60 years of activity recently celebrated, an industrial organization with a family dimension, a journey marked by passion and sacrifices where tradition has not hindered the path toward innovation. This is the story of Grafiche Sabbioni, an Umbrian packaging company that is now ready to face the challenge of Industry 5.0 thanks to its new partnership with BOBST.
Grafiche Sabbioni is a historic company in the landscape of the Italian litho-packaging industry, and just over a year ago, in September 2023, it celebrated its 60th anniversary. We are in northern Umbria, in Trestina, in the province of Perugia, a few kilometers from Città di Castello, in a region that has historically always contributed to the graphic, packaging, and converting industries with significant industrial companies at both national and international levels.
Founded in 1963 by Cavaliere Giuseppe Sabbioni, who is still active in the company today, the company is currently managed by his sons Roberto and Federico. However, members of the third generation are already taking their first steps to ensure the continuity of management. This creates a perfect mix of experience, tradition, and a desire to look toward the future and innovation with renewed enthusiasm, perfectly in tune with the spirit of grandfather Giuseppe, who, at 85 years old, loves to immerse himself in the daily challenges of his company.
Since 2000, the turning point to enter the paper converting sector
Initially focused on the lithographic market, with a small paper converting production tied to tags for jeans, the turning point and definitive entry into the world of carton packaging and POP displays occurred in the early 2000s, also leveraging the potential and flexibility of the printing machines operating in the company. “Today, 95% of our production is dedicated to the paper converting sector with folding boxes for cosmetics, parapharmacy, herbal products, as well as displays and signage for counters and floors. We are organized with a fully internal production cycle: graphic design, prepress, printing, binding, and paper converting”, tells us Federico Sabbioni, emphasizing a nearly mandatory choice due to the company’s particular geographic location, far from subcontractor businesses.
From a geographical presence perspective, Grafiche Sabbioni, which employs about fifty people, boasts a presence throughout the national territory and has expanded into the French market, where it operates with a commercial office focused on luxury packaging, highly appreciated across the Alps, where Italian companies are a reference point and a guarantee of quality.
“The ennoblement of packaging and all the know-how behind it, combined with sustainability, are the main trends driving the packaging sector. Therefore, being able to combine high-quality materials with sustainable production, managed internally and thus completely under control, I believe is the key to our success, especially in the French market, which is not easy to penetrate. We work to create unique solutions and projects for our clients, so equipping ourselves with the right technologies at every stage of the production process is absolutely essential”, says Roberto Sabbioni.
New BOBST EXPERTFOLD 110 A3 folder-gluer with HANDYPACK GT collection table
Last year, after a careful evaluation of orders and its production organization, the management of Grafiche Sabbioni identified the gluing department as the weak link in the chain that needed to be strengthened, to eliminate the bottlenecks that had inevitably arisen due to the high productivity of the printing machines and the automatic die-cutter. “We decided to invest in a new folder-gluer about a year ago, also because we had reached the point of running double or even triple shifts in the gluing department to keep up with orders. Wanting to also improve the quality of this department, for the first time in our history, we decided to choose a BOBST machine”, Federico explains, adding that a plotter for manual gluing of displays was also introduced. This was done to meet the needs of POS products but also to free up the folder-gluer from a series of small jobs of 1000/2000 copies for which using the machine was not worthwhile.
The choice of BOBST responds to two specific needs: on the one hand, to improve the productivity of the department; on the other hand, and perhaps more importantly, to choose a partner with whom to embark on a growth path, one that could support Grafiche Sabbioni providing guarantees in terms of know-how and reliability of the machinery itself. “We were, of course, already familiar with the quality and performance of BOBST technologies, but what impressed us most was the great professionalism and attention to detail we encountered in all the key figures we interfaced with to carry out this investment. They understood our reality and guided us in configuring a product tailored to our needs, though we were confident this would be the case. Today, about a year after installation, and with our operators still in the learning process, we can say we are extremely satisfied with our choice. We are faster and we are also aware that we are not yet fully utilizing the potential of this technology, but we are preparing for future challenges”, adds Giuseppe Sabbioni, anticipating an increase in volumes for which the company has been working and preparing for some time.
The EXPERTFOLD chosen by the Perugia-based company is dedicated to the production of folding cartons, including small formats, and is equipped with a four-corner device. Regarding the gluing system, the company selected the new Baumer hhs system, which ensures a significant reduction in glue consumption. Additionally, the HANDYPACK GT module was included for rapid and simple box collection at the output, requiring less operator intervention in this section. “With this new folder-gluer, our company is entering a new world in terms of box gluing. Our operators have attended training courses with BOBST technicians, and we have had to familiarize ourselves, especially with software, as the new EXPERTFOLD is connected to the company’s information system. It represents for us the first production technology with which to embark on the journey of Industry 5.0. In this regard, we are also evaluating other significant investments to improve production efficiency while achieving substantial reductions in consumption”, concludes Roberto Sabbioni.
Grafiche Sabbioni will become a B-Corp in 2025
Sustainability has always been a vital competitive driver for Grafiche Sabbioni. It is a requirement of the market, a demand of clients, but also one of the primary areas of interest for entrepreneurs like the Sabbioni family, who look to the future with enthusiasm and positivity. The company’s commitment to these topics is so strong that a new quality and safety office has been established, managed by an engineer tasked with leading Grafiche Sabbioni toward B-Corp certification.
“We continuously invest in technology but also, and above all, in training and human resources. Since last September, we have added five new professionals to different areas of company’s activities. We believe in our work, and even though the times are certainly challenging, we are preparing the company to face the market’s upcoming challenges”, concludes Federico Sabbioni.
