BluePrint Automation

BluePrint Automation was founded in 1980 with the purpose of providing automatic case packers for flexible bags. Since then, the company says, it has grown into a multinational packaging automation business with full-service manufacturing facilities in Virginia and the Netherlands. Today, the company supplies fully integrated turnkey systems for applications that involve the loading of flexible bags and hard-to-handle packages into secondary containers such as cases, trays, cartons, crates and masterbags. According to John French, director of sales, the company does 95 percent of its business in the food industry. It is a competitive, growing market, he explains. "About seven years ago, there were three major players - now there are close to 15," French says. We've been involved for a long time. We're also the largest. We focus on flexible packages - almost anything that's in a bag." When BluePrint begins working with a customer - a large food company, for instance - it first looks at the production line to see how It can apply technology there to improve speed, reduce labor, increase profits or improve the overall quality of the product as it goes out the door to a store, French explains. The constant quest for exciting packaging often leaves BluePrint Automation with the dilemma of how to get products to their destination without damage. "Displayability is a major factor for customers because everyone wants to do something different to catch the consumer's interest," French says. "Everyone also wants to do things faster and faster in production," he adds. "They want good displayability, but they also want containers that are both inexpensive and easy to display. That's where most of our headaches come from and where most of our innovations are leading." One customer came to BluePrint with an idea to save money by reusing the cases it uses to ship products. As French explains, the company developed a case and a machine to handle reusable cases, which was the first in the industry. "It wasn't market driven," French emphasizes.