BEHN + BATES and HAVER & BOECKER OHG: Together for innovative and comprehensive packaging solutions in the food industry

Every new year marks the beginning of new opportunities. In this spirit, BEHN + BATES, the manufacturer of high-quality bag filling machines for the food industry, is pleased to announce that starting from January 1, 2024, along with all its employees, it will be fully integrated into the parent company HAVER & BOECKER OHG.

For 29 years, BEHN + BATES has been a legally independent subsidiary within the HAVER & BOECKER organization. Similar to artisans who transform a regular vehicle into a high-performance machine, BEHN + BATES' mission has been and continues to be tuning HAVER & BOECKER's packaging machines for use in the food sector. Both companies have always been closely linked but used systems and tools with different settings and orientations. This resulted in different approaches in handling orders and made it challenging to transfer the BEHN + BATES food approach to the entire HAVER & BOECKER portfolio. Under the motto "Bringing together what belongs together," the planned merger aims to consolidate forces and resources, strengthen capacities, and increase efficiency in customer service, effective from January 1, 2024. The headquarters of the BEHN + BATES brand will remain in Münster.

What does this integration mean for BEHN + BATES customers? Firstly, the merger will ensure that BEHN + BATES can handle the entire machinery portfolio even faster and more comprehensively. For this purpose, a new department called Hygienic Design will be established for this purpose. This department will scrutinize all technologies from HAVER & BOECKER and modify them to be beneficially applicable in the food industry, offering customers more innovative technology alternatives for food applications. Secondly, savings resulting from the reduction of redundant process steps will soon be invested in a new technical center, entirely geared towards hygienic requirements. This means customers will receive significantly more intensive consultations in the area of Hygienic Design. Moreover, standardizing the processes and systems used will strengthen the (re)action forces in customer communication, leading to shorter lead times for information and goods.

BEHN + BATES and HAVER & BOECKER OHG consider this integration as a natural progression that allows combining the strengths of both companies and enhancing customer-oriented focus. The fusion will help eliminate interfaces, directly impacting the harmonization of technologies, products, workflows, and organizations, leading to smoother order processing. The focus is on redirecting the time previously spent on internal processes towards direct customer contact.

"The proven focus on the food sector and expertise will not only remain unchanged but will be even more intensely tailored to customer needs in the future," guarantees Florian Festge, Managing Director of HAVER & BOECKER OHG. "We look forward to this new phase for the BEHN + BATES brand, emerging stronger from this integration."