The position of Servicepoint Oy as a provider of all-inclusive serialization projects in all of Europe is now stronger than ever. As a specialist of secure packaging, Servicepoint has expanded its strategic partnership with Systech International, a global leader in brand protection technologies.

Servicepoint Oy is now a Value Added Reseller and strategic partner in the whole of Europe and Russia. In the previous partner agreement concluded in December 2016, the market area was limited to Scandinavia, Baltic Countries and Russia.

“In Europe, 15,000 production lines for prescription medication must be fitted with a serialization system by February 2019 due to the Falsified Medicines Directive. Similar legislation is being drafted in Russia, which also has a huge market potential”, notes Risto Finne, chairman of the board, Servicepoint.

Due to the expanded partnership Servicepoint can act as a single point of contact for customers: Servicepoint now sells Systech serialization system as a part of its own automation solutions and has overall responsibility for the serialization projects. Servicepoint has 30 years of experience on packaging automation, where it has specialized in secure packaging during the last few years.

“Serialization projects for pharmaceutical industry pave way for other, broader, markets. Counterfeit prevention, i.e. secure packaging, is of profound interest for many product groups, such as medical devices and food. It is rewarding to be a part of a business where societal problems are being solved”, states Finne.

Keeping the downtime at minimum

Servicepoint has resolutely refined its expertise in secure packaging. Ten projects have been sold to Finland and Russia. New contracts are being negotiated across Europe, where pharmaceutical manufacturers are postponing their purchase decisions for the technologies which will be mandatory in 2019.

During this delay Servicepoint is excelling in the customer projects already ongoing. The company is developing and productizing its serialization projects with support from Tekes, the Finnish technology and innovation funding agency.

“We want to further develop our expertise to provide our clients with shorter production downtime when integrating serialization systems to packaging lines. This downtime is actually the critical parameter when calculating the full costs of serialization projects”, notes Finne.

The expertise on secure packaging will be strengthened with the new training facility, in which Servicepoint along with Systech is going to train, among others, project engineers and software developers. New personnel is being hired on accelerating rate. The training facility will be located within Servicepoint’s new headquarters at Volttikatu in Kuopio, in the midst of the local health technology cluster.

“Many pharmaceutical companies and organizations have facilities in the area. We want to bring added value to the cluster and we believe that open networking will benefit also us”, states Finne.

The selected business field is also supported by the recently finished funding round. Servicepoint’s future is being built with funding from Rifi Oy, owner Risto Finne, Janding Oy, owners Matti Jantunen and his family, and Iiro Jantunen as a person investor. The old owners, Firi Oy, Reijo Akiola, and Pekka Hoffrén continue as owners of the company.