Mondi and Litobal: growing business together
Mondi, the global packaging and paper Group, and the Czech packaging producer Litobal have been business partners since 2001, when the privately owned packaging company was taking its first steps in the bread bag business. It joined forces with Mondi Speciality Kraft Paper, putting its trust in the paper specialist’s white machine glazed papers. The two companies then started to grow their business together in various paper-based packaging fields, which enabled them to pass another milestone in 2010. At the time, Litobal had recently entered the paper shopping bag market, which had long been an ambition of its founder Zdenek Stojánek.
In order to position itself as a reliable and high-quality supplier in the Czech and European shopping bag markets, Litobal turned once again to the Mondi Speciality Kraft Paper team and their high-quality paper grades. Litobal ´s owner Zdenek Stojánek comments, “We chose Mondi as the main paper supplier for our bread bag and shopping bag production because of its know-how and the high quality and comprehensive range of its speciality kraft papers – all available from a single source. Mondi is the best fit for our vision and packaging solutions. We see great potential especially in the shopping bag market, which is corroborated by both market data and our main customers, including one major discounter that operates a branch network from Germany. It intends to grow further, and we are committed to supporting its expansion. We have therefore decided to intensify our business relations with Mondi Speciality Kraft Paper – mainly in the shopping bag market, but also as regards bread bags.”
Litobal today uses Mondi’s white and brown machine glazed papers for its bread bags, alongside a whole range of machine finished brown and white grades that are especially well suited to shopping bag production.
For Litobal and Mondi, a shopping bag is more than a paper-based packaging solution with handles. It also mirrors the brand it represents and the products it carries. According to Litobal owner Zdenek Stojánek, “Shopping bags have to fit our customers’ products like a glove fits a hand – and offer more besides. The bag is a walking advertisement for a brand, a company and its products. It can also reflect the lifestyle of the person who uses and carries it. We therefore value paper-based solutions and specialise in their production. Paper is a sustainable product, which also gives the shopping bag a natural look and feel. But it also has to fulfil strict quality requirements as regards strength and printability. Mondi’s range of machine (MF) and smooth (SF) finished paper grades combine all these benefits best. In addition, Mondi’s high-quality grades help us to be more efficient in our production and to run our lines with minimum losses.”
Building on the foundation of this long-term partnership, Litobal and Mondi are also pioneering a new approach to technical service and R&D. Focusing on printability in order to achieve optimum brand appearance and meet market needs, Litobal is to become a partner of Mondi’s exclusive Print Competence Centre.
Head of technical sales service, Petr Jindra, of Mondi Speciality Kraft Paper explains, “At the R&D Print Competence Centre of Mondi Štětí in the Czech Republic we focus on finding ways to develop and optimise our paper grades’ printability. Strategic partnerships with research institutes, universities, raw material suppliers and original equipment manufacturers help us anticipate market trends and new technologies while achieving our goal of creating solutions for our customers’ success. We are very proud that Litobal will be using our know-how in this field, and look forward jointly to developing its packaging in line with customised needs.”
The two companies are also intensifying their collaboration in technical sales service. The technical team of Mondi Speciality Kraft Papers support customers as they seek to increase output, improve paper runnability on converting machines, and discover new ways of reducing material and logistical costs.
“We strive to go the extra mile for our customers and we value long-term partnerships. We are very proud to offer our customers high-quality paper grades alongside profound knowledge transfer and a technical sales service. We have further enhanced our service in recent years, as underlined by our latest customer satisfaction survey. Our team scored more than 94% for both “technical competence” and their “dedication and friendliness” towards customers. We are looking forward to intensifying our partnership with Litobal and growing our businesses together,” concludes Paulus Goess, sales director Mondi Speciality Kraft Paper.
https://www.mondigroup.com/en/media/news-releases/2017/mondi-and-litobal-growing-business-together/