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2017-06-22

At Pasaban we are undertaking a transformation project of our business model that especially focuses on the sales, manufacturing and assembly areas. This plan will be strengthened by expanding our plant in Tolosa and developing innovative actions that will consolidate our position as suppliers of value added solutions.  

The transformation basically seeks to create a more efficient industrial structure, articulate a sales force of our own deployed in the main countries and to configure a more technologically advanced portfolio with greater added value. To reach these objectives, Pasaban’s management has reconfigured the sales and industrial model, implemented new R&D+i plans and deployed an investment plan for extending the offices and making improvements to corporate facilities.  

In the current year, we will mainly focus on optimising production activities applying Lean tools and principles, which are supported by the consultant Asenta. The work is oriented, among other actions, toward increasing efficiency through analysing and standardising processes, improving internal logistics and designing a layout and assembly flows that accompany these improvements. The objective is that the system will be operational at the beginning of 2018, a year in which increased activity is expected.  

The implementation of the new business model, which began in 2016 with the change of all procedures and the sales strategy, will play a prominent role in capturing projects. This plan will continue in 2017 with direct positioning in the main paper markets and with the renewal of the agent model. On this line, the first actions will be addressed in the United States and in France, with a model that includes Pasaban’s own personnel, similar to the model already deployed in China and India.  

A greater proximity to our customers will contribute to improve the quality of customer service and support in the four business areas in which we are focused on today: paper manufacturers, converters, packagers & printers and security papers.  

At present, after a restrictive cycle of many years, Europe is the most dynamic area where the large paper manufacturers have the most opportunities. Among the projects being carried out, in the security paper and printing market, it is to highlight the first contract won for the Bank of Poland, which has assigned us the manufacturing of a complete line of banknotes for printing the euro. The complete line, to be delivered by the middle of this year, will integrate two printing bodies, two stamping bodies for security holograms and a laser punching machine, which will be able to work at a speed of 160 m/min. In the paper manufacturing market, another request of great technological complexity was from a Japanese firm, for which we have designed and manufactured a high performance paper sheeter which enables to process up to ten reels simultaneously for light and specialty papers to be cut in different formats.  

The portfolio also includes projects such as a fully automatic sheeting and wrapping machine for the Mondi’s plant in Austria and some other very interesting projects that will be published on our website as they are completed.  

In the field of innovation, we are working on a project to improve our family of winders, in which we are counting on the support of the Basque Government’s Hazitek programme, in collaboration with IK4-Tekniker technological centre. The research concerns the mechanical section and the electronic control loop and seeks to minimise the vibrations in this type of machine by analysing the natural frequencies, in order to produce the best winder in the market up to widths of 5,000 mm. We are also undertaking a programme to adapt our cut-size sheeter to A3 and A4 digital formats, completing the work already done in our digital format ream wrappers.  

Finally, in July we will begin to work on expanding our headquarters in Tolosa, where a third floor will be added, providing an additional 1,000 m2 for improving all the central services of the group. The operation also includes reserving 2,000 m2 of building land to facilitate future growth. The works are expected to be completed in the middle of 2018.