Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have recently completed the construction and expansion of MHI EMEA facility in Almere, the Netherlands. The renewed facility, which is conveniently located only 45 minutes from Schipol airport, has seen an expanded footprint for both a service standpoint, but also for the stocking of a wide range of spare parts.
“Now completed, the new facility has doubled the office space as well as the spare parts warehouse in order to provide better service to our customers,” explains Giovanni Bettini, Sales Director, MHI EMEA. “We are accelerating is the supply of spare parts, particularly in EMEA. Thanks to this recent investment project, we have now completed the building of new warehousing at our facility in Holland as well as new offices. We have effectively doubled the size of our facility and with this comes the ability to stock more spares for fast despatch to customers throughout the territory. As it stands, we have almost 60 EVOL flexo folder gluers and more than 30 corrugators — and many single machine units — installed in the region, so we have taken the opportunity, even during the COVID-19 lock-down, to expand our spare parts warehouse.”
In May 2020, just under a year to the completion, MHI EMEA held a small ceremony, where the General Manager, Miyamoto-san, placed a symbolic coin on the first pile to be put into the ground, with onlookers obeying all social distancing guidelines.
Leading into the COVID-19 crisis, MHI EMEA was carrying a solid order book and the momentum carried on well, setting some great sales performance towards the end of 2020. “Globally, Mitsubishi received a total of 14 orders for our EVOL flexo folder gluer in the month of November alone,” says Bettini. “The machines were ordered by independent as well as integrated companies all around the world. This is a fantastic result, considering the travel restrictions and constraints we are all under due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But even more encouraging is that we started December with the same momentum that we achieved in November and the momentum continued in the first quarter of 2021, with many new orders coming in April as well. This is testament to the popularity of this range of high speed converting lines and clear indication that the build quality, reliability and high performance is truly appreciated by boxmakers all over the world.”
He continues, “Throughout our territory, we have seen an increase in sales for not only the EVOL, but also for our high speed, full line corrugators. This has put an increased demand on our operation, in terms of engineering, service, training and spare parts supply.”
Bettini concludes, “It has certainly been a challenging time for our industry, as we all try to keep things on track. Thankfully, the corrugated industry is a resilient industry and we are standing by our customers to ensure that we all get back on track as quickly as possible once the lock-down is eased throughout the world. By opening this new facility in Almere sends a clear signal to our customers throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa that Mitsubishi is ready to stand at their side, irrespective of where they are based in the region.”
