SWEDBRAND Group, the packaging partner to some of the world’s most iconic brands, today announced the opening of its brand-new converting plant in Poland, Swedbrand Poland Sp z o.o., for premium customized rigid boxes for luxury products. Supported by a global production network of owned and partner-run facilities, the state-of-the-art Gdansk plant is operated by experienced staff and is able to deliver significantly reduced cost and time for intra-Europe delivery. The facility is managed by Bogdan Putko, who has 35 years of experience in the Polish packaging market and has worked with many global brands.
“The company has well-established packaging capabilities in China and Viet Nam and began looking for opportunities to initiate production in Europe as well about two years ago,” said Zaid Bunni, co-founder of the SWEDBRAND Group. “This seems prescient today in light of the disruptions brought on by the pandemic and the instability in Asian markets. We are especially pleased to have Bogdan join our team and bring his extensive knowledge of both packaging and the Polish printing/converting environment as we built out our new factory.”
Bunni points out that the Gdansk factory, which is a highly automated state-of-the-art converting operation for premium rigid boxes, brings a number of benefits to brands requirement rigid box production for use in Europe.
Plant manager Bogdan Putko adds, “We’ve seen dramatic increases in both time and cost for shipping from China to Europe. While manufacturing time and labor costs are somewhat higher in Poland, it can take four to five weeks just to secure a 40-foot container in China, and then five to seven weeks to ship it to Europe. In addition, just in the last few months shipping costs have increased by a factor of four or five, from US$2,000 for a 40-foot container to as much as US$10,000. Our shipping costs per truckload from Poland to Germany, for example, are between €850 and €1,300. This way the delivery can be accomplished in as little as three days.”
These reduced shipping fees lead to a more competitive overall cost structure for the premium rigid boxes. With regards to brands, these premium boxes are important for communicating the respective brand image and increasing their luxury product’s shelf appeal, while protecting often fragile contents at the same time. In addition, being able to get products to the shelves up to a month earlier than previously possible results in a significant revenue opportunity for brands and retailers.
“We have just completed putting the finishing touches on our factory and are now entering full production phase,” Putko added. “We also offer brands a unique opportunity for a virtual factory tour in light of pandemic conditions that are still restricting travel. The virtual tour is designed to showcase all aspects of the factory and provide brands with the confidence that we can provide reliable and timely service. In addition, the Gdansk factory addresses the need of many of the world’s most well-known brands to diversify risk by moving all or some of their packaging converting from Asia to Europe.”
Bunni adds, “We also made the strategic decision to outsource the offset printing required for production of these outstanding rigid boxes since Poland features many very high-quality printers who have plenty of excess capacity. This helps better support the Polish printing industry while keeping our overhead as low as possible.”
