Packaging company completes renovation of North American headquarters
SOMIC Packaging Inc. has completed the purchase and renovation of its new headquarters. The 48,000-square-foot building at InverPoint Business Park in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota will serve as the company’s assemblage hub for all new North American machines.
SOMIC, based in Germany, began North American operations 10 years ago and moved from the Chicago area to Eagan, Minnesota in 2018.
The company’s solutions for single- and multi-component end-of-line packaging come equipped with tools tailored to customers, from open trays or wraparound cases to multi-component carton or corrugated packs.
Hundreds of its packaging machines are in operation at cheese, dairy, confectionary, meat processing, snack food, pet food and other manufacturing facilities, according to a news release.
“It was a collective group effort to get to this point and complete our moving process last week,” CEO Peter Fox said in the release. “We spent many hours in the past two years, from looking at possible sites and buildings to designing everything inside and examining our needs for the future.”
The new facility includes an expansive manufacturing floor and larger inventory area as well as more than 10,000 square feet of administrative space, with 8,000 additional square feet available on the second floor for future expansion.
“We added quite a bit of natural light, and I’m really impressed with our commissioning hall space, where the assembly and customer Factory Acceptance Tests are performed on all the machines,” Fox said.
A grand opening event is being planned for 2025.
Fox said SOMIC’s new headquarters can accommodate twice as many workers as the company’s current 42 employees. The company is looking to hire 10 additional employees after next month’s PACK EXPO in Chicago, he said.
Many of the new machines assembled in the facility will be the 434 next-generation case packing system. Designed to handle up to 34 cases per minute during a single cycle, format adjustments are 70% faster than previous systems, according to the company.
The 434 model being demonstrated Nov. 3-6 at PACK Expo in Chicago from November 3-6, offers enhancements including new frame construction for improved ergonomics, noise-reducing features and a QuickChange adjustment system for faster format changeovers.
