Celebrating success Robino & Galandrino

CELEBRATING SUCCESS

This year, Robino & Galandrino is celebrating its first 50 years as a leading manufacturer of automatic machines for the secondary sealing of bottles. The company continues to invest in technology to innovate and diversify its offer. Daniele Garavaglia reports.

Every day, millions of bottles of champagne, whisky or beer are opened throughout the world. Many of those bottles have been capped and sealed using machines manufactured by Robino & Galandrino, a company established 50 years ago in Canelli (Asti), in the land of ‘spumante’, the traditional Italian sparkling wine. After half a century, and five years of extraordinary success, Robino & Galandrino is looking to the future with great confidence, under the guidance of president Andrea Tacchella and CEO Lorenzo Rosselli.

Meeting market demands

According to sales manager Fabrizio Panza: “We specialise in the production of machines for the secondary sealing of any kinds of bottles and products. The solutions we offer can meet the most demanding market needs. We supply our products to all major wine producing companies in the world, as well as to many cider makers, breweries, distilleries, oil mills and vinegar manufacturers.

“It is no coincidence that 80 per cent of our production is sold abroad, mainly in France where we have a 95 per cent market share. Our products are used for some of the most famous champagne brands, from Dom Perignon to Krug, Veuve Cliquot and Crystal. Other important markets are the UK, where our customers include Ballantines or Glen Grant, and the US, both for spirits and beer. We also enjoy a consolidated position in Russia, whilst in the past few years the strategic importance of the Chinese market has also grown.” The company’s global success has resulted in the doubling of production and revenue in the last five years.

When asked what might account for this tremendous increase, Mr Panza explains: “We have grown with the market, always focusing on designing and producing client-oriented equipment. Customisation is our working philosophy. We have found that the bigger the client is, the higher their customisation requirement will be. This is why the market acknowledges that two features strongly distinguish us from our competitors: leadership in system technology, resulting from the hard work of our R&D department; and the structural soundness of our machines, designed for high-output industrial use.”

Wide range of automatic machines

Robino & Galandrino’s core products are its Rekord automatic rotary wirehooding machines, for the automatic dispensing and closing of metal wirehoods onto champagne bottles (production speeds from 4000 b/h to 25,000 b/h). These machines include automatic pick-up systems and wirehood dispensers, bottle infeed screws, multiple-head rotary carousels for wirehood closing, and electronic controls for starting or stopping the machine based on bottle flow at the entry/exit of the line. All machine functions are controlled by a central control panel through a PLC and an inverter. Rekord T, a monobloc automatic rotary version,

is available for corking and wirehooding champagne bottles when space issues have to be considered.

As for capsulating machines, Robino & Galandrino’s range includes as many as seven different automatic machines: from automatic distribution and rolling monoblocs to the revolutionary Poker system for the application of any types of capsules.

Partnership with world leading companies

“For electronic and control systems, we rely on leading vendors in the markets to which we export, since they are already aware of the issues local users are facing. To mention just a few, we work with Schneider Telemecanique for France, Siemens for Germany and Allen-Bradley for the USA. SMC and Festo are our vendors for pneumatic components. Omron, Schneider, Danfoss, and Allen-Bradley supply us with inverters, while

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for geared motors and drive systems we rely on Bonfiglioli and Sew-Eurodrive,” explains Mr Panza.

Other technical collaborations are developing within the company. At the end of 2012, Robino & Galandrino acquired Omar (now renamed Omar R&G) – a competitor specialising in automatic machines. “Besides producing low/medium output bottling machines, Omar R&G has expanded our range with the addition of washing-drying machines and bottle heating tunnels.”

Another fast-growing area for the company is packaging. Its TS Packaging Division handles the design and manufacturing of complete automatic systems for filling pouches, such as flexible bags for packaging liquid (juices, soups, detergents, etc.) and dry products (powders, drugs, seeds, toiletries, etc.).

Three directions for growth

Robino & Galandrino’s success is in part based on taking advantage of the synergies within each of its divisions, and this will continue to shape the group’s development. As such, Mr Panza tells us: “We are planning our growth in three directions. Our business is our priority – i.e. the development of new models of capsuling and sealing machines and the expansion into new markets. Then comes production and commercial integration with Omar R&G to offer our customers and prospects a wider range of equipment. And last but not least, focusing systematically on pouches – a market that is currently seeing double-digit growth.” n