Italian packaging equipment manufacturer Simionato has turned its attention to the northern European market with the creation of a new sales team.

 

The Trieste-headquartered company, which manufactures weighing and packaging machines, plans to target the salad, confectionery, snack and frozen food markets in northern Europe.

 

The firm has hired a sales manager for north and eastern Europe, Darren Pickford, who will be joined by Andrew Lightfoot as country manager UK and Ireland.

 

The new appointments will be assisted by a dedicated sales team.

 

Simionato is also investing in a new showroom, to be based in the Midlands, which will feature bagging, weighing and packaging equipment.

 

"We are going to have a showroom with a packaging system set up where customers can bring their products and conduct trials on our machines to evaluate their performance run," Lightfoot told Packaging News.

 

The move into northern Europe follows an investment by a group of private backers in the company in 2002, which pushed for expansion in the region.

 

"Until January 2009, the sales focus had been on southern Europe, the Middle East and North and South America," added Lightfoot.

 

Company founder Paulo Simionato originally developed weighers and baggers for his own pasta factory in Italy, before establishing Simionato in 1963.