Labels and Packaging Innovation Asia • 2 2020 -
12
MPS Systems -
The Performance Supplier PIA sat down with Atze Bosma, CEO of MPS Systems, to discuss the company’s ‘Beyond the Machine’ concept and what this means to the label industry. By Sha Jumari. Headquartered in The Netherlands, MPS Systems is a manufacturer of flexo, offset and hybrid printing presses. The company’s printing presses are used in the fast growing label and flexible packaging industries in food and beverage, household products and pharmaceuticals. At the helm of MPS Systems is CEO Atze Bosma. He joined the company in 2019 and has led MPS for nearly two years. When asked on his experience at MPS thus far, Bosma said: “When you start a new career ambition like this, you never know what to expect. When I stepped in at MPS, I was really welcomed and felt I could add value because of my experiences from other industries, such as global responsibility for all packaging lines at Heineken. So it was a good match, I would say. There's lots of ambition and innovation, and it's a great company to work for.” MPS is a Dutch company, a trait Bosma takes pride in as this sets the company
apart from competitors: “Besides having very robust, high quality and highly automated machines, compared to our competitors, we are a small company, kind of a family business. We have a very lean overhead so we are more flexible, and can easily adapt.” This flexibility can attribute to MPS’ quick adaptability to its customers when COVID-19 first hit. MPS continued operating at full production with 24hour service to support all business demands for its customers. Redefining Customer Experience in COVID-19 Times Like many industries all over the world, the print and packaging industry has been affected by the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the label industry, however, there has been an uptick. Many of MPS’ customers continued running high production levels as demands remained high for the sectors served.
“Actually, it's a strange thing, because we were prepared for the worse from the alarming messages earlier on in the year, but the reverse is taking place,” said Bosma. “In fact, we’re experiencing very strong business with a good turnover. But the fact is that most of our clients deliver to retail, food- and pharma-related companies. Global demand for these products heavily increased from the beginning of the pandemic, upwards of 30%. We continue to work closely with our customers to make sure their capacity is sufficient.” As physical and social distancing became the new normal in the advent of COVID- 19, industry events are being put on the backburner and traveling to meet clients has become almost impossible. The industry has experienced a major transformation in which the bulk of customer contact is by conference calls and remote meetings. While it has its limitations, Bosma highlighted one key benefit.
