Interview with Eleni Missa, Packaging Engineer at DS Smith Tecnicarton

"DS Smith Tecnicarton is 'Packaging engineering' because from the beginning we have gone further in offering a solution for our customers"

From the office, we have begun a series of interviews with our employees to know their relationship with our company.

And we inaugurated it with our workmate Eleni Missa who works at DS Smith Tecnicarton since 2010, five years after landing in Spain, from her native country, Greece.

Currently, Eleni Missa works as a packaging engineer, that is, the nexus of technical union between the client and the company.

Question: tell us about your activity at DS Smith Tecnicarton, what are your tasks?

Eleni Missa: My job at the company is packaging engineer. I am one of the people in the department who is in contact with the client. I go to the customer company and pick up their packaging needs. And once here, I challenge the different departments to offer the customer the right solution. In my case, like in the case of my colleagues in the department, we contact the other areas of the company - logistics, quality, and production, innovation – in order to give a comprehensive packaging solution.

If the solution we can offer has already been developed it on another occasion, we show you plans, prototypes, industrial tests ... In case not, and it is needed a new and customized development, the requirements are passed to the technical department and so that, they look for the optimal solution. In these cases prototypes are manufactured and customer checks all the parameters of the packaging.

My work is to coordinate that everything is developing according to the established times and to know that the customer is satisfied.

Of course also, one of my other tasks is to expand the business portfolio and detect new opportunities and needs in the market.

Question: To develop this activity, what have you studied?

E.M.: My career is mechanical engineering. This training allows me to understand all the possibilities of different materials that can be used in packaging, as well as knowing the needs of the industry.

Question: How has your evolution been in the company in these 7 years?

E.M.: I started with small customers, and little by little I have been integrating myself into more important projects, clients with more trajectory. The company has been relying on me, until this moment in which I am involved in the development of single-use carton packaging projects.

Question: In this evolution, in what sectors have you worked?

E.M.: At this time, and because I am very focused on the topic of single-use corrugated cardboard packaging, I am working for several sectors (food, automotive, chemical, metal-mechanic ...). The automotive sector tends to focus on returnable packaging on issues of logistics savings, environmental issues ... so right now I am not very involved with this sector although we have done very important projects with several clients.

Question: By your trajectory and your profile of packaging engineer, how do you see that the concept of business has evolved?

E.M.: What differentiates Tecnicarton is that it works with numerous materials, despite what the name may indicate. And increasingly, the solutions we propose are a combination of different materials to make a packaging that meets the needs of the customer.

In these years, the technical department is increasingly stronger in its possibilities to offer innovative solutions and to respond to the vocation of the company in order to help its customers to optimize their packaging.

In this business, what differentiates us is the value of innovation that we can give our customers.

Question: What do customers demand?

E.M.: The customer asks for good service and to meet their needs. They need to feel safe when you send a good, and all at a competitive price. The logistics issue is being increasingly controlled.

Question: What is the difference between selling "packaging engineering" and not just "packaging"?

E.M.: That is the fundamental difference of DS Smith Tecnicarton, the innovation and design of unique packaging solutions that fit the needs raised by our customers. And that is the main difference of Tecnicarton between other companies of the sector. The customer appreciates that a different solution can be offered. From the beginning, we have offered packaging engineering because we have gone further in offering a solution already available in the market.

Question: From your point of view, what has become of Tecnicarton's integration with DS Smith? Have you had a chance to get involved in new packaging projects or to provide better service?

E.M.: The union between Tecnicarton and DS Smith is, of course, a change for the better. DS Smith is a very powerful multinational that has a great weight in the European market, with the capacity to access to a large group of clients. This joint has allowed me to meet colleagues who can already launch offers at European level, but presented from Spain and Portugal. It allows me, and other colleagues, to meet more international people and also provides more security and solvency. And it allows greater professional development.

From this point of view, it is an opportunity because you can offer products that, maybe we do not manufacture here, but another company or division of the group does, so we can give a better customer service. We can find the optimal solution within the group.

Another advantage of the integration in DS Smith is that there is a unique strategy and we all work in the same direction: Offer the client solutions that reduce their costs and improve their packaging.

Question: How does design and innovation influence differentiation of competition?

E.M.: As I said before, this is the main value of Tecnicarton and what sets us apart from the competition. Customers know that with us they will obtain a solution that improves their costs of packaging and logistics, that optimizes resources and that safely preserves their products when they are transported.