Nefab: Global and sustainable packaging solutions

This year, Nefab celebrates its 70th anniversary. That is 70 years of creating and developing the most cost-effective and sustainable packaging on the market for its customers. Products which are not just designed for our time but also for the future of both their customers and with our planet in mind. Founded in Runemo, Sweden in 1949, Nefab is now the cornerstone for many Benelux companies who want optimal and sustainable packaging.

“Nefab works tirelessly across a wide area of product categories and is developing the next generation lOT technologies ensuring our customers to have the best competitive advantages on the market with the most effective and connected packaging to look after their current and future products,” says Mitesh Chotai, Nefab’s managing director for Benelux.

Packaging design, engineered packaging solutions, product innovation, optimising logistics processes and reverse logistics are just some of the services Nefab offers today.

“Our vision is to become the preferred global partner for sustainable packaging solutions, and we truly are living by this vision by offering a quality local-focused service and leveraging on our global footprint to support our customers’ international flows.”

Global presence

Nefab has operations in more than 30 countries across the globe. The brand is strengthened by the close partnerships they maintain with their clients who are followed as they develop needs for packaging across different markets, such as multinational companies that manufacture high-value, transport-sensitive or theftprone products that require engineered, complete packaging solutions.

In the Benelux alone, Nefab provides packaging solutions for the telecom, aerospace, vehicles, health-tech as well as semicon industries. “We have a very broad product portfolio and a highly experienced engineering team who is able to work with different materials to develop various packaging solutions,” explains Mr. Chotai. The global Nefab team includes 200+ engineers and five ISTA test laboratories, one of which is located in Son, near Eindhoven. “This is one of the most modern and best equipped labs in Benelux and has recently been added to the Amazon network to test Amazon certified packaging. The whole site can also design and supply these packages.” Other Nefab plants in the Netherlands include Voorthuizen, with its production and assembly area, while the Belgian multi- material customised production plant in Ghent is also Nefab’s European hub for general and specialised packaging materials.

Electrical vehicle and sustainability

Nefab is also ahead of the curve when it comes to 2019’s big topic: sustainability. The company was founded in a remote and densely forested area in the north of Sweden, and respect for the environment “has been a key part of our DNA since we started,” says Mr. Chotai. “Nefab works with customers to ensure our products give them the best protection and durability needed while cost effectively reducing customers’ carbon footprint resulting in a better future for all.”

Customer markets are reshaped by the latest sustainability trends, namely the modern EV mobility drive in automative aerospace and home appliance markets. Nefab plays a key role in providing a multitude of new packaging solutions to manufacturers, service providers and rescue operations. From safe workspace solutions like work benches and mobile warehouses, transport and storage containers for critically damaged batteries, as well as logistic services for new, damaged and end-of-life batteries, Nefab has developed global expertise and market coverage with approved and certified packaging solutions. Design solutions aimed at saving money by reducing the amount of material used have been at the core of Nefab’s expertise since the very beginning, although, as Mr. Chotai says: “in the 1960s, the environment didn’t get a lot of focus. Today, however, we know that sustainable packaging solutions and efficient logistic services can mean both lower costs and a greater care for the environment.”

High standards

As a global multinational, Nefab works hard on environmental and also social sustainability. “We have a consistent and ethical code of conduct regardless of the country or region of the world that we operate in,” says Mr. Chotai. “Whether it’s a plant in China, India or Sweden, we consider all our locations to share one Nefab DNA. They might look different, but we make every Nefab site around the world operate to the highest standards. Our code of conduct has been aligned with UN Global Compact & RBA standards for many years. In everything we do, we act honourably and treat one another with respect, while following ethical and legal standards to the utmost level.”

Mr. Chotai is also keen to emphasise Nefab’s solution-focused approach towards the most demanding projects. Issues which are faced not only by the Web: www.nefab.com and www.linkedin.com/company/nefab shipping industry, but also by most of us in our everyday lives: the repeated loss and misplacing of crucial objects. “Take the aerospace industry: when an aircraft lands on a tight schedule, they need to be sure that everything they need to get back airborne is there and ready for them. You cannot risk having the part you need lost in a huge warehouse. At Nefab, we’ve developed a software that allows customers to track and trace the parts they need, live and at any given time; they can see how it looks and where it is so they can locate it in a fast and effective manner, especially when every second counts.”

Nefab’s ownership structure is simple and focused on the future. It is built on the original Nordgren/Pihl family and strengthened by the FAM AB Wallenberg Foundations, who each own a 50 per cent share of the company. The FAM AB Wallenberg foundation distribute more than 180 million euros a year for research and education.

It is the desire to improve packaging solutions that propels Nefab forward, but its solid foundations and firm roots have allowed it to stand its ground for 70 years. Together with its commitment to sustainability and good practice, Nefab is set to continue to grow into a thoroughly modern company with many decades of innovation and global expansion still to come.

Web: www.nefab.com , www.linkedin.com