When Crises Turn into Opportunities

Despite the ongoing Corona pandemic and turbulence on the raw materials market, Faller Packaging
can look back on a successful fiscal year 2021. The specialist for pharmaceutical secondary packaging
was able to increase its sales by 3.3 percent to 147.8 million euros.

Under the title “Turning Crises into Opportunities, for People and the Environment,” Faller
Packaging’s sustainability report highlights the current economic, environmental and social issues
facing the specialist for pharmaceutical secondary packaging.
In addition to the inconveniences of the Covid pandemic, economic challenges also arose in 2021:
Shortages of raw materials and exorbitant price increases for materials and energy made themselves
felt from the middle of the year. Nevertheless, the manufacturer made the most of its opportunities
and can look back on a successful year: “Sales at our German sites increased slightly,” explains Chief
Executive Officer Dr. Daniel Keesman with satisfaction. “Our international subsidiaries in Denmark,
Poland, and Hungary are recording sales increases, some of them strong.” In concrete terms, this
means that Faller Packaging was able to increase its sales again – by 3.3 percent to now 147.8 million
euros.

Faller Packaging again invested heavily in the further development of its sites in 2021. A total of 7.8
million euros – corresponding to an investment ratio of 5.3 percent – went mainly towards the
expansion of automation and digitalization.Faller Packaging also continues to be on the right track ecologically. The company continued to work on its energy and raw material consumption and focused even more on the issue of sustainability.
“That’s why we became a partner in the ‘Zielgerade 2030’ project – the joint project run by the South
Baden Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Freiburg Energy Agency – and have set ourselves
the goal of operating in a CO2-neutral manner starting in 2030,” elaborates managing partner Dr.
Michael Faller.
Faller Packaging is also celebrating its 140th company anniversary in May. It all began in 1882, when
August Faller founded the “Graphische Kunstanstalt”, a lithographic printing company in Waldkirch
that produced business stationery, postcards, and labels. Times of steady growth followed, but also
numerous ups and downs. “Major challenges were certainly the two world wars, each of which
meant a new start forced from outside,” Dr. Faller cites as an example. “Many employees killed in
the wars and sales markets that had collapsed demanded a will to rebuild and a new direction.”
One of the most important strategic decisions in the company’s recent history was made 30 years
ago: Faller Packaging withdrew from all other areas at that time and focused exclusively on the
pharmaceutical market. As quickly became apparent, this was the right course of action: today,
Faller Packaging is one of the leading manufacturers of pharmaceutical packaging with seven sites in
Europe. “For 140 years now, the company August Faller GmbH & Co. KG has always been owned by
the founding family, and for more than 100 years it has always been managed by a managing
director from within the family and an external managing director. It is my honor and obligation to
have been leading the international Faller Packaging group for 15 years together with Dr. Michael
Faller and to ensure that we can continue to develop successfully,” says Keesman.