Exceeding our targets and taking our performance to a new level
Since taking over as CEO in the summer 2024, I have greatly appreciated the passion and expertise I have encountered throughout Sidel. As a multi-faceted organisation with a rich history, diverse local presence around the world and innovation leadership, I believe we are perfectly positioned to grow in the industry.
Key financial targets exceeded
I am proud to report that we surpassed all our main targets in 2024. This includes record sales of €1.7 billion, which is a growth of 13% compared with 2023. We experienced a strong order intake in both equipment and services for complete lines and stand-alone packaging solutions, with notable growth in the Middle East, China and South America. We grew our services revenue by more than 15% and will strive to maintain this positive momentum in 2025.
In a constantly changing market, our performance is dependent on our ability to transform and adapt to challenges. Our Leading Excellence programme has been crucial in driving our financial performance during the year by improving our execution of projects, enhancing quality and reducing costs, as well as making us a more sustainable company. Importantly, the programme has helped us learn how to transform as a company, a capability that will serve us well in the future.
A disruptive laser solution realised
2024 marked the industrial readiness of our breakthrough laser technology thanks to the launch of a successful customer field test during the year. This disruptive innovation enables a better packaging experience with less materials thanks to its precision and control over the material thickness and throughout the container.
It also brings a new level of performance and productivity to packaging lines thanks to its inherent stability, reliability, efficiency and ease, even for packaging made of 100% recycled PET. We will offer this technology to customers in 2025.
Other innovations, like our Hydra Ultrasonic bottle washer, are also enabling customers to achieve their performance and sustainability goals by using 20% less heat and 15% less water1, while increasing the production rate by 15%2.
We’ve boosted our innovation and engineering capabilities too with the inauguration of our new engineering hub in India that is staffed by 100 passionate and capable engineers, and is growing rapidly. The hub, which we will continue to expand in 2025, will drive our growth in India while supporting our teams all around the world with technological expertise and best practices.
Meeting customer needs through digitalisation, partnership and services
Digitalisation is key to help customers meet their cost, efficiency and flexibility objectives. It also enables our customers to unlock increasing benefits of data and artificial intelligence throughout their operations. Our unique Evo-On® cloud suite with built-in intelligence makes it easier to supervise and optimise any aspect of a customer’s production line, enabling us to proactively anticipate customer needs and prevent downtime.
We also continue to co-create and co-innovate with our customers and others. One example is our partnership with Husky, a world leader in injection moulding, and AROL capping systems. In general, by integrating data and expertise, we look forward to unlocking new opportunities in packaging design, blowing and line performance.
Our 365 Technical Assistance services provided support to our customers throughout 2024 both on site and remotely, around the clock, 7 days a week. Combined with our digital artificial intelligence- enabled remote services, we can identify issues in advance, optimise performance and even work with preventative maintenance without physical visits. We will continue to innovate our service solutions to further drive our performance in 2025.
Synergies with Makro Labelling
Since acquiring Makro Labelling in 2023, we have leveraged synergies and further developed our customer offering. Makro complements our business by providing labelling solutions in potential growth markets for Sidel, such as the wine and spirits, food and personal care segments. In 2024, Makro continued to innovate with their state-of-the-art visioning and quality control systems, which involves synergies for us driven by customer needs.
Creating a strategic advantage while protecting the planet
We were proud to receive the EcoVadis Gold sustainability rating during the year, granted to the top 5% of participating companies. This rating is an increasingly important benchmark for our customers as well as our own suppliers. We are also working to achieve net-zero emissions across our value chain by 2050 with concrete actions and targets.
At Sidel, we aspire to be the sustainability leader in the market and see many opportunities for sustainability to be a strategic advantage. Through our solutions, we can enable customers to use less energy and material, and incorporate more recycled materials into their products, while reducing cost.
In fact, this is how we contribute to this year’s Tetra Laval Annual Report theme – with the future of food production. Through constant innovation with a focus on delivering more sustainable packaging and aseptic solutions, we can meet the needs of the food and beverage industry, both now and in the future.
Opportunities in 2025 and beyond
We see major opportunities in aseptic packaging with the potential for us to support customers with our comprehensive expertise as they realise the benefits related to enhance taste and quality, while ensuring food safety and minimising packaging materials. In 2024, we developed a dedicated aseptic training centre in Atlanta, US, which will be opened in 2025. The centre will provide enhanced hands-on training on our aseptic solutions for customers and Sidel employees. The training will accelerate awareness and understanding while we continue to research, develop and validate solutions in our dedicated aseptic laboratories in China, France and Italy.
Other opportunities include more sustainable packaging solutions and services that help customers enhance their performance, such as through more modular and flexible solutions. Innovation will continue to drive our business along with a focus on total quality management to drive customer value.
We look forward to unlocking these opportunities in collaboration with our customers and value chain partners in 2025 and beyond. Together, we have the capabilities and expertise to not only enhance the performance and profitability of our individual customers, but also bring about positive change throughout the global food and beverage value chain.
Pietro Cassani
“We were proud to receive the EcoVadis Gold sustainability rating during the year, granted to the top 5% of participating companies. This rating is an increasingly important benchmark for our customers as well as our own suppliers.”
Related links and downloads
1 Comparison with previous model. Calculation hypothesis: Formats: 330 ml – 250 g – 60,000 bph, 660 ml - 450 g – 40,000 bph, freshwater temperature 20°C, bottle infeed temperature 25°C, bottle outfeed temperature 35°C.
2 Suitable for +10/15% production rate increase (with 75°C washing).