degassing technology, with excellent product performance. It is Swiss precision at work. The valves are tested 100% on the manufacturing lines and come with a three-year warranty. That is an added advantage.”
Stefano adds: “We have received a very good response from both, coffee roasters that are packing on automatic machines, as well as flexible packaging companies who produce pre-formed pouches with valves embedded in the pack. They are very excited about the cutting edge -technology that Wipf is offering. Therefore we already note a significant increase in Sales and meanwhile have customers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Egypt.”