Europack has gloriously stolen a march over its competitors in this region.

The company is not only an importer of quality consumables and packaging equipment, it is also a manufacturer in its own right, making machines best suited for the packaging needs of Gulf industries.
Taking the business a step ahead, Europack has also moved into the consultancy side. “As a total operator in the packaging sphere, we sell ideas and solutions as well as undertaking project management work,” says commercial manager Allwyn Quadros.
Europack owes its remarkable energy to the dynamism of its founder, Francis Mendonsa, who, having accumulated rich experience across 20 years in the packaging industry in the UAE, decided it was time he set up his own enterprise, which he did in 1999.
From a small office in Dubai’s Mina Bazaar, Mendonsa set about meeting the requirements of the UAE’s growing manufacturing sector and in time graduated to delivering to companies outside the country. Before long, Europack moved to a new office at Al Waleed Building and acquired additional space for its operations in Al Quoz and the Jebel Ali Free Zone. One of the significant developments was the opening of factories in India.
Europack is the largest supplier of shrink and stretch films in the UAE, the shrink films coming from French giant Bollore and the other product from Saudi Arabian manufacturers. Since 1990, the Bollore Group has been developing a range of shrink-wrap packaging films for boxes, books, games, CDs, etc. Ultra-thin and highly resistant, these films help reduce the weight of packaging.
“Bollore has come up with a special perforated film basically for the egg industry. The perforation is done hygienically at the manufacturing stage itself and this keeps away any fungus,” said Quadros, who added that Bollore had also produced an innovative silicon-coated film for the oil industry.
Shrink and stretch films are just two of Europack’s repertoire of consumables, the others including BOPP tapes, PP straps, edge boards, bubble rolls, overwrapping films and PET Straps (replacing the use of Steel Strap)
With the Gulf awash with new manufacturing projects, the demand for packaging machinery has been great, and Europack is capitalising on the market with cost-effective, versatile and useful equipment. It is the channel for a comprehensive range of machines including ones for stretch wrapping, shrink wrapping, sleeve wrapping, strapping, vacuum sealing, flow wrapping and filling as well as the more specialised form, fill and seal machines The filling machines include ones for filling powder and granules.
“We also design machines for our own factory,” says Quadros, discussing the innovative side of Europack’s operations. The company has production facilities in the Indian cities of Thane and Mumbai with one factory set for opening in Nasik in the near future. The facilities specialise in making various kinds of filling machines including some for filling liquid powders and granules and filling by sachets as well as the production of conveyor systems. Now the company plans to develop lines for shrink wrapping, which is not surprising at all what with shrink wrapping increasingly becoming popular for the strength and security it affords.
Interestingly Europack does not sell its Indian machines in India. And that is purely for strategic reasons, says Quadros. “They’re made with international standards and with the international market in mind, mainly the Middle East,” he says.
Quadros beams as he comments that Europack-make filling machines have been well received by the Gulf market and have great potential due to rising demand.
“Previously all the companies here used to import machines for filling mayonnaise and ketchup, for example. We’re doing it in India and these companies have an alternative source, one that provides cost-effective products and a quality meeting or surpassing international standards.
Europack’s India-made machines are developing into a major revenue earner for the company, which many would think is a natural process considering it has cleverly identified the requirements of Gulf industries.
The company is the sole distributor in the UAE for European LadyPack shrink-wrapping machines, which have been developed for 20 kinds of products. An operator friendly control panel that has a 20-page programmable memory controls all automatic LadyPack machines. This enables the machine settings, for various pack dimensions, to be programmed and recalled within seconds without the use of tooling - minimising setting up time.
This range of machinery is ideal for shrink-wrapping stationery, CD’s, cosmetics, videos etc at speeds of 20-60 packs per minute, depending on the product dimensions.
The LadyPack Unica range of fully automatic shrink wrapping machines have been compacted down to take up half the floor space due to its unique design and engineered components.
The LadyPack 60-80S range of fully automatic shrink-wrapping lines consist of infeed conveyor, L sealing system and shrink tunnel. The machines have a sealing capacity ranging from 600 mm x 500 mm to 1100 mm x 900 mm, and a product height of up to 250 mm, as standard. All of the machine parameters can be adjusted without the use of tooling.
Europack is also an agent for Spain’s Rochman S Coop for shrink-wrapping, overwrapping, stretch wrapping and sleeve wrapping machines. Rochman, established in 1958, is a member of the Spanish Mondragon Corporacion Cooperativa (MCC) group.       
Europack has carved a niche for itself in the regional market with companies sending repeated orders. Among the UAE companies for whom it supplied machines are Middle East Lubricants, Total Lubricants and food producer Hassani.
A secret of Eurpack’s remarkable progress is its attention to after-sales service. As Quadros observes: “Service and hard work are the key. Machines anyone can sell, but if you don’t understand their ins and outs you will be at a loss to deal with them at servicing time. If one machine is out of order, it can cause a huge loss for the owner.”
Europack has made considerable gains in the Gulf markets of Oman, Bahrain and Qatar, and is in the process of setting up an office at the Rusayl Industrial Estate in the Muscat region before the end of this year.
The Muscat move was a logical one with Quadros revealing that the company had captured 30 to 32 per cent of the Omani market for consumables including shrink and stretch films.
Progress has been achieved despite what Quadros says are the unscrupulous tactics of some sections of the market in importing consumables in their own brand name without giving consumers a clue as to their source.
“The issue is serious as the same party could be importing products, particularly for the food industry, under its own brand name from a range of manufacturers some of whom could be of dubious standards while all along giving consumers the impression they have come from a reliable source,” he comments.  Quadros contends the practice is absolutely unethical with the consumer being the greatest loser.
Europack is surging ahead with momentum fueled by diverse aspects of its business and the market response to its products and services. The company has acquired a 10,000 sq ft storage space in the Al Quoz industrial area in Dubai along with premises for a showroom, an office and R&D. It has deployed three three-tonne pick-up trucks, of which one is stationed permanently in the Jebel Ali Free Zone area where Europack has its own bonded warehouse and a full-fledged office.
It has come a long way since the day five years ago when Mendonsa set up shop in Mina Bazaar with no warehouse but with a dream and a determination to go far.