Q&A: Stefano Cavallari of GIMA TT

Tobacco Asia had the chance to catch up with Stefano Cavallari, general manager of GIMA TT. Here he shares his perspective on the industry and future possibilities.

Tobacco Asia: GIMA TT began as a startup which grew over the past 10 years into the company it is today. Could you tell us more about the idea behind the startup? What influenced it, and how was the journey?

Cavallari: I like to say that GIMA TT was born flexible...everything began in 2009 with a few brave people, including myself, who believed in the idea of building a new concept of machine for the tobacco industry.

At that time the market for tobacco packaging was evolving in the direction of several new special packets which did not require big production volumes but needed the possibility of being launched quickly and without huge investments.

Thanks to our long-term experience in the tobacco industry, a market of a few big suppliers on the machinery side, with thousands of lines delivered and 50 years of history each, we believed that a niche for flexible machines able to changeover quickly with a reasonable investment existed and we took the chance of developing a platform to compete in that niche, as a division of GIMA.

Meanwhile, GIMA was acquired by IMA Group and thanks to the big shoulders of our mother company, which helped us in obtaining the financial strength required by the multinationals of the tobacco industry, the tobacco project started growing. The first cigarette packing line was delivered in 2012 and in early 2013 we became an independent company named Gima TT.

In the following years, GIMA TT became a preferred supplier for the tobacco multinationals as well as independent players of the tobacco industry for innovative projects in conventional cigarettes and leading supplier for next-generation products [NGP] This brought our company to be listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in 2017.

It was a nice quick ride since 2009 and I think this is just the beginning of the history of our company.

Tobacco Asia: One of GIMA TT’s key strengths is in its focus on electronic machines and the flexibility they offer. What has been the industry response and how do you think this might evolve?

Cavallari: I have been working in the tobacco market for over 40 years and thus I have a lot of stories to tell. This industry was focused for many years on high productivity with very few packet formats. The technology evolved for decades in the direction of having machines running higher and higher speed but producing for their entire lifetime the same packet.

Then from the early-2000s, we started seeing packets different from squared ones coming to the market, first with little variation on the original ones, like round corner and bevel edge, and then very different and fancy.

Our idea of developing a fully electronic packaging line to achieve the maximum flexibility came from the need of the market of running on the same machine different packet styles. This flexibility was appreciated by our customers since it gives them the freedom of using our line to launch new products, always keeping the possibility to change it over to a different packet style. Just to give you an idea, we had a machine in Europe delivered in 2012 which changed format already eight times since then.

In the coming years I think this trend will keep going together with all the new next NGP coming on the market, which require special packaging to incorporate the different elements present in the pack [blisters, flow-packs, booklets, etc.]. We see more projects coming for heat-not-burn and vaping than conventional cigarettes and thanks to the technology available within IMA Group for assembly, filling, and packaging, GIMA TT is the leading player for those applications.

Tobacco Asia: GIMA TT’s machines are designed to be easy to move, change, and update. Could you give us an example, describing how your machines work to achieve this?

Cavallari: From the beginning, we focused our attention on a single platform, able to run with conventional and NGP products. From 2009 we developed the Flex-A packer, which comes with its flexible stamper, wrapper, and cartoner. That was the line which we launched first on the market.

The line is fully electronic and all together uses over 100 brushless motors. As you can imagine, the current level of reliability has been reached with years of testing and software validation using technical solutions that we patented, giving us a significant competitive advantage on our competition for this technology.

After over 100 Flex-A lines were installed and based on the experience gained on our first platform, we realized that there was the possibility of updating some areas of the line in order to improve the stability, increase the efficiency, and running at higher speed. This brought us to a new upgraded version of the Flex-A platform, which came to the market in 2017 and become the new standard platform for GIMA TT at a speed of over 500 packets per minute. Today several lines have been sold already in the new version and we expect many more to come soon!

Flexibility is still the key for us: the line is capable to perform a complete changeover of all three the dimensions of the packet in less than five shifts, while the change of the packet height only can be done in one shift. Moreover, the number of packet that the same machine is able to produce is countless: double bundle, sealed bundle, hermetic seal, double blank, any kind of cigarette length and diameter, including heat-not-burn sticks, and pretty much any geometry of packet that you see on the market today.

Together with the packer, the rest of the line has been upgraded as well. As we always say, we are flexible from the packet to the display carton, so we can easily change the cigarette collation inside the bundle, the packet dimensions, and shape, but also the collation of packets in the carton following our clients’ requirements.

I also would like to underline that small footprint, easy handling, and a fast installation time are granted by the simplicity of the line as well as a friendly maintenance and a drastic reduction of the spare inventory, which are all very important objectives for our customers when they plan an investment.

Tobacco Asia: The industry has seen the introduction of NGP over the past few years, and it only looks to be growing. How is GIMA TT answering the industry demands of this new segment?

Cavallari: The tobacco market in the last few years has changed a lot and it will keep doing that. I see every day new RRP and NGP products coming on the market and from the research on the tobacco industry, it looks like these new products will be smoothly taking more and more market share to the conventional cigarettes in the coming years. And it is on these products that most of our clients are focusing their attention and investments.

When you handle an NGP product you can find inside the packet a variety of different things: electronic devices, cartomizers in blisters or flow-packs, pods, booklets, etc., and GIMA TT, thanks to technology available within IMA Group, is capable to provide turn-key solutions to manage all these different components supplying complete lines composed by machines all manufactured by IMA companies. Just to give you a few examples: the assembly technology can be supplied by GIMA Automation, powder filling by IMA Active [solid dose solutions], liquid filling by IMA Life [aseptic processing and filling], and blistering by IMA Safe and packaging by us at GIMA TT.

We cover a wide range of complexity and speed, from the 50 products a minute of our EC-Pilot, 300ppm of our rotary assembly and filling machine, and up to 1.000ppm and over thanks to our ultra high-speed platform.

I would like to say a few words on the newly born EC-Pilot: this is a highly flexible platform capable of running different cartridge/pod sizes and able to dose on the same machine with high precision for any kind of liquid: e-liquid, nicotine salt, oil, etc.

It can be equipped with semi and fully automatic stations and it’s a good option as a laboratory machine since it can operate at speeds identical to those required for high-volume production, thus transferring de-risked validated technology directly to high-speed lines.

Considering that we see more and more small players in the industry looking for technology able to help them assemble and fill high-quality pods/cartridges but without the need of big production volumes, the EC-Pilot is an ideal solution being able to run up to 100ppm with the flexibility of producing on the same machine a huge variety of different products.

Tobacco Asia: With the TPD2 and other packaging regulations coming into effect around the world – sometimes contradicting each other and leading to confusion and almost impossible situations for manufacturers to adhere to – how can GIMA TT help provide solutions to manufacturers to address this?

Cavallari: The recent introduction of the TPD2 regulation, as well as plain packaging and shell & slide in some countries, generated confusion and some issues in the tobacco world as you said, which led to the launch of new packaging style that are already on the market or that will come in the next couple of years.

I can say that these new regulations have been, in a certain point of view, an opportunity for GIMA TT thanks to the flexibility of our platform and the countless number of packets and different geometries that we can handle. And in case the TPD2 regulation evolves and changes in the future, our machines can easily evolve with it and tomorrow handle a packet totally different from the one has been designed for.

In general, we see the tobacco market for conventional products heading to lower volumes per SKU and to a multitude of different packet styles, brands, and flavors. This is again a field where GIMA TT can help its customers since our platform can grant good productivity but also a quick response to the new requests coming from the market, being easy to be brand changed and handled/adjusted by clients’ technicians and operators.