This year marks a momentous milestone for Brazilian packaging manufacturer Grupo Penha as it celebrates 65 years of continuous market operations. From its establishment in 1961 in a small town called Itapira, the company’s trajectory has been defined by steady technological evolution and market expansion. Today, Grupo Penha stands proudly as one of the largest manufacturers in Brazil’s corrugated packaging segment.
With a robust footprint comprising three corrugated board plants, two paper mills, one OCC facility, one forestry management facility, a transportation business unit and two sales offices. It has over 2,300 employees, and an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons of corrugated cardboard, the company delivers tailored, sustainable packaging solutions across Brazil. While serving a diverse array of sectors, the group holds a particularly dominant presence in the highly demanding food and pharmaceutical industries.
Deep Cultural Roots
What truly differentiates Grupo Penha in a competitive landscape is its organisational DNA. Founded by descendants of Japanese immigrants, the company has intentionally woven strong influences of Eastern culture and management philosophy into its corporate values.
This distinct heritage creates a natural, powerful synergy with its long-term machinery partner, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). The relationship between the two entities is historic; Penha was the very first Brazilian company to invest in a complete corrugator from MHI, and later expanded the relationship by investing in high speed flexo converting lines – interestingly, Penha was also the first company in Brazil to buy an EVOL 100 flexo folder gluer, and now they have three EVOLs (of which two are fitted with the Dual Slotter unit).
Maximising Capacity
In recent years, Grupo Penha faced a welcome challenge; growing customer demand that began outstripping its available production capacity. To meet this market need, the company initiated a massive modernisation and expansion project in 2024.
Representing a total investment of approximately R$200m (€34m), the comprehensive project involved expanding the physical factory infrastructure at their Itapira headquarters, completely adapting internal material handling and product transportation systems, and installing both a new corrugator and die-cutting machine.
Following a meticulous installation phase, a new corrugator was successfully commissioned in October 2025.
Technical Spotlight
By combining Mitsubishi’s robust engineering capabilities with the specialised Valmet quality control system, Penha has added more corrugated board production capacity, with the renowned board quality and manufacturing consistency for which Mitsubishi is known for.
The corrugator is from the new product line called NGC (New Global Corrugator). It is 2.5m wide, double cut-off, singlewall machine. The line includes single facers for 450 m/min production, achieving splicing speeds at 584 m/min. On the dry-end, a gapless order change with Gamma Changer is able to run at 400 m/min.There is also a special feature included on this new corrugator; MHI has installed a Defect Flute Detector unit (DFD). This system is located on the bridge just before the Glue Machine. The DFD detects any delamination in the flutes, even very small ones; it tracks and follows this area through to the cut-off, where it then removes that area automatically right after the cut-off with the waste removal unit. This DFD system helps avoid possible jams caused by delaminated board and allows the operators to run the line at full speed with less worries.
Penha is so happy with the DFD that they purchased the same system for their existing MHI corrugator in the same site.
A Philosophy of Continuous Improvement
For Penha, the installation process reinforced the deep-seated cultural alignment between the two organisations.
“Whenever we have visits from Japanese technicians, we always learn something new, both about their culture, which is always very respectful in treating the customer, and about their philosophy of continuous process improvements,” explains Ébano de Oliveira Leite, Industrial Director of Packaging, reflecting on the collaboration and training sessions with MHI EMEA’s engineering teams.
He continues, “This meticulous attention to detail during commissioning has paid off. In its first few months of operation, the new NGC corrugator line has performed flawlessly, fully aligning with our rigorous operational and efficiency expectations.”
Strategic Horizons
The arrival of the new Mitsubishi line brings the Itapira headquarters to its absolute physical maximum. The bustling flagship facility now operates an impressive machinery fleet, including four corrugators. Because there is no further physical room to expand at the headquarters, Grupo Penha is already plotting its next strategic move.
Supported by the reliability of its partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Grupo Penha enters its next 65 years ideally positioned to lead, innovate, and grow.
