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In its quest to take its partnership with customers a step further, BillerudKorsnäs promoted South African technical service manager, Stephen Hollinshead, to sales manager, bringing the commercial side of the operation closer to the market and allowing faster decision-making in the burgeoning South and East African markets.
‘In South Africa, I work closely with the Gerber Paper team and it now has a direct local channel instead of having to work through our Swedish head of ce,’ Stephen states. ‘This allows faster response to market needs and demonstrates BillerudKorsnäs’s long-term commitment to broadening its presence in the African market.’
The move also supports BillerudKorsnäs’s core philosophy of ‘Value creation through smarter packaging’, as linking commercial and technical elements results in smarter packaging. Stephen stresses, however, that although price is critical in commercial terms, meaningful savings opportunities come through challenging packaging performance throughout the entire value chain.
A key focus for cement-based products, such as tile adhesives, is reducing the dusting of packs and offering an element of water-resistance with our Quickfill range. With our Axello paper range, specifically developed for dry food packaging, the focus is on meeting retailers’ demands for neater, cleaner shelves and improving pack performance to minimise trade returns and food wastage. ‘In all cases, we’re enabling end- users to have a better experience with the products they buy,’ Stephen adds. ‘And in everything we do, we challenge conventional packaging with a strong focus on sustainability,’ Stephen concludes. ‘The importance of considering the impact of the continent’s growing urbanisation on food safety and the waste management aspects of dry food and industrial packaging will grow over the next 20 years. We’re challenging conventional packaging to the point where we believe we’ll have a paper bottle in the near future.’