It has been this change in the marketplace that has led to the highly-publicized merger between Markem and Imaje to form the new global leader in coding and labeling technology – Markem-Imaje. While it is no surprise to many in the industry that Dover would decide to bring together two strong coding specialists that have existed amicably side by side in the marking field, there is still some ambiguity about how this highly-anticipated merger will translate to the Australian market.
What are the benefits that this global force in coding solutions can bring to Australian manufacturers?
Markem-Imaje will have unequalled global strength with the purpose to increase value for both their customers and shareholders. There is the offering of a complete product range, comprising multiple technologies, with the opportunity to select the “best of the best” between the two companies with product identification solutions, service and support wherever in the world their customers choose to do business. This means that the complementary combining of the companies results not only in an extensive product range, global reach and local proximity to key clients, but also draws upon over 120 years of combined experience in the coding and labeling field. This combination of extraordinarily experienced people will result in the highest standards of customer service and industry knowledge and when the Markem-Imaje evolution is complete; their customers will work with one company.
Greig Francis, National Sales and Marketing Manager for Markem-Imaje Australia has stated that “For Markem-Imaje customers, this combination represents the best cost of ownership, measured in the ways that matter: precise solutions to deliver what customers need, strong support, the highest reliability of products and people, and a relationship of deserved trust. It is an extremely exciting time in the coding and labeling industry with the new Markem-Imaje already securing the position as global leader in coding and labeling solutions”.
Markem-Imaje has already proven itself in the FMCG arena with several high-profile clients taking advantage of the benefits that this integration has to offer. One customer in particular has adopted 17 of Markem-Imaje’s award-winning Print and Apply machines in 3 of their beverage processing plants nationally. The customer’s core reasoning for selecting Markem-Imaje over well-known competitors was stated as simply being “reliability, ease of use, flexibility and the national technical service availability. The demonstrated pallet-labeling compliance for distributors such as Woolworths and Coles, EAN barcode capability and fuss-free software integration has proven Markem-Imaje as a national solution provider.”
Francis went on to say that yet another advantage of dealing with a global leader such as Markem-Imaje is that our customers have access to ‘off the shelf’ yet customizable interfacing software (Imaje Control Centre) to enable real time management of a customer’s network of printers. This software is available at around $AU4,500 where our competitors can charge up to $AU50,000 or more.
In the past month, other key clients have included various high-profile beverage, confectionary, and apparel suppliers. One particular global confectionary manufacturer decided to work with Markem-Imaje directly as opposed to an integrator and other coding specialists as they wanted a supplier “who can provide an engineering solution to the project and not just a printer.” The response to this need by the customer was that labeling will be done on empty cartons before they go to the filler stations. By enlisting Markem-Imaje as the coding and labeling solutions provider, only 1 printer is required to meet the need for 3 fillers, saving the client the cost of 2 printers (as competitors were quoting 1 printer per line + spare). This is a perfect example of how Markem-Imaje works with their clients as a trusted business partner, not just a reseller of coding and labeling products.
With all that in mind, the future looks bright for Markem-Imaje customers and 2008 already promises to be an exciting year in the FMCG industry.
