Schubert Expands North American Pet Food Business

With the increasing demand for automation and flexibility in pet food packaging, Schubert North America, a subsidiary of the German Schubert Group, is successfully expanding its pet food customer base in Canada and the U.S.

Shubert is a market leader in top loading packaging machines, specializing in versatile and flexible packaging machinery that enables manufacturers of any type of pet food to use a single source system to seamlessly package single-packs, multi-packs, different types of flavors, and various packaging shapes and sizes.

Recently the pet food industry has seen significant growth in North America. During the pandemic, families and individuals increasingly opted for pet adoption or purchases, with cats and dogs being the most popular choices. A new dog owner usually becomes a pet food customer for 10 years on average. As a natural result, pet food manufacturers recorded a higher demand in pet food sales, having to double or even triple their production, requiring process optimization and automation.

While labor costs continue to rise on the one hand, on the other hand pet food buyers have developed more diverse preferences in store location (in-store shopping vs. e-commerce), product packaging, product quality, product size and product variety. With its longstanding experience and highly flexible packaging technology, Schubert enables pet food manufacturers to seamlessly package single-packs, multi-packs, various products, and packaging formats all on one single source solution system. Schubert’s open machine architecture, quick-change overs as well as the company’s North American training and service centers are additional factors pet food manufacturers consider when buying machinery.

Schubert presents competence at Global Pet Food Forum in Kansas City

During its debut at the global pet food forum in Kansas City, Schubert North America presented its portfolio to a broad audience of visitors from not only Canada, the US and Mexico, but also other countries from across the globe. The global pet food forum was an ideal platform to exchange best practices with other suppliers from the pet food industry. The highlight of the show was reconnecting with customers as well as acquiring new prospects.

“The petfood forum is an ideal show allowing us to get in front of the decision makers within the pet food industry” explains Dieter Moessner, Global Key Account Manager at Gerhard Schubert GmbH. “The Petfood Forum offers a mix of conferences and exhibitions that deliver the opportunity to gather the latest research and innovative information on pet nutrition, pet food market growth, pet food processing and packaging.”

“The Petfood Forum provides a great opportunity for pet food professionals to network and do business with the industry’s leading manufacturers and suppliers. As a leader in end-of-line multipack flexibility, Schubert supplies solutions for the packaging challenges pet food manufacturers are facing today and looking for in the future,” describes Armin Klotz, Sales Account Manager at Schubert North America.

How pet food mix packs and multi packs fit with sustainability

Dieter Moessner, Global Key Account Manager at Gerhard Schubert GmbH, gave a keynote speech at the European Petfood Forum at end of May 2022. He explained how pet food can be reconciled with sustainability goals, and highlighted challenges the pet food industry is facing in terms of supply chains and changing consumer behaviour. He also presented practical case studies that are already providing more sustainability in the industry. In addition to Schubert’s expertise in top loading packaging machines, the company also offers consulting solutions and guidance for manufacturers switching to sustainable packaging materials. Not only packaging materials but also efficiency of Schubert’s machine systems as well as efficiency of its own production processes are optimized along with the company’s recently launched sustainability strategy “MISSION BLUE.”

Expansion of the regional headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina

North America, one of Schubert’s most important export and growth markets is developing at a rate that is well above average. A considerable increase in turnover has been achieved in 2020 and 2021 despite the challenging conditions that resulted from COVID-19. Among other things, Schubert’s success in North America is attributed to the outstanding local training and service program and the high level of advisory expertise at the Schubert location in Charlotte, North Carolina. In view of being able to serve customers even better in the future, Schubert North America successfully completed a property acquisition in Charlotte in April 2022.

“We are further expanding our location for our North American customers,” says Hartmut Siegel. “In addition to our new offices, an assembly hall will be built at the new location. Final assembly and commissioning for TLM packaging machines will be performed there. There will be a workshop for service activities as well. In the past, customers often had to fly to Schubert’s global headquarters in Crailsheim, Germany, to accept new machine projects. In the future, acceptance of selected machines will take place directly on site in Charlotte, NC.”