IWK Packaging, R.A. Jones join forces in new packaging group dedicated to pharmaceutical, personal care products

Offering "one call" access to innovative packaging for North American customers

On November 6, at Pack Expo 2000 (Chicago, IL, held November 5-9), IWK Packaging (Karlsruhe, Germany and Fairfield, NJ) and R.A. Jones & Co. Inc. (Cincinnati), both units of IWKA AG, announced that they had joined forces to give pharmaceutical and personal care product manufacturers "one call" access to comprehensive packaging line technologies. The product management and sales staffs for the two organizations are being combined into a single unit for North America named IWKA PacSystems.

The market-centered collaboration was jointly announced by Hans K. Seydel, CEO of IWK Packaging, and Ralph Olson, president of R.A. Jones. The consolidation reflects IWKA Group's corporate strategy of allowing customers to concentrate on core competencies by providing comprehensive production and process chain capabilities—equipment, integration capabilities, service, and support—from one source, they noted.

Theodore J. Boeddeker was named president of IWKA PacSystems, which has main sales and service offices in Fairfield, NJ. Rusty Sparling is director of sales. "We see tremendous synergies for customers from this partnering," said Boeddeker. "PacSystems is representing the combined machinery lines of IWK and R.A. Jones. This greatly increases machine choices and application flexibility for customers." On the service and support side, combining resources enables closer, more proactive attention and stronger responsiveness to customer needs, according to Boeddeker.

IWK's blister packaging system produces up to 600 blisters per minute.

Both firms pride themselves on providing machines and systems that are flexible, simple to change-over, easier to maintain, and highly affordable. "The wide range of machine models and options allows PacSystems to configure cost-effective solutions to specific customer requirements," said Sparling. "We can offer customers the industry's widest range of machine choices for the nearest thing to made-to-order capability at standard machine prices."

Parent conglomerate IWKA is comprised of more than 90 different companies with 13,200 employees worldwide and total revenues in 2000 of approximately $2 billion.

For more information: Paula Holmes, Director of Marketing, R.A. Jones & Co. Inc., P.O. Box 485, Cincinnati OH 45201. Tel: 859-344-7153. Fax: 859-341-0519.

Edited by Angelo DePalma
Managing Editor, Pharmaceutical Online and Drug Discovery Online
Email: adepalma@vertical.net