Packaging Valley honours outstanding personalities

Another successful year is drawing to a close. Packaging Valley celebrated this last Thursday at its annual Christmas party. The association is now entering its 13th year since it was founded. This time there were two special features. Hans Bühler of Optima and co-founder of the cluster, as well as Kurt Engel, outgoing managing director, received honorary certificates from the current chairman Bernd Hansen for their special achievements. Martin Buchwitz introduced himself as his successor.

Hans Bühler, CEO of Optima packaging group GmbH, was appointed Honorary Chairman. He was the driving force behind Packaging Valley and the first chairman until 2009. From the very beginning, he played an important role in marketing. The association quickly became known and the number of founding members grew from 15 to over 40 companies.

Not to be underestimated: The former mayor of Gaildorf, Kurt Engel, also brought a large network with him when he took up the position of managing director in the founding year. Well, twelve years and many successful meetings later it is time to say farewell and move to a well-deserved retirement. The progress of the cluster is due in a large part to his term in office, and so he will remain an honorary member of the association.

Martin Buchwitz succeeds Kurt Engel. He is a trained engineer and PR expert. He will continue the activities he has started and lead Packaging Valley into the future with new ideas.

Achievements and important milestones:

Since the founding of Packaging Valley in 2007, there has been continuous development with a wide variety of measures. One example; the two-day event “Students meet Entrepreneurs”. Every year, students are given the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes. Companies use it to introduce themselves and supplement their employer marketing. The association takes it upon itself to expand the career network in the Hohenlohe region. Another mandate is to embrace technical innovations and make them accessible to member companies – the Virtual Reality Centre in Schwäbisch Hall was opened in 2016. Since then, members and other companies have been able to benefit from virtual applications for development, commissioning and training purposes. The industry event “The Packaging Valley Days” or the Open Air on the occasion of its tenth anniversary were also noteworthy events in the history of the association.

 

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