Hartmann is the world’s leading manufacturer of moulded-fibre egg packaging, a market-leading manufacturer of fruit packaging in South America and one of the world’s largest manufacturers of technology for the production of moulded-fibre packaging. Founded in 1917, Hartmann is headquartered in Gentofte, Denmark.
Our unique market position and capabilities render Hartmann relatively resilient to economic fluctuations, allowing us to leverage a number of attractive market drivers, including increasing global demand for eggs and fruit, rising environmental awareness and a growing focus on health and nutrition.
In 2020, Mohan Fibre Pvt Ltd, Chandigarh a 43-year-old company with the biggest production facility in India has been acquired by Brodrene Hartmann A/S, a leading specialist in moulded fibre packaging with more than a century of experience and knowledge.
This acquisition establishes a solid platform for Hartmann in the attractive Indian market, which is characterized by a favourable demographic development and increasing egg and fruit production. The combination of population growth and rising urbanization in the coming years forms a solid foundation for the continued development of the retail industry and increasing demand for quality egg packaging in India. In addition, the penetration of moulded-fibre packaging for the protection of fruit is expected to increase as supply chains are professionalized.
Since acquisition in last one year, Hartmann India team was working with their global technical team to establish new 30 egg trays as per Indian Layer farmers & Egg traders need, suitable for long-distance egg transportation, High strength & flexibility for rough handling @ various points, High water repellency or moisture-resistant & best suitable pockets for all sizes of Eggs.
Focus on sustainability, innovation, and customer service
Hartmann’s Indian team co-developed new egg trays for 30 eggs (Medium & Large size). Using an existing new product as a base for development, they made it better suited for the specific needs in India. Within the project, our team also came up with a new raw material recipe. All this was created in close co-operation with a key customer in India and within the Hartmann global team.
India is the #3 market in egg production, and growing YOY with a CAGR of 7%. on. According to the Animal Husbandry Dept of Govt of India, in 2020 the per capita egg consumption in India was 79 units & which is growing by 10% every year. Despite the strong growth, Indian consumption is still relatively low compared to other countries. According to the National Institute of Nutrition recommendation In India per capita egg consumption needs to reach 180 units asap.
Customer Need & Market requirement
When analyzing our offering and listening to our customers we saw that we could improve our egg trays. We set to reach better efficiency on the customer’s graders, less egg breakage during long transportation on uneven roads and suitable for extreme humidity. The HIL team started a new product development project with the aim of creating a better and stronger egg tray for India, taking the new egg tray from Hartmann global as a starting point.
Co-creation with a key customer kicked off
The Hartmann team has an ongoing customer intimacy program, and we invited a key customer to contribute to the egg-tray development. This project was one more way of increasing co-operation, but it also ensured that the new solution would work in real-life production and transportation.
As the machinery used to make the tray Hartmann worldwide is quite different from ours, we could not simply copy and paste. We developed new adapted tooling for our machines and started to work on the recipe too for the new egg tray for the more humid conditions in India.
New raw material recipe developed
The Production & Quality team needed to develop a new recipe for the raw material for another reason as well.
Recycled newspapers, magazines and cardboard are the key components in our fibre recipe. For us, digitalization creates a new challenge: in the future, there will not be as much recycled paper available as our production requires. We thought that this was a good opportunity to test other alternatives. The new material was to be stronger, humidity resisting and available in the future.
The new future-looking raw material recipe has now been developed and implemented.
Real-life tests conducted in transportation and production
When the first new egg trays, HIL Medium & Large produced in India, – We placed the egg trays at the back of the truck, where the load shakes more and where we typically see more broken eggs.
The trucks drove routes that varied from 600 to 1200 kilometres. The new prototype egg tray showed excellent results across the transportation tests: the breakage was 50% less than before.
Quality monitoring, improvement and innovation continues
The whole project took less than a year to complete and roll out.
Our team visit our customers to get regular feedback on the HIL Medium & Large tray.
An important part of the feedback loop is the visits to local Egg Traders, where the sales team checked how the egg trays perform during storage, packaging & transportation.
New Tray Launching
In back to back event on 25th & 27th February 2022, Hartmann India Ltd Launched their New trays “ HIL-Medium” & “ HIL-Large” @ Hotel Golden Tulip, Panchkula, Haryana.
More than 100 Layer Farmers from Barawala & More than 35 Egg traders of the Barwala Egg trader association attended this event.
The event started with a Lighting lamp & Ganesh Vandana, followed by a recorded message from Global CEO Mr Torben Rosenkrantz-Theil who explained who we are & what we are doing globally. At Hartmann, we are committed to making sustainable egg packaging exclusively based on biodegradable moulded fibre that can be recycled or disposed of with a minimal impact on our surroundings. Our definition of sustainability also reaches out to other areas including forest stewardship, the climate, our employees and supplies, and our investors.
After that Mr Ernesto Schonbrod, President for Asia & America shared his views through recorded message only. He said Egg lowest cost available Nutritious product & per capita egg consumption is increasing very fast in Asian counties, especially in India. Therefore the strategy of Hartmann is to become a leader in Moulded fibre packaging for Eggs & Fruit in India. Our priority will be always consistent quality with the best services as per the needs of local customers always respecting the Indian way.
Then Mr Himanshu Mahaur, MD of Hartmann India Ltd talked about the Mission & vision of HIL. Hartmann’s mission is and will be always to find solutions to complex problems of our customers in the most sustainable way thereby helping the environment as well in doing our bit- Customer Focused, Helping the community in the area we are operating in. Our aim is to Safe, Secure Eggs in Sustainable packaging.
Dr Mahendra Deshpande, General Manager-Sales gave a corporate overview of Global Group -Hartmann, Its History, growth & development in last 104 years. He also explained the importance of sustainability & protection of the environment are an integral part of Hartmann’s business model. Hartmann is working closely with our customers to accommodate the demand for sustainable products in the retail industry, Hartmann was the first manufacturer to offer both FSC®-certified and CO2-neutral retail packaging.
Mr Sompal Tanwar & his team gave an overview of Hartmann’s SCM practices, Production process & Stringent quality parameters & customer infield service & support.
Product Launch was done by our Valued customers available on a respective day.
Dr Mahendra & Mr Jaspreet Singh presented & described the new product’s uniqueness & technical specifications. Also had interaction with customers about their queries.
Many customers shared positive feed about consistency in Hartmann Products, Prompt services by the Hartmann Team, Regular availability of Trays which will be continued in future also.
Finally, Mr Jaspreet Singh gave the vote of thanks to all attendees & the event got over after cocktail dinner!