The Spanish company ULMA Packaging is a leading provider of packaging solutions. Its German sales and service subsidiary operates very successfully on the German and Austrian markets from its base in Memmingen, Germany, with a staff of 40 employees.

By Alfons Strohmaier

In the beginning was the chocolate industry and the vision of six young mechanics who founded a co-op in 1961 in the Basque town of Oñati, Spain, to provide services and custom-made products for the numerous chocolate manufacturers in the ­region. Over the next six decades, the enterprise developed into a globally active industrial group with billions in revenue and over 4,000 employees working in ULMA‘s nine business ­divisions: ULMA Advanced Forged Solutions, Agrícola, Architectural ­Solutions, Construction, Conveyor Components, Embedded Solutions, Handling Systems, Maintenance Services, and ULMA Packaging.

The packaging machinery sector was an integral focus of the company right from its early days, with numerous challenges having to be faced and mastered over all that time on the road to becoming a world leader. Today, with annual revenue of around € 400 m, ULMA Packaging is one of the leading suppliers of packaging ­solutions in Europe. It is the No. 2 company worldwide in thermoforming, and it provides a wide range of machinery and applications including Flow Pack (HFFS), traysealing, vertical (VFFS), shrink wrapping, and stretch film technologies.

With its factories in Spain, Romania and Brazil, ULMA Packaging boasts production space of 100,000m2 and supplies some 1,500 machines annually. The total number of machines it has delivered overall now totals more than 60,000. With innovative strength playing such a central role in all this, over 100 research and development experts are continuously on hand at the ULMA Packaging Technological Center (UPTC) searching for new solutions and ways to further optimise existing machinery. The expertise housed in this technological incubator is underscored by its 280-plus patents. In addition, the new 6,000 m² ULMA Packaging Automation division (UPA) facility that opened up in 2024 for production and assembly now provides inhouse goods acceptance tests (FAT) for all of its turnkey projects.

The company currently has a significant market position comprising 90% in the sector of fresh food products, above all with fruit and veget­ables, meat and poultry, fish and seafood, cheese and ready-made meals, as well as baked products, ­biscuits and confectionery. The rest is attributable to non-food or medical/pharmaceutical packaging products. The group has long enjoyed a reputation around the world for quality, reliability and after-sales service. The company is active in more than 130 nations and has branch operations in 24 countries, including Germany.

ULMA Packaging GmbH has been headquartered with a staff of 40 ­employees in the city of Memmingen in Germany‘s Allgäu region since 2018. ”We view ourselves as a partner of the customers with whom we seek to mutually develop and ­produce the best possible packaging solutions. To do this, it’s essential that we are aware of the concerns and challenges that industry faces locally,” explains Managing Director Thomas Blümel, who has been responsible for the markets in Germany and Austria since 2017. His service team can be reached around the clock and is ­also on-site from Monday through Friday to resolve problems together with customers and to carry out ­important maintenance.

Along with sophisticated machinery that can be flexibly equipped to fit the individual customer’s needs, Blümel also sees close proximity to the customers as a fundamentally important factor for success. The company has now invited customers to its Open Door Week for the second time, where visitors can find out in the showroom all about ULMA’s wide array of machinery including highlights like its innovative TFS 200, Flow Vac 35, VTC 840 Tight-Bag™, Sienna SP BI, and FM 300 CX formats.

Additionally, many guests also brought along their own products and tested them on the machines under realistic circumstances. ”For some time now, we have had the technical capability to copy product samples in detail in a durable form and make them available to our customers as a free service for presenting their new packaging solutions. This opens up completely new possibilities for our customers,” Blümel explains.

The experienced packaging expert sees the greatest current challenge in the implementation of the upcoming EU PPWR packaging regulation, which will push sustainable packaging technologies further towards the forefront. Speaking with Sweets Processing, ­ULMA Germany boss Blümel says, ”We see the PPWR as an opportunity, because in contrast to some customers who are only now beginning to confront this issue, we’ve been ­addressing for many years issues such as material savings, recyclability, the use of monomaterials, converting machines to alternative materials, and much more. All new machines in the portfolio can process mono­materials when configured accord­ingly. Requirements such as tear-­resistance and sealability necessitate highly precise machine parameters, and that‘s even more interesting when using recycled materials.”

As such, both vertical and horizontal Flow Packs are enjoying greater demand as a very good solution in terms of material efficiency and sustain­ability. One example of this is minced meat packaging that a regional food product retailer worked on together with ULMA ­Packaging to switch from the accustomed thermoforming bowl to a tubular bag with shielding gas. Blümel adds, “This can yield up to 85% in material savings and additionally generates logistics benefits. But the new packagings have to be communicated to consumers so they will ­accept it. The still consistent demand for thermoforms has also pleasantly surprised us.”

Another field that is becoming ­increasingly important for the ULMA team comprises automation, digitalisation, AI and Industry 4.0. The company is continuously working on innovative developments here, above all in regard to documentation for the machine processes. And the demand for complete lines and turnkey solutions from a single source is on the ­rise. In this respect, ULMA Packaging has made a pioneering decision by joining with the Italian specialists at Rama Packaging & Automation with a 40% holding. Rama augments ­ULMA Packaging’s range of products and services in the primary packaging segment with its own solid expertise in secondary and tertiary packaging.

In the wake of the successful Open Door Week featuring in-depth discussions with customers in Memmingen, Blümel and his team are now looking forward to the upcoming Fachpack trade fair in Nuremberg. The Spanish company will present its entire spectrum at Stand 312 in Hall 2, ranging from horizontal and vertical flow pack machinery. thermoforming to traysealers. The sales and service team will demonstrate how ULMA Packaging can optimise customers‘ packaging processes with the very latest technology, sus­tainability and flexibility.