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April
28
MAKSIMA HAS PREPARED NEW AREAS FOR A QUALITATIVE LEAP IN DEVELOPMENT
A project co-financed by EU investments encouraged UAB Maksima to start a new development phase. This included the construction of new production and warehousing buildings, and the acquisition of more efficient digital production equipment.
The company has been granted EUR 1.577 million to implement the project ‘Implementation and Development of Production Digitisation Technologies in UAB Maksima’ under the agreement with the Innovation Agency* (formerly the Lithuanian Business Support Agency [LBSA]). The total value of the project exceeds EUR 4.5 million.
‘The new production building was necessary for us to install new digital production equipment, which was purchased with partial EU funding. There was no space for it in the existing production building. And we have been experiencing a shortage of warehouse space for at least a couple of years now, so the need for warehouse space has increased even more with the expansion of production capacity’, says Gintaras Kaštaunas, Director of Logistics of UAB Maksima.
According to Kaštaunas, the purchased digital equipment for the production, decoration and visual control of plastic packaging is several steps more advanced and efficient than the previous equipment.
‘While we had unforeseen challenges during the implementation of the project, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, rising raw material prices or the ongoing war in Ukraine, we are confident that the new production equipment will help increase productivity, and the increased production capacity will help expand markets and sales volumes, and increase the competitiveness of the company’, says Kaštaunas, looking to the future.
A three-decade journey up
The company, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, produces 100% recyclable, thin-walled plastic packaging of various capacities (from 80 ml to 2000 ml) with airtight lids made of high-quality polypropylene. The packaging is intended for the packaging of food and non-food products.
‘We certified our products nine years ago – we still maintain the highest level of BRCGS certification for our packaging materials, thus assuring the consumer that we are doing our utmost to provide safe, clean, high-quality and recyclable packaging’, says Kaštaunas.
The number of employees has increased from 15 at the beginning of operations to 142 now, and the turnover has risen from EUR 250,000 to EUR 15.7 million in 2021.
The company exports over 70% of its production. Starting from the markets of Latvia and other neighbouring countries, the company later turned towards Western Europe. Today, it exports to many European countries; the most distant countries reached by the company’s products are Israel, Australia and Singapore.
Those who stand still are overtaken by those who move forward
‘Companies that have implemented digitisation projects feel much stronger in the market today than their competitors, who are not in a hurry to automate production and adopt robotics technologies’, says Agnė Vaitkūnienė, Director of Investment Management Service and Acting Director of the Innovation Agency.
She notes that EU investment makes it much easier for businesses to modernise and tackle both labour shortages and high labour costs, to reduce production costs and make their products more competitive on the market, to broaden their product range and to meet consumer expectations.
Therefore, the management of UAB Maksima intends to pursue EU investments in the future as well, provided that appropriate measures are available to the company with a significant intensity of support.
*The Innovation Agency was established on the basis of the Lithuanian Business Support Agency (LBSA) and the Agency Versli Lietuva, and by consolidating the functions of innovation activities performed by the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (Mokslo, Inovacijų ir Technologijų Agentūra – MITA).
The company has been granted EUR 1.577 million to implement the project ‘Implementation and Development of Production Digitisation Technologies in UAB Maksima’ under the agreement with the Innovation Agency* (formerly the Lithuanian Business Support Agency [LBSA]). The total value of the project exceeds EUR 4.5 million.
‘The new production building was necessary for us to install new digital production equipment, which was purchased with partial EU funding. There was no space for it in the existing production building. And we have been experiencing a shortage of warehouse space for at least a couple of years now, so the need for warehouse space has increased even more with the expansion of production capacity’, says Gintaras Kaštaunas, Director of Logistics of UAB Maksima.
According to Kaštaunas, the purchased digital equipment for the production, decoration and visual control of plastic packaging is several steps more advanced and efficient than the previous equipment.
‘While we had unforeseen challenges during the implementation of the project, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, rising raw material prices or the ongoing war in Ukraine, we are confident that the new production equipment will help increase productivity, and the increased production capacity will help expand markets and sales volumes, and increase the competitiveness of the company’, says Kaštaunas, looking to the future.
A three-decade journey up
The company, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, produces 100% recyclable, thin-walled plastic packaging of various capacities (from 80 ml to 2000 ml) with airtight lids made of high-quality polypropylene. The packaging is intended for the packaging of food and non-food products.
‘We certified our products nine years ago – we still maintain the highest level of BRCGS certification for our packaging materials, thus assuring the consumer that we are doing our utmost to provide safe, clean, high-quality and recyclable packaging’, says Kaštaunas.
The number of employees has increased from 15 at the beginning of operations to 142 now, and the turnover has risen from EUR 250,000 to EUR 15.7 million in 2021.
The company exports over 70% of its production. Starting from the markets of Latvia and other neighbouring countries, the company later turned towards Western Europe. Today, it exports to many European countries; the most distant countries reached by the company’s products are Israel, Australia and Singapore.
Those who stand still are overtaken by those who move forward
‘Companies that have implemented digitisation projects feel much stronger in the market today than their competitors, who are not in a hurry to automate production and adopt robotics technologies’, says Agnė Vaitkūnienė, Director of Investment Management Service and Acting Director of the Innovation Agency.
She notes that EU investment makes it much easier for businesses to modernise and tackle both labour shortages and high labour costs, to reduce production costs and make their products more competitive on the market, to broaden their product range and to meet consumer expectations.
Therefore, the management of UAB Maksima intends to pursue EU investments in the future as well, provided that appropriate measures are available to the company with a significant intensity of support.
*The Innovation Agency was established on the basis of the Lithuanian Business Support Agency (LBSA) and the Agency Versli Lietuva, and by consolidating the functions of innovation activities performed by the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology (Mokslo, Inovacijų ir Technologijų Agentūra – MITA).
