Bucking the trend

Over the years, bag closing equipment company Buckle Packaging has managed to buck more than one economic downturn, and the COVID-19 pandemic has been no exception. If anything, the business has come out stronger than before, taking on new employees and growing the business in times when many companies globally have had to close their doors permanently.

Managing director Anthony Mason of Buckle Packaging puts this down to his strategy of building client bonds and maintaining high stock holdings. “Buckle Packaging has managed to cement stronger relationships with our clients over the past five years. This has been due to customer service and extensive stock holding, especially during the pandemic. We have managed to maintain the service that our customers are accustomed to, while steadily growing the business,” maintains Mason.

The company’s beginnings go back to 1979 when they first opened for trading under the leadership of Anthony’s father, Alan Mason. The business has always focused on supplying the best quality packaging equipment, and today it has become Africa’s largest supplier of industrial bag stitching machines and heat sealing systems. The equipment comes from leading suppliers Fischbein-Saxon. Buckle Packaging also focuses on providing customers with technical maintenance and after-sales service and keeping a division of fully stocked spares.

Buckle Packaging keeps up with new trends and makes sure that its customers have the best that modern research and technology can offer. “Fischbein-Saxon continues to develop state of the art packaging equipment,” explains Mason. “On the bag stitching machinery, we have recently launched the Fischbein 100-2 Double Needle bag stitching machine. The machine allows for the bag to be double stitched across the top in one action. This is required by certain industries, mainly within the food sector.”

Planning ahead averted the consequences of the global shipping crisis and keeping the company’s profile strong through targeted marketing and a pro-active sales team have been key to Anthony Mason’s efforts of maintaining Buckle Packaging’s position as a top supplier of bag closing equipment. “We keep the correct decision-makers in the market abreast of what we have to offer. We have a passion for keeping ourselves ahead as the leaders in bag closing technology.”