Macchi makes it big

Macchi North America, a division of Italy’s largest manufacturer of blown film extrusion systems, has announced its biggest single equipment sale into the North American market. Hood Packaging International has purchased complete film extrusion systems for two of its manufacturing plants as part of a major expansion. These large capacity lines, incorporating Macchi’s latest engineering, will enable Hood Packaging to meet increasing demands for its high quality flexible packaging.

Certified to the ISO 9001:2000 quality standard, Hood manufactures, prints and converts film for a variety of applications, including heavy duty sacks and form/fill applications for such markets as food products, pet foods, building products, salt, lawn and garden, and the pulp, paper and wood Industry. The company has 16 locations across North America.

Macchi SpA began manufacturing blown film extrusion dies in Italy more than 40 years ago, and obtained its first patent in 1966. The company now builds complete blown film systems from mono through to nine layers for manufacturers around the world. Today, it consists of two individual manufacturing divisions, together covering over 14,000m². Each plant is complete with manufacturing and assembly operations, as well as maintenance and mechanical facilities, and complete machinery testing departments.

Recently, an extensive expansion project was initiated to add an additional 5,000m² to the main plant. The 1,500m² growth in the manufacturing department will allow for installation of additional high speed, state-of-the-art CNC tooling equipment. The remaining increase in floor space will permit a substantial expansion of the testing department, where every line is checked fully, with customers present, before shipment.

Macchi’s sales figures for 200, at approximately €35M, were an increase of roughly 25 per cent over the previous year. The company claims this performance was “one of the most successful on the world stage, and is even more impressive when one considers the general downtrend the plastics industry experienced during that period”.

In spite of a general pessimism regarding the short term future of the plastics industry, 2004 began with increased activity for Macchi, which is looking to surpass past sales figures and envisions a bright future.

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