The aim of the collaboration is to leverage holistic supply chain solutions and provide supply chain participants with valid data.

Due to increasing regulatory requirements and consumer demands, transparent supply networks are essential. These developments are expected to accelerate, at the latest starting on January 1, 2023, when Germany’s new Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) enters into force. Internationally, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the resulting internationally recognized standards also highlight the need for transparency in global supply networks. All existing and new processes supporting greater transparency require cooperation and a high degree of data integrity.

In an effort to address regulatory and individual company challenges and to offer corresponding solutions, GS1 Germany, together with its subsidiary F-Trace, will work closely with the certification organizations GLOBALG.A.P. and International Featured Standard (IFS). The aim of the strategic cooperation is to ensure transparency along entire supply chains and thus to efficiently fulfill the legislative requirements in the area of Environmental Social Governance (ESG).

Thomas Fell, Lead GS1 Germany, is convinced: “For the multitude of challenges regarding supply chain transparency, collaborative approaches and globally valid standards are the key. This cooperation brings us a big step closer to our goal of achieving the highest level of data quality and data integrity for our community.”

Stephan Tromp, Managing Director of IFS, adds: “Collaboration is essential for transparent supply chains. It is critical in meeting the growing demands of consumers and politics in the area of ESG. Together with F-Trace, GLOBALG.A.P. and GS1 Germany, we want to offer viable one-stop solutions for optimal supply chain management.”

To this end, the cooperation partners combine, among other things, established standards from the consumer goods industry and GS1 in the community platform “ftrace transparency”. This enables them to provide consistently valid data for all participants in their complex supply networks. Especially since GLOBALG.A.P. and IFS have already certified over 250,000 companies worldwide. Within the framework of the cooperation, from now on – by means of internationally recognized standards – the certified market participants can be optimally linked with each other.

Kristian Möller, Managing Director of GLOBALG.A.P., says: “We welcome F-Trace’s initiative to offer this highly needed transparency platform. Now we can recommend all our global certificate holders the early opportunity to connect and share their ESG compliance on a community driven IT infrastructure that is truly governed by the sector itself.”

Mark Zeller, Lead F-Trace, summarizes: “Together with the know-how of GLOBALG.A.P., GS1 Germany and IFS, we are able to check all data fed into ftrace transparency as well as certificates used for their authenticity and correctness. In addition, we remain open to further social and ecological minimum standards that are brought to us from the community.”

The cooperation enables transparency data to be used in near real time as part of a standardized and decentralized approach. In this way, F-Trace, GLOBALG.A.P., GS1 Germany and IFS meet all supply chain participants’ and market requirements – regardless of industry, company size and IT maturity.

The KHS Group and Ferrum AG are intensifying their longstanding cooperation. Pending approval from antitrust authorities, KHS GmbH will be acquiring a stake in Ferrum Packaging AG. The aim is to optimally bundle the competencies of both machine-engineering companies to form a common system portfolio in the interest of providing integrated customer systems. At the same time, customers will also benefit in the future from well thought-out, one stop-shop services.

The KHS Group and Ferrum AG have been working together extremely successfully in the can segment for years. Dortmund full-service provider KHS values most of all its Swiss partner’s innovative machine technology and its expertise based on many years of experience, emphasizes Martin Resch, CFO in charge of purchasing at KHS. “Ferrum AG is the worldwide well-known manufacturer of can seamers. Combined with our future-oriented solutions in the field of filling and packaging technology, we form an effective union that is valued highly in the market.”

The two engineering companies are now intensifying their cooperation even further. Ferrum Packaging AG was founded as a subsidiary of Ferrum AG and incorporates Ferrum’s entire worldwide can seaming business. KHS will be acquiring minority ownership in Ferrum. At the same time, Ferrum Packaging Inc., the US subsidiary of Ferrum Packaging AG, will be taking over KHS’ can seaming business together with its employees and will be integrating it into the joint offer.

Intelligently combined system solutions

The aim of the merger is to develop and globally market joint solutions. To date, the KHS Group has offered tried and tested Ferrum can seamers only as accessory components for its canning lines. Effective immediately, work in close cooperation will begin on developing even more efficient systems including a filler-seamer block. “Based on skilled future planning of technical components, block solutions are to be designed to be as integrative as possible and do away with redundant functions,” says Dr. Siegmar Stang, Executive Vice President Wet Area at KHS.

Combined filler-seamers designed for the maximum capacity class are planned with clear benefits for the overall process, as Oliver Bühler, CTO of Ferrum Packaging AG, explains. “We don’t want to merely present one solution; we want to develop a comprehensive system portfolio that meets the needs of every customer while offering clear customer benefits.” Among other things, the two partners have set themselves as targets for their new developments a lower TCO¹ through shorter changeover times and more rapid sanitizing phases. In addition, the hygienic environment of the systems is to be further optimized.

Comprehensive one-stop-shop services

The intensified cooperation will also bring about extensive customer benefits in the area of customer service. In the future, all services for combined systems from KHS and Ferrum will be offered from a single source. “This will not only reduce the effort for our customers, they will also benefit from shorter machine wait and downtimes,” explains Dr. Beat Bühlmann, President of the Board of Directors at Ferrum.

The planned services include joint overhauls of the systems and integration of the KHS remote maintenance system ReDiS². Coordinating the supply of spare parts will also result in improvements in discontinuation management to ensure continued operation of the machines and thus the availability of systems.

¹ TCO = Total Cost of Ownership
² ReDiS = Remote Diagnostic Service

The cooperation agreement aims for a long term cooperation in the area of safety, quality and authenticity of fruit juices

A cooperation agreement between Arab Beverages Association (ABA) and Sure-Global-Fair (SFG), represented by Mr. Al Harthi, Chairman of the Arab Beverages Association and Mrs. Alexandra Heinermann, General Manager of SGF International respectively, was signed between opening two sessions to finalize the proposed long-term partnership in the area of safety and quality assurance, as well as in protection of the positive image of fruit juices and related products.

The cooperation agreement was signed within the frame of the ninth edition of the Arab Beverages Conference (ABCE 2019) which began October 27th, 2019, in Dubai, UAE, under the theme ‘Challenging the Future!’ as senior industry experts from around the region meet to explore ways to move the sector forward in the years ahead. The Arab non-alcoholic beverage industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the Middle East region and has witnessed rapid development in the past three decades to become extremely competitive with its counterpart industries in different parts of the world.

The co-operation will support the fair competition regarding fruit juices, nectars, fruit containing drinks and products, intended for use in the Arab countries´ domestic market (local productions and imports). It includes mutual supporting membership, the inclusion products intended for the Arab market in its International Raw Material Assurance (IRMA) audit and testing services, in order to assist the Arab beverage sector and supporting and consulting on international standards.

SGF and ABA look forward to a fruitful cooperation for the benefit of the fruit juice sector in the Middle East.