Polished performance Romtec Austria

POLISHED PERFORMANCE

Romtec Austria is a technology leader in the development and production of car-care products. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at a company that continues to see strong growth and is setting new standards in the manufacture of innovative, high quality car-care products and contract filling services.

Romtec Austria Srl was founded in Romania in 1994 and began its life as wholesaler that traded food products from the former USSR countries. However, a few years later the company made the strategic decision to become involved in the sale of automotive parts for Romanian vehicles. This subsequently led to Romtec becoming the biggest auto-parts distributor in the region. In 2004 the company moved into the manufacture of specialised car-care liquids for items such as windscreen washers, de-icers and engine coolants, which proved to be a major turning point in the company’s fortunes.

Yet another significant milestone was reached in 2006 when Romtec Austria obtained a licence from DuPont to create Europe’s first car-care products with the unique ‘Teflon® surface protector’. This co-branding arrangement resulted in a major increase in sales for Romtec, particularly in the Romanian market where its filling lines for stand-up bags could be manufactured at rates of up to 2000 pcs per hour.

Today the company’s flagship products in the car-care market include ‘JertXpert® with Teflon’ (liquids for washing and de-icing windscreens), ‘CleanXpert with Teflon’ (a high performance upholstery cleaner), ‘GlycoXpert (a concentrated and diluted anti-freeze & coolant), and AquaXpert (de-ionised water). Most of Romtec Austria’s carcare liquids are produced in stand-up bags, which offer an attractive, ecological and economical way to package and display its products.

Expanding product range

A programme of continuous investment in fully automated production lines and warehousing facilities has made it possible for Romtec Austria to expand its horizons. Currently the company manufactures more than 100 different products, however its core products remain its car-care range and in particular windscreen washers and de-icers.

A growth market for Romtec Austria today is the aerosol contract filling sector and the company’s state-of-the-art aerosol lines are able to fill tin plate or aluminium cans of any capacity between 50 and 1000ml. These modern filling lines are provided with a separate gassing area outside of the main working area for the use of environmentally friendly compressed or liquefied gasses such as LPG, DME and special inert gases.

With its modern filling lines Romtec Austria is able to manufacture a wide range of items from cleaning products, insect repellents and

automotive products, to air fresheners, deodorants, disinfectants and fire extinguishers. The company’s filling lines are very flexible and vary in their capabilities, depending upon the individual product’s characteristics, its propellant, internal pressure and type of valve and sprayer used.

For a medium-sized can of around 300–405ml Romtec can manufacture up to 50 pieces per minute or 3000 pieces per hour. In addition, the company can provide its customers with valuable aerosol research, formulations, product development and filling expertise, all in full compliance with EU legislation concerning any type of household or technical product.

Romtec Austria’s managing director Radu Oghina said, “Looking to the future we plan to establish another division as contract fillers. This would mean a major investment in a new ethanol plant, or alternatively we could target the adhesives market sector offering packed cartridges and mono and bio-components via the acquisition of new blending tanks and specialised packaging machinery. Both these options offer notable advantages; however our next important step will depend to some extent on our access to EU grants as part of our overall investment strategy. In the meantime, we will continue with our organic expansion programme as well as with our plans to develop our business in neighbouring countries such as Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria and Moldavia.”

Smarter packaging

Romtec Austria SrI owns and operates one of the world’s largest fully automated lines for filling liquids into stand-up pouches with spouts – all of which are produced with the latest robotic packaging, palletising and over-wrapping equipment. The company is also able to fill and pack liquids in stand-up bags with capacities that range from 1–5 litres. Productivity can vary according to the bag’s capacity; for example 5-litre bags can be produced at a rate of over 12 million pieces per year which is equal to over 60 million litres of filled product.

Romtec already provides ‘own label’ contract filling services for some of the biggest names in the retail sector, including Carrefour, Lidl and Cora. Romtec’s stand-up bags are ideal for liquids such as detergents, shampoos, anti-freeze, screen-wash and motor oils.

Stand-up bags provide smart packaging alternatives that offer ecologically friendly options and low consumption of raw materials. In addition, they offer the benefits of high barrier packaging, portability and economical storage as well as eye catching display options. n

For further information concerning Romtec Austria’s innovative products and contract filling services visit: www.romtec-austria.ro