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The coding & marking systems specialist, was awarded a bronze medal by the EcoVadis CSR rating agency in April 2025. The company also successfully completed the Sedex Group’s SMETA audit standard for the second time.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the pursuit of sustainability in key areas such as procurement and production, is one of the core requirements for successful businesses in today’s world. And, of course, minimising risks and costs is just as important as public image and customer confidence. This is also true for a company’s supply chain: Recognised, independent awards and audits give users the assurance of working with responsible partners.

The EcoVadis bronze medal attests to the fact that Leibinger is among the top 35% of companies across all industries that have been rated over the last twelve months. Leibinger achieved the best results in the categories of environment, ethics, and labour and human rights. EcoVadis has evaluated over 130,000 companies around the globe based on four categories and 21 sustainability criteria that are based on international standards. It is governed by a panel of experts from the fields of industry and science. As part of its sustainability efforts, Leibinger once again underwent verification in line with the SMETA audit standard of the non-profit Sedex Group in 2024. SMETA is the world’s leading audit and documents social responsibility in the areas of labour standards, health and safety, the environment and business ethics.

The EcoVadis award and the successful SMETA audit reaffirm Leibinger’s commitment to sustainability and to passing on its ‘made in Germany’, resource-saving, durable and low-maintenance coding & marking solutions to users. The ongoing optimisation of its product and service portfolio clearly reflects the company’s strategic medium- and long-term focus. Christina Leibinger, CEO and company owner, is delighted with the EcoVadis award: “I am very pleased that our sustainability measures are proving so successful and visible. This positive feedback encourages us to continuously develop our processes, products and services. Our long-standing commitment to sustainable business practices is proving its worth – we are ideally positioned to offer our customers an attractive and future-proof comprehensive solution. This lays the foundation for us to tap into further growth potential.”

The swiss company has introduced OmniCool Smart, a compact, next-generation cooling tunnel engineered for product and chocolate cooling, delivering high product quality in the compact market segment. The new system helps customers cut energy consumption and reduce operating costs through a streamlined, maintenance-friendly design. “OmniCool Smart is the ideal compact cooling solution for today’s and future production needs. It ensures consistently high product quality, significantly reduces cleaning and maintenance requirements, and supports customers in reducing their carbon footprint,” says András Somfai, Head of Product Management & Process Engineering at Bühler.

Unlike traditional cooling tunnels that rely on compressed air, OmniCool Smart operates entirely on electricity. Compressed air systems are energy-intensive and require regular maintenance. Fully electric systems offer a quieter, more efficient, and low-maintenance alternative, reducing energy use, cutting costs, and supporting more sustainable operations. Additionally, OmniCool Smart optimizes airflow, temperature control, and belt tracking to deliver perfectly cooled fruit, cereal, snack, and protein bars, as well as enrobed wafer and biscuit products, combining superior product quality with enhanced energy efficiency and reduced environmental impact

OmniCool Smart features a modular design with the cooling section positioned underneath, ensuring optimal cooling performance while minimizing overall height. Its innovative belt tracking system incorporates the latest sensor technology to deliver ideal operating conditions. Designed for easy maintenance and cleaning, this cooling tunnel reduces downtime and enhances overall equipment effectiveness.

OmniCool Smart is designed for full integration into existing production lines. It can be operated either from the previous machine in the line or directly via its own control panel (human-machine interface, HMI). PlayOne HMI visualization software reflects Bühler’s user-centric design philosophy, enabling efficient, safe, and seamless interaction with the system. Operators benefit from intuitive controls that simplify configuration and monitoring, both at the equipment or via smart devices.

The Crailsheim-based company will be taking part in the Automatica trade fair for the first time. Schubert’s first attendance at Automatica (24 to 27 June) is also marked by groundbreaking technology. The autonomous tog.519 cobot, developed in-house in Crailsheim, impressively demonstrates how outstanding versatility and performance can be combined thanks to a fully integrated system. 

You would almost be forgiven for thinking that robots love apple chips as much as some consumers do. With the utmost care, they place bags of the healthy snacks into boxes. Visitors will have an opportunity to experience this state-of-the-art development at the Gerhard Schubert stand at Automatica, where the company will be exhibiting for the first time. Two tog.519 cobots will be demonstrating several application scenarios for food and cosmetics at the Munich Trade Fair Centre in Hall B5, Stand 530. 

Schubert achieved a technologically significant engineering feat for pick & place applications with its tog.519. The agile and extremely versatile machine from Crailsheim picks products at up to 90 cycles per minute – faster than any other solution on the market. What enables this is a concept that seamlessly integrates robotics and image processing into a complete system. “It gives the cobot great flexibility and mobility,” explains Hannes Häusler, Head of the Cobot Division at Schubert. 

The tog.519 can even pick unsorted objects and place them into moving trays, for instance. As demonstrated at the trade fair, thanks to AI-based image recognition, the cobot ‘recognises’ different objects and reliably masters the task of picking unsorted items from a disorganised pile. Even the complex challenge of ‘uprighting’ and depositing empty bottles into pucks is handled by the Crailsheim-based innovation thanks to ingenious vision technology, which Schubert combines with patented five-axis SCARA kinematics. “The camera system and robot were both developed in-house and they work together seamlessly. This integration makes our solution truly unique on the market,” explains Häusler. Thanks to the AI-supported vision system, the otherwise very time-consuming programming of image recognition using algorithms is no longer necessary. As a result, the system can be operated without in-depth IT knowledge – and not just for apple chips!

The company announces that they have been awarded three sets of silver awards for three separate product innovations at the Shop! D-A-CH Awards 2025. The Shop! D-A-C-H Awards recognize excellence in Point-of-Sale (POS) and the design of advertising display materials that range from complex promotions and visual merchandising to marketing-at-retail activations, digital technologies and data driven retail. The finalists were announced by a panel of expert judges at the Shop! D-A-C-H annual awards ceremony on Thursday 15th May in Neuss, Germany. 

This is the Shop! D-A-C-H Awards 15th year in celebrating the expertise of case studies across fifteen categories to cover a full spectrum of activities at Point of Sale (POS), and the successful DS Smith product innovations include the Wan Kwai Standee, the COMPO BIO Pop Up-Store, and the More x Hitschies Zerup display. 

The Wan Kwai Standee Shop! D-A-C-H award winner for Silver was nominated for its eye-catching long-distance effect and impact and for the 2024 brand relaunch in the Food, Daily Consumer Goods, and Confectionary category. 

The strikingly designed retail stand is comprised of 100% recycled corrugated cardboard and is intended to provide a unique 3D and long-distance visual recognition in-store. As a part of a brand relaunch campaign for Wan Kwai, the POS stand is intended for placement in close proximity to Wan Kwai products and boldly stands out as an advertising tool for the brand’s Asian delicacies.

The prominent QR code on the packaging solution is intended to allow the brand’s customers to immerse themselves directly in a Wan Kwai world and with access to recipes. The high-quality, digitally printed display was customized for the brand distributor, Importhaus Wilms, and it impressed the jury with its design appeal, impact and usability. The retail stand was also rated highly for its recyclability within wastepaper recycling schemes.
The DS Smith design for COMPO BIO Pop Up-Store display was presented with a Silver award for its unique greenhouse inspired design in the Home, DIY & Garden category.
The innovative and sustainable greenhouse design incorporates a superstructure and high-quality offset printing. The design has a special 3D effect for long-distance visibility and to place the manufacturer’s organic range of products is at the centre of shopper attention within a retail environment.

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Bühler Group is launching OptiBake, the world’s first inductively heated wafer oven, marking a breakthrough in industrial baking. Engineered to boost quality, operational flexibility, and efficiency, OptiBake reduces energy consumption by 50% compared to conventional gas-fired wafer baking ovens. The solution sets a new standard for the global wafer industry, supporting customers in achieving operational excellence and sustainability in production.

“With OptiBake, we set out to deliver more than just a new wafer oven. We challenged ourselves to combine exceptional wafer quality with unprecedented flexibility, while enabling customers to contribute to sustainability,” says Sandra Lutz, Head of Business Unit Wafer at Bühler Group. “Our electric induction heating technology responds to the global demand for higher quality and efficiency, reduced operational costs, and a significantly lower carbon footprint.”

For more than a decade, Bühler’s wafer segment has focused on developing technologies that support customer growth while reducing the environmental footprint of production. OptiBake offers a range of unique advantages that set it apart from conventional gas-fired or electric wafer ovens. While conventional electric heating has been used for decades, inductive heating offers greater energy efficiency and new possibilities for precise control.

OptiBake’s induction heating system uses electromagnetic fields to generate heat directly within the baking plates, dispensing with open flames and combustion. The result is a process that produces no direct emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), or nitrogen oxides (NOx). Energy consumption can fall to 50%, when compared to gas-fired or electrical wafer ovens, reducing the environmental impact. These emission reductions can also lead to tax and licensing advantages, along with increased subsidy opportunities.  

The environmental benefits of the oven are even greater when powered by a low-carbon electricity mix. In such settings, it can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions and support broader sustainability goals. By eliminating reliance on natural gas, the system also contributes to energy security and supply resilience.

Exberry® color supplier GNT has welcomed China’s decision to introduce an official industry standard for Coloring Foods. “Coloring Food Ingredients for the Food Industry” came into force nationwide on May 1, 2025, and regulates their production, use, and labeling. It has been developed by the China National Food Industry Association (CNFIA) and China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) alongside GNT and other relevant experts and stakeholders. 

Coloring Foods – which were first developed by GNT in 1978 – are plant-based, edible concentrates and are used to deliver color to food, drink, and supplements. China’s new industry standard stipulates that they must be made from fruits, vegetables, plants, or algae that are normally consumed as foodstuffs. 

In addition, Coloring Foods can only be created using physical processing methods and without the use of chemical solvents. Unlike most natural coloring solutions, these products must retain the key properties of the raw materials, including color, taste, and nutritional value. Rigorous testing and quality control measures are also required to ensure that all Coloring Food ingredients meet the highest safety standards. Due to the way they are produced, the standard classifies Coloring Foods as ingredients rather than additives. This means they qualify for clean and clear label declarations with wordings that reflect the coloring characteristic and the function, such as “carrot coloring ingredient.” 

Silke Fallah, Head of Global Regulatory Affairs at GNT Group, said: “This industrial standard is an important step forward for Coloring Foods and a great achievement for getting regulatory clarity for the Chinese market.”

Prior to the introduction of the industry standard for Coloring Foods, Chinese manufacturers had relied on a voluntary group standard. It was issued by the CNFIA in 2017 and gained a high degree of recognition but lacked official industry endorsement.

The CNFIA submitted a project application for the industry standard in 2019 and received approval for its development the following year. It applies to all manufacturers selling food and drink in China and covers issues including technical requirements, ‌inspection rules, ‌labeling and packaging, storage, and transportation of Coloring Food ingredients.