One of the largest stands at this year’s Scanpack belongs to the Danish company STOK Emballage, whose motto is: “If you’re going to do something, do it properly”. Packnews visited the company in Langeskov, about fifteen kilometres from Odense, and met CEO Martin Frederiksen along with those responsible for the various departments.

Text: Bo Wallteg

It is quite apparent that STOK Emballage is looking forward to exhibiting at Scanpack. CEO Martin Frederiksen even brings this up himself, despite being in the midst of a discussion on a completely different topic. “We are really looking forward to it”, he says, a statement affirmed by his colleagues Michael Söndergaard, who is Director of STOK Display & POS, Kim Jørgensen, Key Account Manager, and Kent Juul Simonsen, Technical Director.

 

– We are a full-service packaging partner, and we will show that at Scanpack, says Martin Frederiksen. We know how to design packaging, we know logistics, we know cargo security, we know display signs and POS, and of course we know our materials, primarily corrugated cardboard and polyethylene, which is a significant part of our business.

 

– When we do something, we do it properly, and this will be evident from our participation at Scanpack, where our stand will represent five different departments with focus on our areas of operation.

 

The five departments cover machinery solutions for stretch film, void (shock-absorbing fillers), e-commerce, solutions for the food industry and rigid plastics. A new development that will be on show comes from the department for flexible materials and involves punched, weldable, mono-material closures, for which an interesting future is anticipated in light of the new EU Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).

 

The stand will comprise two floors, parts of which are being built with Re-board, a fibre-based technology that provides both strength and light weight, which means that it is possible to build the stand quickly.

 

A family business until recently

 

STOK Emballage was founded in 1978 by Erik Stok. The company started in Ishøj outside Copenhagen but moved to Langeskov in 2005, where it now continues to operate in an ultramodern facility, just a stone’s throw from the motorway that runs through Fyn. The company also has operations in Greenland and Norway, as well as a sales office in Germany. It remained a family business until recently, but now the Stok family has let go of the reins.

 

– In the spring, the majority of the company was sold to the American private equity investment firm A&M Capital, or rather to their European part which is based in London, explains Martin Frederiksen.

 

“STOK distributes over 10,000 SKUs across all packaging products to diverse end-markets, with a strong focus on the food industry, and provides a broad range of value-added services to its clients, such as sustainability advisory, just-in-time delivery and warehousing solutions. The company benefits from attractive market dynamics and has demonstrated strong organic growth over the past decade.” The above quote represents A&M Capital’s description of its acquisition.

 

– The Stok family still has a minority share in the company, as do I, says Martin Frederiksen and points to the new opportunities that are opened up by having the backing of A&M Capital.

 

– We have now gained additional financial and advisory muscle that we will be able to utilise. The new owners have a very professional organisation and are experts in the processes surrounding the acquisition of businesses. We are now on a completely new platform.

 

On the lookout for potential acquisitions

 

Since it began, STOK Emballage has grown organically and has also acquired around fifteen other businesses, preferably a little smaller in size. In just a few months since the deal with A&M Capital was completed on the first of May, the company has started to look around for potential acquisitions.

 

– We will of course continue with our organic growth, but we are also interested in finding businesses that represent a good fit for us, both in Scandinavia and more internationally in Europe. Their position can be both horizontal and vertical in our value chain.

 

The company currently has a turnover of approximately one billion Danish kroner, a figure it intends to increase significantly over the next three to five years. The goal is to reach a turnover of two and a half to three billion Danish kroner within this timeframe.

 

– It’s an exciting opportunity that has opened up, and I think we’ll have something to announce within the next few months.

 

When asked how it feels to let go of the company to some extent after having been at the helm since 2005, Martin Frederiksen explains that it has not been a problem, but admits that it is certainly a little different.

 

– In situations like this, I think it depends a lot on the person and the personality, and so far I haven’t experienced any problems. We have gone into this with an open mind, and we see that we now have an owner who has many exciting thoughts and ideas about the future.

 

– As CEO, I still make decisions regarding the day-to-day operations, but of course I have had to start adapting to the reporting methods that A&M Capital works with. They have been very pragmatic in their approach, and we are taking it step by step, which is positive.

 

A broad business

 

STOK Emballage primarily conducts trading activities, although the company also has part of its own operations in factories in Middelfart and Vejle. In Middelfart, “brown boxes” are manufactured with single-colour or two-colour printing, while in Vejle the operations involve display signs and POS, i.e. different types of marketing material.

 

– We have a broad business, we are a full-service packaging partner, even though we are primarily involved with logistics and service activities. Our two mainstays are PE film and fibre-based materials, in particular corrugated cardboard. In addition, we have an automation/machinery department where digitalisation and automation are keywords.

 

TIP Alliance

 

A year ago, STOK formed the TIP Alliance network together with Nöjd AB in Sweden. TIP stands for The International Packaging Alliance, and the goal is to bring together major stakeholders in the packaging industry and create a powerful alliance across Europe. This is something that can be said to reflect the corporate culture of both Nöjd and STOK, two companies that are very results-driven and dynamic, where things must happen quickly and results must be created. The companies involved become stronger together, and this can lead to opportunities such as the establishment of long and sustainable supplier agreements that are beneficial both for the companies in the network and for the negotiation partner.

 

– This is a really good collaboration, says Martin Frederiksen. The network is growing, and we now have member companies in Iceland, the Czech Republic and Austria. We have many companies that want to join, but we are very critical in our selection process.

 

– What we have is based on openness, and we only want member companies that have this in their DNA and are able to contribute knowledge and development, explains Martin Frederiksen.

 

Representing Robopac

 

When it comes to packaging machines, STOK is a major player in the area of stretch film machines and has a well established collaboration with the Italian company Robopac Machinery, a world leader in the manufacture of wrapping machines with stretch film and associated equipment. On the Danish market, they have three thousand five hundred semi-automatic machines installed and about two hundred and fifty fully automatic machines, thereby dominating the Danish market.

 

– When it comes to the machinery side of things, it is important for us to be able to provide good service. We have a service team that is out on the road and can provide fast service, and Denmark is not a country where you have to deal with large distances. I would go so far as to say that we are the Nordic champions when it comes to stretch film machines, says Kent Juul Simonsen, Technical Director.

 

– The business covers everything from small machines to large facilities worth millions of Danish kroner.

 

– We only sell machines that we can service ourselves – we don’t want to be dependent on service technicians that must be flown in from abroad.

 

All machines that have been installed on the Danish market since 2017 have a software solution called AirConnect, which STOK has developed together with Robopac. Via this software, customers are able to have total control over their machines as the solution indicates when service is needed and what is wrong if something happens, as well as generating production-related statistics. If it is OK for the customer, STOK can also be provided with access to this information.

 

– When the pandemic hit, we weren’t all that involved with e-commerce, but we quickly realised what was happening in the market. This led to us establishing a collaboration with the Italian company Panotec, who have developed a machine, Opera, which scans what is to be packed and then produces size-perfect packaging into which the product is packed automatically.

 

– It is a machine that saves a lot of labour and is also good for the environment, as the packaging produced is no larger than absolutely necessary. We have the agency for Scandinavia for this solution, and we are also allowed to sell it in Finland.

 

There are two Opera machines installed on the Danish market to date, with another one on the way according to Kent Juul Simonsen. The machine is too large to bring to Scanpack, but anyone interested can find out about the opportunities it presents via a link from the stand at the exhibition to Panotec in Italy.

 

Test centre for cargo security

 

A completely new development from STOK at the moment is an initiative involving the testing of cargo security. Designing a packaging solution is one thing, but then there are also logistics to consider – getting the packaging onto the pallet, optimising the pallet load and optimising the transportation via truck or container. These are things the company can already handle, but now they are going one step further.

 

– We are good at securing packaging for transportation, says Kent Juul Simonsen, and so are many others. We can optimise the stretch film and still maintain the stability of the load, but we want to be able to show this more clearly, which is why we have established a test centre in Vejle where we can test loads and certify in accordance with EUMOS, i.e. on a European basis.

 

– As far as we know, we are the only distributor investing in this. Otherwise it is usually the producers, but now the customer can perform the test independently of the producer.

 

Holding stock for the customer

 

Kim Jørgensen is the Key Account Manager for the part of the business that produces packaging, which also includes, for example, stretch film, tape and corrugated cardboard.

 

– As a wholesaler, we are the largest in Denmark. One specialty of ours is that we can deliver packaging from one day to another, he says. We have many customers who are looking for logistics solutions, and we can hold stock for them from which they can order call-off deliveries. This means that they never run the risk of being without packaging, he explains.

 

– We are very active in relation to our customers and we make sure that they receive an optimised process, from design to delivery. It is important to ensure that our customers can feel safe in the knowledge that they in turn are delivering a sustainable solution to their customers.

 

– At the moment there is quite a lot of discussion about void. For example, should the filler be plastic pads or paper? We assist in calculating the environmentally optimal solution, which can sometimes be surprising for the customer.

 

Eyes on Sweden

 

STOK Display & POS is located in Vejle, and the name discloses the nature of the products. Under the leadership of Michael Søndergaard, this department produces display signs and various point-of-sale aids, either via flexo printing or digitally.

 

– We can offer offset printing as well, although we don’t have our own press for that. We have subcontractors that we can use when needed, but often the print runs aren’t large enough to require offset printing, explains Michael Søndergaard.

 

– We have two digital presses, both from swissQprint. We bought the first one twelve years ago and it still works great. Then we work with cutting tables, of course, and we take care of everything from production to delivery to our customer’s customer. We work with some of the really big brands in Denmark. Otherwise, Sweden is a country that we will be focusing on more in the future, so hopefully Scanpack can be a suitable starting point for such an initiative.

 

 

From the left: Michael Søndergaard, Martin Frederiksen, Kim Jørgensen and Kent Juul Simonsen.