East Africa is a very important market for Starlinger and the company was satisfied with the excellent quality of visitors, although it noted that there were fewer attending than at the previous edition.
‘The show as a whole proved to be a successful platform for us to meet with existing and new customers, share news of our latest developments and generate leads,’ explains Stefan Ernst, head of Starlinger Southern Africa.
‘Our team used Propak East Africa to promote the circular packaging concept and first closed-loop solution for industrial packaging made of PP tape fabric such as FIBCs,’ he remarks. ‘Companies worldwide use Starlinger technologies to enter new markets through innovative and sustainable woven packaging concepts such as the patented AD*STAR block bottom valve sack or fabrics and sacks made of recycled PET.’
According to Stefan, this is because Starlinger has 30 years of experience in the plastics recycling sector, which helps the company to understand and develop new types of woven packaging as well as production processes with a strong focus on sustainability and recycling.
‘We have many machines installed in the region and are receiving positive feedback from customers regarding production efficiencies and product quality. One of the most recent projects is a PET bottle-to-bottle recycling line purchased by a Kenyan recycling company, which will be the first system supplying food-grade recycled PET resin in East Africa,’ he reveals.
Stefan notes that although the South African subsidiary in Johannesburg currently handles sales and service requests in East Africa, a technician for machine installations and after-sales service will soon be based in the region to improve customer support levels.
Successful showcase
This year’s Propak East Africa featured 150 exhibitors from over 35 countries, with 93% stating that they met the goals set for exhibiting and 86% believing that their sales would increase as a result of taking part in the show. Ninety-four percent of the 4 622 visitors achieved their goals for attending the show, which ranged from sourcing new products or suppliers (60%) and gathering market information (31%) to networking (54%) and attending a conference session (23%), which featured 26 global experts.
