Packaging industry veteran Ken Harding joins JLS as Director of Applications Engineering and Special Projects.

In 1978, Bill Huggins and Bill Mann founded Pretzels Inc. Based in Bluffton, Indiana, the company manufactures and distributes traditional, peanut butter-filled, flavored, seasonal and gluten-free pretzels, as well as extruded snack products, to leading grocers as well as private and national brands.

Two packaging industry trends are causing headaches for automated case packing OEMs and their customers. OEMs must advance their design strategies to keep the cost of automation affordable so customers continue to receive optimum ROI.

The new EDL Model 22-45 single roll product wrapping system wraps both trayed and trayless products at rates of up to 45 packages per minute— including packaged food products, pet foods, dairy products, mixed multipacks and more, as well as untrayed single products and container multipacks.

MULTIVAC has acquired Germany-based FRITSCH Group, a leading supplier of baking equipment that develops and manufactures baking equipment, especially in handling and processing of raw dough. 

SOMIC America has hired Tim Howell as its new East Coast Sales Manager. He will be based in New Jersey.

Heat and Control will be showcasing its latest innovative snack food and process prepared solutions along with seasoning, coating and conveying, and inspection systems at PACK EXPO Las Vegas.

Brenton will display a new, multifaceted aftermarket program that reduces downtime and increases the flexibility of end-of-line machines at PACK EXPO Las Vegas.

SOMIC Group, the parent company of SOMIC America, has acquired MechanikZentrum Schmidbauer, a mechanical manufacturing company in Haag, Germany.