Ear Flap has been manufacturing packaging machinery, especially automatic and semi-automatic pallet wrappers, for more than 20 years. With a presence in more than 50 countries, at Hispack it will present its new automatic forming and packing system, the BPP150, which it has been working on for the last year and which it has developed thanks to an R&D&I centre that is a pioneer in end-of-line machinery projects.
Hispack 2022 will be one of the major international events for the packaging sector in Europe, reaffirming its position as a platform for bringing together the entire packaging value chain. Some of the companies that have confirmed their attendance, aware of the importance of this edition after the period marked by the pandemic, are going to present their most awaited novelties. Ear Flap is one of them. With its sights set on resuming direct contact with its customers and suppliers, at its Barcelona facilities the company has developed an evolution of one of its most popular pieces of equipment and has designed a new box forming system.
Known as the BPP150, this is a monobloc installation that forms boxes, inserts the contents into the packaging and closes the boxes all in one. In this way, Ear Flap aims to go one step further, offering its customers a system that saves space, saves costs and ensures high-quality packaging.
BPP150 and BPP150 detail
Innovation and digitalisation at the centre
Gerard Márquez is the founder of Ear Flap and continues to lead the company as CEO. Since its beginnings, Márquez has been very clear that innovation and technological evolution are a key driver to remain competitive and improve the quality of the equipment and services offered to its customers. As a result of this innovative spirit, the company has its own R&D&I centre where it identifies and develops new projects.
For the company’s chief executive, digitalisation is another aspect that is inextricably linked to the ability to innovate. In this sense, Márquez assures that “it is key to improving processes, improving management, costs and production in the most optimised way possible with the resources best suited to the needs at all times”. “Digitalisation is vital and will be one of the factors that will mark the survival of a company in the future”, concludes the CEO.
Another of the company’s hallmarks is its high capacity to offer customised solutions. The company has three families of packaging machinery: semi-automatic or automatic B1 box formers for outputs of 8 to 12 boxes per minute; semi-automatic or automatic box sealers for one or more formats and different types of closing; and, finally, semi-automatic or automatic pallet load wrappers with turntable, arm or ring. Márquez emphasises the importance of the degree of personalisation: “Customers demand a lot of flexibility in the lines, with changes of format or product adapted to shorter and more varied productions, and this ability to adapt is increasingly important when it comes to meeting the needs of our customers”. The manager sums it up in one concept: working and offering products on demand.
Gerard Márquez, CEO of Ear Flap
With eyes on the American continent
At the end of 2021, the company undertook a project to expand its facilities at its Barcelona headquarters and the new spaces dedicated to the production and storage of semi-automatic packaging and wrapping systems were put into operation. The new facilities, which add 5,000 square metres to the existing ones, consolidate the Barcelona warehouse as a production hub.
Ear Flap’s expansion process goes beyond its Barcelona plant. In Spain, they have recently opened a branch in Madrid and together with the subsidiaries in France and Mexico, the company seeks with these openings to offer a closer and more personalised service to local customers in the countries where it is present. In addition, this year and next year, the company expects to successfully complete the establishment of subsidiaries in Chile, Peru and Argentina, as well as an assembly plant in Brazil. They also want to strengthen their presence in the United States by completing the structuring of current sales through a North American subsidiary.
Gerard Márquez is proud of his team, which he considers “very motivated and cohesive”. However, his confidence in the company, in the people who make up the company and in the service they offer does not make him forget some of the challenges he considers crucial for the sector of companies that design and manufacture packaging and end-of-line solutions. In this sense, the spokesman states that “it is not easy to balance the economic cost with the environmental and future cost”. “We have the challenge of balancing eco-sustainability with our day-to-day business and continue to be efficient and cost-effective by offering recycled packaging solutions,” adds Márquez, for whom e-commerce also plays a very important role in this regard, presenting important challenges in terms of packaging and transport from a sustainable point of view and with the lowest possible environmental impact.
A curious name with a raison d’être
Ear Flap. Why call a company Ear Flap? Is it an appropriate name for a machinery company? Does it generate closeness and trust with customers?
The reason for this name goes back to the very beginning of the company, when they started to design the balers and thought of a name to differentiate them from the rest of the machinery. And how to differentiate them in a visual and at the same time original way?
The team thought of doing this through a very obvious feature: the most visible part of the balers is the column, which can be square, triangular or rectangular, with sharp or rounded edges, but there are already many machines with these shapes on the market. Then came the idea of manufacturing this type of machine with a different profile, and curiously, while looking for a name, a sheet of paper was used to cover half of the image and surprisingly, it looked like the profile of Mickey Mouse with his ears. Ears led to ear flaps and an Ear to Ear Flap association was made.
After more than 20 years of Ear Flap history, the ear flaps are still the anecdotal reminder of the brand’s beginnings.
Ear Flap facilities
Cristina Benavides, Hispack contributor
