AROL Group

1. What is the latest news regarding AROL Group?

Despite the economic crisis, the AROL Group was able, in 2011, to maintain two-digit growth, which consolidated our position as a world leader for capping, screwing and threading equipment.

In addition to its traditional activity in the food sector, the AROL Group is looking to make inroads into the industrial, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics sector, to which end AROL has undergone internal reorganisation in order to meet these new customer requirements. I should point out that this activity is far from new for the AROL Group, since every year we have had to install several machines in this sector of activity.

2) What is your vision of the packaging industry in the medium term? What changes/developments do you anticipate?

My vision for the packaging industry, and more precisely for capping, screwing and threading machines, in the short term, is quite simple to express: there will be no massive upheavals, there may be some natural selection among the monobloc manufacturers, but there will always be new packaging and new packaging machinery. The sectors of activity are developing rapidly, but various elements that we cannot control - the economic crisis, globalisation, etc. – mean that our clients are increasingly cautious, take longer to make decisions, are difficult to satisfy, and seek recourse more frequently to the after-sales service. All this means that we have to adapt, and this is the objective for everyone within the AROL Group.

We cannot speak about the development of the emerging markets. After the stabilisation of the CHINA region, AROL Group chose to install operations in Central America and South America, with the founding of the Brazil subsidiary. The INDIAN market has not been overlooked: the commercial survey has been completed, and the subsidiary is in its final development phase. The subsidiaries in EUROPE - in Spain, Germany, etc. - are getting organised and expanding, and the French subsidiary, AROL Hexagone, for which I am responsible, is organising itself in order to meet the needs of mainland France while opening up to the North African and sub-Saharan market.

Since we're speaking about the AROL GROUP, we should also mention FT SYSTEM and its subsidiaries. They too are making progress, and each AROL subsidiary is twinned with an FT SYSTEM subsidiary or common structure, as is the case here in France where FT Hexagone is in the process of consolidating its market.

3) What will you focus on at EMBALLAGE 2012? Which new products/added value will you exhibit on your stand?

As usual, AROL Group - with a stand this year managed for the first time by AROL Hexagone and FT Hexagone - will be exhibiting a large proportion of its two production ranges, AROL and FT SYSTEM.

Since our R&D department is continuously at work on product development, there is sure to be something new on show, so come and see for yourselves.

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