Fully automatic system to top load both box and cartoning machine designed to handle the packaging of plain and chocolate biscuits products into a variety of packaging format.
(video: CAMA)

CAMA is an international company born in 1981 and based in Garbagnate Monastero, close to Lecco, in the north of Italy. The core business is the engineering and the production of complete secondary packaging systems for food and non-food markets.
Its outstanding packaging knowledge combined with a unique machine range (Packaging Division) and robotic loading units (Robotic Division), represent CAMA capability to propose complete lines starting from the handling of primary packages such as flow-wraps, bags, trays, up to the supply of final carton/corrugated packaging ready for palletising.

The vision: investments for customers and to their specific requirements for complete secondary packaging

The values and the vision that today drive CAMA “are the willing to keep satisfy customer demands and committ to all challenges that our final customers are phasing. For this reason we keep investing every year a good percentage of the turnover in R&D to offer our customers innovative and fully automated solutions” explain Paola Fraschini, Marketing Manager of the international company.

“All Cama machines are industry 4.0 ready and the deployment of digital technologies such as augmented reality and or simulation is a win-win scenario. It allows us to create machines that are more fine tuned to a customer’s specific requirements, but the digital assets used in their creation can then be leveraged by the customer to develop a wide range of training, maintenance and operational tools”.

Today CAMA is able to provide worldwide the best solutions and assistance to customers for complete secondary packaging with six branches (United Kingdom, France, North of Europe, United States of America, Australia and Asia). The turnover has reached 87 millions (€) from UE (40%), USA (20%), America (20%) Asia (10%) and Middle East (10%) with 230 employees.

Turnkey system: complete secondary packaging lines to the international customers

**Paola Fraschini, Marketing Manager. (photo: CAMA)**

“The most interesting solution is for sure our Turnkey system; complete packaging lines for Food and Non Food Industries, across Confectionery, Bakery, Dairy, Coffe and Tea, Ice cream, Pet Food, Personal, Health and Home Care”, continues Paola Fraschini.

The CAMA’s customer assistance produces a strong sense of consulting, partnership and trust on the part of people and customers. The great knowledge of the italian company is very important, infact “another key value is our packaging department which offers more than 30 years of experience in the design and testing of packaging cardboard, in order to achieve the best performances when working with automatic machines. We study the best possible packaging solution in relation to the product characteristics and the end user’s requirements”.

Sustainability, an important brick for the future

The environment is an actual big question that needs smart answers. About this topic CAMA Group has a cradle-to-grave sustainability programme.
“We don’t just look at our machines and how they operate, we look at the bigger picture, which includes everything from our premises to a product’s end of life.

This is also seen in our home, in fact, starting at the very foundations of the company our new HQ in Italy completed by end of 2020 boasts multiple energy-saving aspects, including intelligent lighting systems, advanced HVAC, glare & shading solutions and solar panels on the roof. We also deploy e-mobility solutions, which not only cut down pollution, but also give employees and visitors places to charge electric cars” explain Mrs. Fraschini.

All of Cama’s activities regarding environment, labour practices, fair business practices and sustainable procurement have also been evaluated by EcoVadis, the international platform which comprehensively assesses Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Awarded the Silver Rating, with an overall score of 56 points, Cama’s activities rank far above the average. Indeed, only 11% of all general-purpose machinery manufacturers, evaluated by EcoVadis, reach this score. Within the theme of Sustainable Procurement, Cama is in the top 5% of all the companies ranked.

Cama is certified UNI EN ISO 9001/UNI EN ISO 14001/OHSAS 18001 in the field of automatic packaging machinery and systems and robotics. The certifications, issued by SQS (the Swiss association for Quality and Management Systems), one of the highest reputation certifying boards in the world, cover sales, design and production of packaging machines, after sales and spareparts service, safety and environment. The ISO certifications guarantee Cama’s high quality in the manufacturing process, in the choice of materials, in the internal work organization and in pursuing constant development and improvements, in full respect of environment.

Trends, consumer needs, packaging waste: the future is coming

In your opinion, what are the most interesting trends from now to the next few years?

“One of the most interesting trend we see in food market is for sure the shelf ready packaging demand specially in the dairy market. In addition to consumer-choice and marketing demands – which are dictating packaging sizes, formats, flavour mixes and serving concepts – the industry is facing global pressures, too, in terms of sustainability, especially regarding the use of primary and secondary packaging materials. These demands are placing an even greater emphasis on machine builders to deliver not only the agility required to address multiple consumer and market demands, but also the capabilities to handle paper and mono-material packaging formulations, for easier recycling”

“The industry is being challenged to reduce packaging waste, especially single-use plastics and, as a result, is turning more and more to paper packaging and mono-material packaging, such as cup/label/lid combinations made from 100% PET. The challenge is, that the main players in this sector don’t want multiple fixed-cup-format machines, instead they are demanding end of line (EOL) solutions that deliver the capabilities to handle different shapes of cups and pack clusters, grouped in shelf-ready packaging (SRP). We are dealing with these opportunities as one of our strenght is the extreme agility and flexibility of all our machines”.

“We already have many relevant solutions based around similar primary and secondary packaging concepts and have developed state-of-the-art process and technologies to deal with sensitive products, including yogurts, cheeses and ice cream, wrapped in flow packs, bags, doypacks, FS and FFS cups, which we can then package using sleeves, top- or side-load cartons, wraparound, hinged-lid boxes, RSC, trays and case & display packs”.

Digital marketing drives marketing and sales strategies

What are the marketing and sales support actions you use?

“Our marketing department works very closely with sales department. All marketing projects reflect our corporate sales strategy. As we are moving more and more on a corporate digital manufacturing approach on our machines also our marketing is using more and more digital tool like social channels or online campaigns to gain new leads for instance. The new paradigma now is the Digital marketing 5 years ago we still used to deliver paper invites or paper tickets to events for instance”, Paola Fraschini explained and “the real key for a success of a modern company is reducing the gap between sales and marketing and introduce at best all new modern tools to measure results of sales and marketing actions”.

Seven companies for Packpact: the spirit and the message
Cama Group is part of the network Packpact, a network of seven industry-leading companies in processing and packaging which enables the market to have a unique chance to get in touch with the best manufacturers and find comprehensive, flexible, cutting-edge solutions backed by the assurance of made-in-Italy technological excellence
The common spirit of the network is to represent the Italian excellence in processing and packaging, able to compete in the global market with all the international big player with the main message that when a manufacturer approaches Packpact they will benefit of :
• Unique single partner for all the manufacturing needs;
• Comprehensive range of integrated solutions;
• Unmatched made-in-Italy technology.