Apostolos Anastasiadis, Global Textiles Sales and Segment Director
SUCCESS AT THE CORE Sonoco-Alcore, a part of the globally recognised Sonoco Group, supplies tube and core products and related services to clients across a number of markets. This article focuses in on one of its biggest end use sectors, Textiles, an area in which is has seen impressive growth thanks to its unique and innovative solutions. Victoria Hattersley talks to Apostolos Anastasiadis, Global Textiles Sales and Segment Director, to find out more about the activities of this division.
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elgium-headquartered Sonoco-Alcore is part of the Sonoco Group, a global provider of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging and supply chain services. SonocoAlcore itself serves many sectors, including paper, film, man-made fibres and construction. Its annual sales total some $4.9 billion with approximately 19,900 employees working in 335 operations across 33 countries. Mr Anastasiadis begins by explaining how the Textiles arm of Sonoco-Alcore, the subject of this article, fits into the overall group structure: “The textiles business makes up a major part of SonocoAlcore’s activities. Altogether, Sonoco-Alcore operates 25 tube and core plants and five paperboard mills throughout Europe. Most of these plants will produce a mixture of different cores for our various end use sectors so there is not a single dedicated location for textiles, as such. Having said that, in Belgium there is a 90 per cent dedicated line for the Carpet yarn market but this is more the exception than the norm. I myself am based in Dueren, Germany, where one of SonocoAlcore’s largest textiles capabilities are located.”
208 Industry Europe
This division produces core solutions mainly for man-made fibre production. It offers a variety of cores to manufacturers of polyester yarn, polyamide yarn, aramid yarn, carbon yarn and viscose yarn. Its clients include some of the most well-known names in this field, includes the major Global players in man made fibre production.
Three unique products Sonoco-Alcore is well known as a pioneer in new product development for man-made fibre manufacturers, offering solutions to help them maximise productivity and increase flexibility – all on a just-intime basis. According to Mr Anastasiadis, “We want to be the acknowledged leader in high-quality, innovative, value-creating packaging solutions that “Satisfy the Customer” He goes on to explain that the Textiles division offers three particularly innovative product lines in which it has been investing continuously. The first of these is PrinTex, a production process that has been designed to increase manufacturing flexibility and meet the growing demand for just-in-time delivery.
