ProSweets Cologne 2025 live: Sacmi leverages automation for high-speed confectionery wrapping

Current packaging trends are “driven by automation, high speed, and flexibility,” according to Rocco Furone, head of primary and secondary packaging at Sacmi. At the ongoing ProSweets trade show in Cologne, Germany (February 2–5), Furone tells us how the company aims to meet these demands with its latest wrapping machine launch.

“Nowadays, our customers may run many different SKUs on the same equipment,” points out the spokesperson for the Italian supplier of machines and complete plants for the packaging industry.

At the trade show, Sacmi has introduced its H-SM wrapping machine designed for chocolate hollow figures, featuring a string applicator with a capacity of 160 parts-per-minute. The machine has already been sold to the French chocolate manufacturer Rohan.

“We are at this show every year because confectionery is a part of our focus and a key industry for Sacmi. This year, we are presenting a new wrapping machine. The machine wraps pralines with aluminum foil and is equipped with a kind of rock that can be anchored in the Christmas tree as decoration,” Furone tells Packaging Insights.

“Every year, we focus on new packaging machinery, wrapping machines, and processing and molding. The other section of our group mainly focuses on producing, molding, or shaping the chocolate.”

Eco-friendly packaging demands

According to Furone, Sacmi’s environmental sustainability efforts are mainly focused on energy consumption and packaging material.

Sacmi’s H-SM wrapping machine wraps chocolate figures for placement as decoration.“Regarding the energy consumption of our equipment, we consider how our machines and systems can require less energy to run at our customer’s side. This depends on the technology of the equipment,” he says. 

“There is a lot of attention paid to the packaging material and how it impacts the environment, so the use of eco-friendly packaging material is important.” 

He argues that, “by definition, a carton is definitely considered green.” For this reason, he says that placing the wrapped products into a carton or on carton display boards for presentation or shipping purposes is seen as an eco-conscious packaging choice.

“On top of that, there is a lot of attention paid to paper-based films,” he continues.

“We see more companies presenting their products in eco-friendly or more ‘eco-acceptable’ types of materials. This can be paper, but it can also be what we call a monolayer film. Even if monolayers are plastic, they can be easily recyclable as part of the waste collection management process.”

Furone says that Sacmi’s key aim for the trade show is to “meet our customers, understand their needs, their work requirements, and to deliver successful results in the months after the show.”