Styria, Austria

The Ölmühle Fandler is an Austrian family company that has stood for the highest quality, cold-pressed, 100% single-origin vegetable oils from the first pressing since 1926. With its impressive variety of varieties – from organic safflower oil to organic plum kernel oil – the traditional company has long since developed into one of the culinary highlights of the Austrian corporate landscape. Peter Schloffer, part of the Fandler management, talks about his experience with Wick.

Herr Schloffer, wie ist es zur Zusammenarbeit mit Wick-Machinery gekommen?

We met a few years ago at FACHPACK in Nuremberg. I was looking for a 20 ml filling system there, which is a very small amount. After several days of the trade fair, where my colleagues and I thought we would have to go home without a partner, we came across the Wick-Machinery stand. In a conversation with Andreas Wick, our special 20ml request was suddenly no longer a problem, but a claim that can be implemented. We were on fire from the start.

Und wie ging es dann weiter?

After the fair, Andreas Wick and I first had more detailed discussions. Then we went to Himberg for a meeting. The Wick Machinery team was excellently prepared and so friendly that we felt comfortable right from the start. We have precisely designed and discussed the requirements for the machine. And today we have a perfect, tailor-made machine that we are absolutely satisfied with.

Was waren die speziellen Anforderungen an diese 20ml-Abfüllanlage?

It is very important for us to guarantee absolute varietal purity. We have a very large variety of types, so the machine must guarantee that there is no mixing of the oils. The technology that Wick-Machinery has developed for this purpose implements this requirement absolutely reliably and is also very easy to use. Should there ever be something, we at Wick have a contact person, Markus Schwarz, whom I can call at any time. He always tries to answer our concerns immediately. So far we have been able to clarify all questions directly on the phone.

Was zeichnet die Zusammenarbeit mit Wick-Machinery Ihrer Meinung nach noch aus?

Because we are two Austrian family businesses, we simply fit together well. We have a similar operational structure and we rush to meet the high demands on our customers, our products and, of course, our team. And this similarity generates a deep mutual understanding and honest appreciation when working together. And because it is very important to us to buy as many raw materials as possible in Austria, and also to obtain as many raw materials as possible from Austria for the trades, the cooperation with Wick is also a complete success in this regard.

Pratteln near Basel, Switzerland

Konapharma is a renowned Swiss private company in the field of contract manufacturing and contract packaging. The company’s strengths include the development and manufacture of solid dosage forms through to primary and secondary packaging. Mr. Alessandro
Larecchiuta, who works as Head Technical Support for the company, shares his experience with Wick.

Können Sie die Zusammenarbeit mit Wick-Machinery kurz beschreiben?

Konapharma is a full service provider. This means that in addition to classic contract manufacturing and packaging, the company also offers quality control, development and logistics services. For inquiries from contract manufacturing in the primary packaging sector, Wick is an important point of contact for us – and always when primary packaging deviates from the product range. Then things always have to be quick: Wick-Machinery receives the product requirements from us and has to provide services such as advice, preparation of offers and fast format deliveries in relation to this information.

Wenn Sie auf Kund*innenaufforderungen hin produzieren, müssen die Maschinen leicht adaptiertbar sein? 

Können Sie ein Beispiel für eine Adaption nennen?

We had a customer request for this tablet counting machine that required larger and larger doses. We asked Wick-Machinery about the necessary formats and found a solution very quickly. In general, I can confirm that Wick systems are very easy to handle and operate.

 
Ist Wick-Machinery Ihrer Meinung nach ein verlässlicher Partner im Individualmaschinenbau?

I can definitely confirm that Andreas Wick and his employees have always taken on our wishes and requirements. They always try to find a quick and pragmatic solution.

Was hat die Zusammenarbeit mit Wick-Machinery für Sie ausgezeichnet?

You always know very quickly whether something is immediately feasible, whether it would need a conversion first, or whether the existing Wick system may not be suitable for something. If the latter was the case, Wick always provided understandable reasons and made a counter-proposal. So working with Wick is very direct, very open and very honest. I really appreciate that personally.

Was können Sie außerdem noch an positiven Erfahrungen hervorheben?

What I would like to emphasize very positively is that the company Wick always responds to our requirements, quality standards and suggestions. With regard to the immediate preparation of offers or short delivery times in contract manufacturing, the company Wick makes a valuable and important contribution with its advice, services and delivery times. In summary, we can say that with Wick-Machinery we have a very reliable partner at our side. We would like to continue to strengthen this cooperation.

Hüllhorst, Germany

Wick-Machinery has been working with Dr. Lüschow GmbH & Co. KG, which produces high-quality food supplements and medical products in liquid form. Dr. Bernd Lüschow, who has successfully managed the company for more than 17 years, talks about his long-term collaboration with Wick-Machinery.

Herr Dr. Lüschow: Wann und wie sind Sie auf Wick-Machinery gestoßen?

That was in 2008 when I found your trade fair appearance at interpack very appealing and got in touch with Andreas Wick and his team. At that time, I was just starting to fill larger bottles, so I was looking for a flexible machine. In the exchange with Wick-Machinery it became immediately clear to me that they would respond to my requirements and wishes instead of trying to convince me with a prefabricated machine. Today, after several years of cooperation, we now have five Wick machines in-house. So our meeting at the fair was absolutely worth it.

Was hat die Arbeit mit Wick-Machinery für Sie besonders ausgezeichnet?

The team listens to the wishes and ideas of its customers and looks for a solution. There are of course bigger and better-known machine builders who build really great machines, but they build these machines the way they see fit, and not how I want them to. At Wick-Machinery it is exactly the other way around. They ask you what you need and do an excellent job of doing it. The Wick machines that I have in my company are certainly not off-the-shelf. That is the qualitative difference.

Wenn man in einem so intensiven Austausch miteinander ist, bedeutet das auch, dass man aneinander wächst? 
Voneinander lernt?

Yes, I would confirm that. As an application specialist, I know what the machine must be able to do in the end, or what would have to be changed on the next machine. That is the knowledge and input that I can give from users. And on the basis of this feedback, Andreas Wick and his team continue to develop the machines. And because I’ve been absolutely satisfied with all the machines so far, you could say that both sides benefit from each other.

Was hat sich in dieser vieljährigen Zusammenarbeit noch herausgestellt?

It is a gratifying fact that every factory acceptance test was used as an opportunity to combine the useful with the pleasant: The teams go out to eat together and enjoy Austrian cuisine and Austrian wine.
Interestingly, to get back to the business side, every machine so far has shown that it still had to be adjusted a bit afterwards. Because in actual operation, there are usually still aspects that can be optimized. Although we work together and design together, we’ve never had it that way that we had planned everything one hundred percent correctly. These are usually not big things and of course that is part of every operational reality, but these things are then always adjusted again until it works perfectly. Wick-Machinery is a great partner for this, too, because they remain absolutely reliable and solution-oriented in all steps of the cooperation.