Excelling in a changing marketplace

The industry is changing at lightning speed. Companies will have to move with it to secure their competitive position. After all, to stand still is to go backwards. Family business ATD Machinery from Hapert successfully overcomes new challenges. Koen te Lintelo and Ruud Hendrikx explain how they distinguish themselves from their competitors. 

ATD Machinery has been developing and building machines for more efficient production environments for customers worldwide for 55 years. These include machines for producing, packaging, labeling and labeling luxury products. However, the company's origins go back more than a century, with its early days centered on the production of innovative cigar machines. Lintelo, CEO since 2020 begins, "What distinguishes cigar manufacturing and packaging? They are fragile luxury goods with a wide variety of sizes and shapes that must be produced and packaged with the utmost care. We market the competencies that we have in house and that we have acquired through our history. Today we produce flexible machines that can handle many types and sizes on a single line. This has added value particularly in the luxury segment, where we increase the customer experience with packaging. For our customers, speed is often secondary to flexibility and tolerances." Hendrikx, responsible for sales, marketing and new business hooks up: "The experience of the packaging increases the value of the product. We therefore like to think along with customers about their packaging. That is our strength."

Lasting relationships

In addition to providing the desired flexibility, establishing lasting relationships is part of ATD Machinery's formula for success. Not only with customers, but also with suppliers. Te Lintelo: "With Lenze we have a long-standing relationship that we have further intensified in recent years. For example, we have chosen a new drive technology for our machines. We switched from mechanical drive technology to servos and now apply a lot of robotics. We made this switch step by step, with a lot of support from Lenze."

Ambitious project

An extensive project was recently delivered, involving a large number of production machines with the new drive on them. "The delivery time to be realized was quite ambitious. Lenze - or rather the people at Lenze stuck their necks out to make that
realize. They helped us select the right components and made sure the necessary software was ready on time.
The machines are now in the field and we are very pleased with how things are going," says Hendrikx.

Two sides

The cooperation works both ways. Hendrikx: "Our machines run on the Lenze platform. We also give feedback to Lenze about our wishes and findings. Few manufacturers in the packaging industry are still working with such innovative software, so we really do play a pioneering role here." Te Lintelo adds: "Topics also come up during the discussions that we have not yet thought of. That in turn helps us to put real USPs in new markets.''

Intersection

Te Lintelo concludes, "We are at a crossroads, so to speak. We have a loyal customer base, but we are looking with confidence to a future in which there is also room for new customers in order to achieve growth. You have to offer just a little bit more than someone else - and we are getting smarter as a result. The challenges that the world has given us in recent years have enabled us to improve ourselves and market even smarter and more sustainable solutions for flexible packaging. But we don't do this alone. Collaborations with partners like Lenze are very important for this."