Samuel Grant were absolutely delighted to be appointed as the hosts for May’s PackSynergy meeting. The three day event saw us welcome a group of 32 delegates from PackSynergy member organisations across Europe.
Having decided to base the delegates in York, on the first day we took them up into the Yorkshire Dales to try their hand at some Clay Pigeon Shooting, courtesy of EJ Churchill on the Swinton Estate. It’s fair to say that the results were mixed! The tuition was fun, and gave our group the chance to chat to each other informally, as well as created some healthy competition.
Following this we were shipped to The Staveley Arms in North Stainley, where we treated the group to the finest Yorkshire ales, and hefty portions of fish and chips and pies. The winners of the event were announced, and trophies presented to PackSynergy’s CEO, Thomas Baur, and his team which included Andrew Grant. Interestingly Andrew Grant had chosen who would be in which team, and knew the history of Thomas Baur’s hobbies – which included….no guessing required! The losing team were presented with rubber ducks.
The following morning, the PackSynergy brigade travelled to Leeds to have a full introduction to Samuel Grant Packaging, which included a series of presentations by our team, an introduction to Samson Nano, a demonstration of Samson Nano and the Slingshot, and a delicious buffet in our warehouse 2, together with some PackSynergy branded buns which the team were very impressed with!
On return to York we settled in for an afternoon of meetings and presentations, including a very interesting introduction from Lester Barratt who offered insight into the push by Sealed Air customers into ever greater automation, demand for their auto-bagging (Autobag) and auto-boxing ( i-Pack) machines being at an all-time high. He also shared his biggest challenge which is scaling up quickly to meet this demand.
Our final showcase was a gala dinner at the National Railway Museum in York, which was delicious, despite the smell of coal and oil! A great evening was had by all which was rounded off by a hefty bar bill at the Principal, no doubt resulting in a sore head or two the following morning. In addition to the PackSynergy delegates, we were delighted to welcome our new Clingfoil colleagues, and more representatives from the Samuel Grant team.
Although it won’t be our turn again for a while, as the PackSynergy meetings rotate around the partners, we were so pleased all went to plan, and look forward to meeting the group again at FachPack in September. PackSynergy provides an amazing opportunity for like minded packaging firms to swap best practice and industry knowledge in a non-competitive and collaborative environment, and Samuel Grant have never looked back from becoming the UK arm of the organisation.