Hassia Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH celebrates its 70th anniversary

On the occasion of the company’s 70th anniversary, Hassia Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH in Ranstadt organised an open house for all employees, pensioners and the public on 8 July 2023. The company’s anniversary was to be taken as an opportunity to show the public what it means to package food. In bright sunshine, Thomas Becker, CEO and partner of IMA Hassia, welcomed the numerous visitors to the event, including the mayor of Ranstadt, Mrs. Reichert-Dietzel, Dr. Leder from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Mr. Fink from the VDMA and representatives of the local associations. The daughter of the company founder Karl Klein, Mrs Sabine Schwarzer, was also among the guests.

In the assembly hall, the visitors could see some machines live in action and the employees of the electrical construction and also the mechanical construction had prepared some interesting demonstrations. In the aseptic laboratory, the staff explained the hygiene tests which are carried out before an aseptic machine is delivered to the customer and later on during the SAT at the customer’s site.

During his brief review of the company’s history, Mr. Becker was also able to personally welcome an employee of the first hour: Mr. Bernd Hofmann had started working at Hassia on 16 October 1953. As a memento, Mr Becker presented him with a copy of the booklet ‘Founding Years of Hassia’.

It all began at Hassia in 1953, when the designer Karl Klein decided to found a company for the efficient packaging of consumer goods. The vision of creating product- and consumer-friendly packaging and producing, filling and sealing the packaging mechanically – largely fully automatically – matured into a concrete idea through tireless work.

The steadily increasing demand for tablet packaging led to the rapid growth of the contract packaging business until finally a customer from Leverkusen asked for its own packaging machines and Hassia started to build additional machines in 1955 (tablet packaging machines and machines for sealed pouches) and the foundation stone was laid for the first assembly hall. Many of today’s packagings that are commonly used around the world have their origins in the Ranstadt think tank. The ‘cup with the corner’, the refreshment towel, mustard and ketchup in sachets, the blister for tablets, portion cups for jam, butter, etc., are just a few examples.

Continuous innovations During the past 70 years, the packaging machine industry has been subject to constant change. However, Hassia has always recognised the changing market requirements at an early stage and has always set trends. As a result, the company’s customers have always been supplied with innovative machines which always have one thing in common: top quality. The portion pack in the 4-side sealed pouch has experienced a true triumph worldwide. It is almost unimaginable how many different products can be found on the market in this easy to handle packaging. Whether toothpaste, shampoo, mustard, ketchup, sauces or even pharmaceutical products such as stomach gel, ointments – the sealed pouch (stick pack or sachet) has established itself worldwide as a practical and cost-effective packaging.

Aseptic packaging as a competitive advantage

In the 1980s, Hassia delivered the first aseptic thermoforming machine for aseptic cup packaging. Hassia implements the aseptic process with packaging disinfection using the natural medium of steam, completely without chemicals. This ecologically safe system is even used for packaging baby food in cups. The aseptic process makes it possible to guarantee long shelf live for products outside the cold chain.

International growth The success story continued in the following years. In 1974, IWKA AG bought the family company and in 2007, the OYSTAR Group took over the company. In 2015, the OYSTAR Group was taken over by the Italian IMA S.p.A., one of the world’s largest packaging machine manufacturers, and now Hassia is part of the IMA DAIRY & FOOD Group. This has boosted international growth even further: Today, Hassia machines are in use in more than 60 countries around the world. At the end of 2018, Thomas Becker acquired shares in the IMA DAIRY & FOOD Group and serves as CEO and shareholder for the group. Meanwhile, the world-renowned high-performance filling and closing machines for pre-made cups and bottles of the Hamba brand are also part of Hassia’s machine portfolio and are built in Ranstad.