In mid October, BIAXPLEN gathered over 100 Clients, managers and experts for a round table talk at Areal Hotel in the Moscow Region to discuss its achievements and most pressing issues.

According to Marat Falyakhov, Executive Director of BIAXPLEN, their primary goals were to unveil new opportunities to further improve the Company’s efficiency in both the domestic and overseas markets and to get partners’ feedback and opinions.

The event saw BIAXPLEN’s direct Clients (processors, printers, distributors, etc.) and end consumers (representing multinational companies). Not only was it the Company's sales and marketing managers who attended the round table talk but also representatives fr om its plants in Novokuybyshevsk, Kursk, Balakhna, Zheleznodorozhny, and Tomsk, i.e. those in charge of production control in terms of economics, quality and tonnage.

Along with the upd ated planning strategy and financial instruments, BIAXPLEN’s managers spoke about the key 2018 results, trends in the BOPP market, new products and technical services, and recent grade developments.

BIAXPLEN round table participants.

Georgy Martirosyan, Chief Marketing Expert at BIAXPLEN, noted that the global BOPP market is expanding by approximately 4% a year. The key market trends today are use of innovative materials, producing lower density and thinner packaging, and recyclable films as well as improving processability and offering customisable materials and packaging.

Petr Mednek, Sales Director, spoke about how BIAXPLEN enhances its focus on clients, in particular, about the annual Client satisfaction survey. Following the most recent survey, BIAXPLEN's managers developed 48 initiatives to improve logistics, quality management, finance and planning, 21 of which have already been implemented.

Besides, one of the crucial issues addressed during the talk was changing the supplies planning system: BIAXPLEN is set to introduce a 10-day planning horizon while earlier it spanned a month. That will make product reservation procedures more convenient and enable the Company to meet additional demand while updating order specifications where necessary.

Another thing pointed out to the Clients was Export Rush, a support programme for those tapping international markets. According to Dmitry Matveev, Head of Marketing at BIAXPLEN, when going global, any producer would face numerous challenges. These may include lack of access to marketing data, insufficient customer base, lack of export infrastructure, high service requirements, and cost competition. BIAXPLEN has offered its Clients a special service se t aimed at boosting export sales. This will help expand the Clients’ businesses and geography, minimise their operating rates, and facilitate their joining the global market of flexible packaging.

BIAXPLEN’s managers spoke about the key 2018 takeaways and trends in the BOPP market.

“It has been our fifth talk already, and now, willing to identify new values and opportunities, we are shifting our focus fr om product quality and seamless supplies, which used to take 80–90% of our time, towards creativity,” commented Marat Falyakhov.

“Clients always are a key asset of a company. The more sophisticated, educated and demanding they are, the higher our level is,” summed up Michael Yanovsky, CEO Advisor at BIAXPLEN. “Realising that this is a site wh ere they can speak out, our Clients have a chance to better see our transparency principle in action. We want all our partners to be satisfied, and they, in turn, want to make sure that we provide them with what they need.”

Participants’ feedback

Alexander Ladan,
CEO and co-owner of Neo-Pak (Novosibirsk):

“It has become a tradition for us to attend such events, because this is how we can catch up with global and domestic trends, and with ongoing market developments. It is also important just to meet our partners and peers and discuss the current market trends with them.

We see BIAXPLEN changing, but if scoring on a 10-point scale, I would give it a 7 as there is still room for improvement. Taking into account today's presentations, we see that the Company does know that and is on the right track to reach a 9 out of 10 in terms of its client relations focus.”

Irina Shevchenko,
Head of Procurement at Ukrplastic (Ukraine):

“Our company monitors all global trends, and we really like it that BIAXPLEN is into them as well. As for me personally, I like seeing the steps the Company is taking to be in line with these trends. And we feel that we are on the same page with BIAXPLEN because our wishes and plans are matching.

We are always listened to here. No doubt, there are rules to follow in life but real orders and real clients sometimes make us deviate from these rules. Being flexible, BIAXPLEN can find solutions, often unconventional ones, which differ from those rules. This is what matters most.”

Nikolay Babkin,
CEO at Tom-Limited (Tomsk):

“It is not my first time here, and I can see evolution of BIAXPLEN across the board, with all the speakers and all the reports. While the first three talks were more of a problem-solving nature, this time everyone has spoken about steps to be made going forward. And it is but normal because the process model and the client focus we were discussing earlier are now very well perceivable. I used to have 20 calls reporting problems a week, but by now their number has reduced to one or two a month, which means the system is effective.”

Alexander Maevsky,
BelMaBgroup, a trader in Belarus:

“Such events are of great value, because some issues are difficult to discuss over the phone or by email. Autumn and winter are not the best seasons for packagers, and we need to plan our actions, take a look at new products to be launched next year, and to form an idea of wh ere we are going in terms of composite films.

SIBUR has been our partner for eight years already. The company is evolving, and its operations are generally getting more comprehensible and transparent. However, from time to time there arise some technical issues worth resolving here with people, not one-on-one, of course, but at the round table with three or four representatives of BIAXPLEN's different structural units.”

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