Press release Europress

Every day huge amounts of cardboard cartons need to be handled, especially at super markets and shopping centers. A traditional waste management approach is to use a container machine that compacts the cartons together so they take as little space as possible. In northern Europe, Europress is the market leader in such container systems.

"Our business idea is that we help our customers to avoid transporting air," says Timo Huhtala, Head of Development at Europress. The solution is to compact the waste to a minimum. Only when a container is completely filled with hard-pressed packaging waste is it time to transport it.

Europress has its head office in Finland with sales and service offices in Russia, Sweden and Norway. The company also exports to Denmark. Europress has existed for over 30 years.

The new machines that will be launched at the end of 2010 have modern M2M technology built into them. The system has been developed in collaboration with among others Maingate, specialist at business development by using M2M technology.

When a container nears becoming full a signal is transmitted and forwarded to a transporter. The transporter can then empty the container at exactly the right time, which means unnecessary journeys are avoided to half empty containers. Over-full containers can also be avoided. All this is positive from an environmental perspective.

"Another benefit is that we can handle many smaller service actions without sending out a technician," says Timo Huhtala.

Such service actions are carried out because the machines are being remotely steered with M2M technology. For customers this represents a distinct increase in availability with fewer and shorter interruptions.

Cardboard packaging is the most common type of waste that machines from Europress handle. Another type of waste is burnable material, above all plastics. Even compostable bio waste is handled, such as food waste from restaurants, for instance.

The biggest customers for Europress are shopping centers, although even several municipalities using containers rank as clients. The estimated lifespan of a container is around ten years.

The solution is interesting from Maingate's perspective because it demonstrates that the company's services do not have any geographic limitation.

"Maingate today is a global player and customer products are connected around the entire globe. Naturally it is of great value for our customers to be able to monitor and protect their products regardless of where they are in the world without having to be there physically," says Patrick Isacson, Senior VP International Markets.

"It makes existing processes more efficient and at the same time creates new income opportunities. This enables easier geographic expansion that does not necessitate having a heavy service organization in each country. Plus, the more efficient processes result in less environmental impact, which is an obvious benefit."

About Europress

Europress and its subsidiary is the leading Nordic company in waste management sector. The business encompasses everything from product development to service and consulting. The group has over 100 employees and a head office located in Vanda in southern Finland, where a factory is also sited. www.europress.se