From luxury commodity to convenience product

Today's consumer is often spoiled when it comes to the multitude of spices and spice mixtures: The market is offering gourmets a large selection of compositions, which make even home-cooked meals more exciting. Manufacturers of spice mixtures are providing plenty of ideas. Those who would like to refine their culinary talents have plenty of possibilities at their fingertips. Such lavish multitude of spice mixtures make us easily forget that spices were rather scarce in the ancient world and in medieval times. They frequently were the cause for warlike conflicts, because pepper, cinnamon or ginger had to be imported by boat from India, China or Indonesia. Those who could afford to buy spices were considered to be rich individuals.

Today spices have become a convenience product, which, thanks to mass production, is affordable for everyone who wants to refine their cooking. There are elaborate spice mixtures that change flavor again and again. The Austrian company Kotànyi with headquarters in Wolkersdorf near Vienna is busy creating and producing such delicacies. The history of this company is relatively short - when compared to the history of spices, which began in 3000 B.C

However, Kotànyi is part of the traditional Austrian companies. The company was founded in Hungary approx. 110 years ago at the time of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy. The company later moved to Vienna. The capacities at that location quickly became insufficient due to the high demand, which is why Kotànyi moved to Wolkersdorf in 1989, where the company employs 200 workers. An additional 100 employees are working in other locations mainly in distribution. The spice mixtures with their green-red logo are well known to the local producers, because Kotànyi's market share in the home pasture is 90 percent. But it seems that many Eastern-European consumers have acquired a taste for it as well: This spice maker is barely able to meet the demand in the Czech Republic, Poland and other former Eastern bloc states. "We are delivering now as far as Russia and the Ukraine," says Christian Petronczki, technical director in Wolkersdorf, describing the company's rapid expansion. He announced that Kotànyi will have to add a third shift to the current two shifts as of April due to the high order backlog. The company had earned 70 million EURO in the past year - and this figure is on the rise.

The product diversity demands very flexible labeling

Austria's regulations for labeling spices are very strict. Individual packages must at least show the article's name, the expiration date, the filling weight, the batch code and an EAN barcode. In addition , the hygienic standards, which are typical for foodstuffs, must be complied with. "The multitude of our products and the small portions of 5 to 10 g require a frequent change of the labeling and a high capacity," says engineer Petronczki, explaining the problem. Kotànyi produces everything the spice market has to offer: classic spices as for instance various pepper kinds as well as leafy spices and spice mixtures that are constantly changing. There are a total of 300 to 400 different products.

5000 series by MARKEM convinces Kotànyi

The cooperation between Kotànyi and the labeling specialist MARKEM began approximately four years ago. In those days the spice manufacturer Kotànyi had problems with the labeling of his secondary packaging, that is, the covering box. "We had to apply an easily legible EAN code, and it was not easy to find a suitable printing system which does not only warrant a high-contrast label, but which in addition is also sufficiently flexible to follow our constant coding changes fast enough," says Petronczki remembering those days. Kotànyi tried the box coder of the 5000 series by MARKEM, which had just been launched on the market - despite concerns within the company, because not all of Kotànyi's technicians were pro inkjet system. The technical manager reports that "we simultaneously ran the labeling machine Cimjet by MARKEM for safety reasons in order to immediately catch any failures of the 5000 series, should they occur."

Their concerns proved unwarranted. The quality of the MARKEM 5000 inscription left nothing to be desired: no illegible and/or smeared codes, no problems with any quick labeling change. Since MARKEM 5000 uses Touch-Dry-Hot Wax, the ink dries immediately after it is printed on the carton.

The printed image does not diffuse the packaging material, which is why the barcodes can be scanned 100% of the time. A printhead with 256 separately controlled jets applies the thermoplastic paint without touching the surface.

Kotànyi is using two 5000 models by MARKEM now. The spice manufacturer purchased a coder as a backup for safety reasons, which can be started immediately from a stand-by operation level, should this become necessary. "This case has not occurred yet, however," says Petronczki, praising the reliability of the devices.

20 SmartDate by MARKEM in use

Thanks to the great experiences, Kotànyi purchased more than just three models of the 5000 series by MARKEM. "By now, we are also labeling a large amount of our primary packaging using MARKEM devices", states Kotànyi's technical director. A total of 20 SmartDate 2 and 3 are used on the lines. The intermittently working vertical bag forming, filling and sealing machines pack 40 to 50 pieces in relatively slow cycles . The technical director explains that as a consequence of their investment, the company was able to save some money due to the economization of foils. However, the main reason for changing over to SmartDate was its flexibility. Traditional hot embossing systems could no longer meet the quickly changing coding regulations in Austria. The data can now be changed and configured at any time via a central PC. Petronczki announces that "soon, we will apply country-specific texts". "And then it's going to get really complicated , because we're supplying more than 15 different countries with spices".

Local service by MARKEM is "highly competent"

In addition, Kotànyi is very happy with MARKEM's repair service. Petronczki reports that all requested spare parts are delivered in less than 24 hours. Customer Kotànyi explains that the labeling specialist, who is headquartered in the lower Rhine city of Krefeld, has "very competent" contact partners in Austria (Freistadt branch). Contrary to other machine manufacturers, it is therefore not necessary to contact the parent company for any technical questions.

Currently only one person is responsible for the conversion of the print orders if a product is changed on the line. Petronczki points out that the adjustment time to the new job was rather short. A central database is managing the varying print texts. Kotànyi's in-house software was combined with MARKEM's software CimControl. The order number constitutes the key to the correct text. The correct coding is selected when inputting this identification. Kotànyi's technical director praises the operator convenience of SmartDate, stating that operators only have to enter the correct order number, whereupon the remainder of the process is automatically completed. The technician is also paying tribute to the system's reliability and capacity. "We only had one or two repair jobs in the past years", he says, "which we were able to handle on our own after a consultation on the telephone with the MARKEM expert in the Austrian branch."

Petronczki also considers the training MARKEM offers as part of its "uptime" program for the customer's employees as very helpful. He explains the company's objective: "We'd like to be independent". The manufacturer's instructions familiarize the employees with the new system and reduce the error rate. "This is a good thing he summarizes".

Expansion with MARKEM

The technical director is certain that Kotànyi will continue to put its money on MARKEM during the emerging expansion. "Some of us are already realizing the limitations of our capacity in Wolkersdorf", notes Petronczki. Only 10,760 - 13,000 square feet (1,000 to 1,200 square meters) are available for expansion, which is why the Austrian spice specialist will initially increase the intensity of his production: There will be three shifts as of April. "The output increase will not fail because of the reliability of the MARKEM coders." This is what Petronczki already knows ahead of time. The technical director is acknowledging the excellent cooperation: "And should we continue to expand at some time, MARKEM will certainly remain our product labeling partner".