100 years ago, the Benhil "machine that wraps squared prismatic items" started a revolution. Nowadays, almost everyone makes daily use of an item that has been packaged by the global leader for filling and wrapping machines.
Neuss, June 2012. Everything began in 1912 with an obvious and yet revolutionary idea from engineer Wilhelm Hilgers, namely forming and packaging butter with one single machine as opposed to doing it manually. The advantage was clear: The individual items were then not only weighed more fairly, but also packaged in a more compact and hygienic manner. Imagined and then done – Hilgers submitted his patent application for the world’s first ever packaging machine for margarine and butter and then joined his friend Johannes Benz in founding the company ”Benhil“ (a composition of the names Benz and Hilgers). Just a few months later, the company already produced its first type "11" butter forming machine as well as the type "15" cartoning machine. One chief engineer and seven skilled tradesmen built the machines using an anvil, grinding stone, surface plate and a filing bench with six vices.
The company quickly grew. It wasn’t long until there were 120 employees occupying the workbenches and the range of products was enhanced considerably. In addition to butter, the machines were now also packaging yeast, soap and soft as well as hard sorts of cheese. World War II almost drove the company out of business, but upon conclusion of the war, things quickly started going up for machine builders as Germany featured a number of butter and margarine factories. This allowed Benhil to successfully sell its pre-war bestseller, the "105" model, well into the 50s. "The machine was a solid product right into its finest details", states the former operations manager, Dieter Möller. "You could have even packaged water with this machine." Over 1.000 units left the workshops leading up to the German economic miracle (the so-called "Wirtschaftswunder" of the 50s). Benhil actively reacted to the unexpectedly quick market growth and developed a new machine with a precise filling principle and an efficient bottom-folding capability called the "Junior 11". "The machine was capable of packaging 30 units of butter per minute", says Möller. "That was simply sensational!"
Expansion following the Economic Miracle
In 1956, the founding generation’s heirs assumed the company's expansive role and pushed it forward. The company offer was enhanced with the addition of packaging machines for processed cheese, ice cream, lard and broth paste while the European sales became intensified - sometimes by extraordinary means. For example, the field staff installed a machine on a small truck and trudged it around to market places in France. Dieter Möller was also there and recalls how, "Once we arrived in a village and then opened up a butter churn, placed the butter into the screw trough and then let the Junior 11 do its thing. The French were absolutely ecstatic. They had never seen anything like this before."
The company also concentrated on establishing a business field that had yet to exist at that point: Butter portions. Up to that point in time, butter could only be sold in 125g and 250g packages. Thanks to a special permit from the government, Benhil went about developing a 25g package for the ‘Nordmolkerei' in Munich, Germany, and correspondingly modified a machine that had been built for soup paste cubes.
In the 60s, Benhil continued to expand its international business. The American market now stood in the focus, but there was one major problem that needed to be dealt with: The consistence of US butter differed from that of German products, since it was frothed up with air. In addition, Americans packaged it in bars. The Benhil constructors worked for a whole year to design a machine for this new application field. The result was a seven meter long model called "8360" in which the butter was sent directly from the finisher into the machine where it was formed into bars, packaged and then placed into cartons. For the first time ever, all of these production steps took place in one single machine.
Longer Durability
Two new challenges came up in the 70s and remain current to this very day: Reducing packaging costs by making use of less material and ensuring longer durability. The general development away from owner-run retail establishments to supermarket chains demanded a steady level of quality over a long period of time. This also meant that the parchment paper that had been used to package butter to date was replaced by laminated aluminum foil. The foil was extremely thin and offered both optimal light protection as well as water vapor impermeability.
The following decade took the machine-building industry into the computer age. Freely programmable controlling and automatic CIP (clean-in-place) cleansing became standard features for the machine generations that followed. On the international political stage, the cards were reshuffled when globalization took flight. Benhil went about intensifying its sales in Scandinavia, the Middle and Far East and North African countries. In Germany, the company also took over the filling and wrapping machine area of the SIG company in 1998 and with that, the paper-saving tip-folding process, which allows you to save up to 30 percent in packaging material.
Innovations coming at a three Year Pace
At the beginning of the new millennium, the company introduced the first of its multipack series machines to the market. This was the "Multipack 5000", a single-cell filling and wrapping machine in the medium power range capable of producing format-flexible packages from 50 to 500g in size. In 2008, this machine was followed by the "Multipack 8000", a fully automatic filling and wrapping machine designed to fill and package pasty type products, and its sibling, the "Multipack 8600" stick filling and wrapping machine. Both machines are, to this very day, the worldwide most efficient double-cell filling and wrapping machines in their category. The "Multipack 8000" features an output of up to 250 packages per minute while the "Multipack 8600" features an output of up to 300 sticks per minute. Three years later, the "Multipack 3000" rounded out the machine program. As a single-cell wrapping machine in a lower power range, the machine achieves a format flexibility of 50 to 1000g with an output of up to 100 packages per minute.
Taking all this into account, many things have changed in the package machinery industry since the "machine that wraps squared prismatic items” was first developed in 1912. Now 100 years later, the garage-based company from the northern side of Düsseldorf, Germany, has come to establish itself as a global leader for filling and wrapping machines. Since 2007, the company has been a member of the OYSTAR Group featuring twelve locations around the world. "This has further promoted our international growth," says current CEO Bernd Large-Venhaus. "Almost every person on the planet makes daily use of a product that we’ve packaged. These products include dairy products, coffee, toothpaste, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals."
About OYSTAR Benhil
With its 130 staff, OYSTAR Benhil GmbH is a globally operating company in the OYSTAR Group. The company specializes in manufacturing both filling and wrapping machines as well as cup filling and sealing machines for liquid and pasty products. The company’s portfolio focuses on applications for the dairy and food industry.
About OYSTAR Group
OYSTAR – The Packaging Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of packaging machinery, technology and services. OYSTAR has extensive know-how in the key industries of dairy products, food and consumer, as well as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Based in Stutensee near Karlsruhe, Germany, the holding company currently represents 12 manufacturing companies as well as numerous sales and service companies. At present OYSTAR Holding employs a workforce of approximately 2,000 worldwide and generated a total of EUR 404 million in sales in 2011.
Press contact:
Laura Wilms
möller pr
Telefon: +49 (0)89 45 20 79 -99
Email: lw@moeller-pr.de
URL: www.moeller-pr.de
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