The catch was time, PackEx was the solution

TimePartner, an international employment agency, sent personalised Easter presents to its customers this year. These individualised outer packaging in the form of banderoles were produced by PackEx. Our speed in configuration and delivery, the reduction of packaging waste and the personalisation convinced the Hamburg-based employment agency. After the first project at Easter, trade fair give-aways and innovative business cards in folding box look followed. 

TimePartner Personaldienstleister GmbH is a specialist in employment services. The approximately 10,300 employees of the Hamburg-based personnel service provider, one of the leading nationwide, supply companies with qualified specialists. And they do so at 173 locations, even beyond Germany.

Regardless of whether it is a matter of seasonal peaks in demand, temporary work or long-term personnel support - TimePartner covers almost all areas of employee placement. To do this, the specialists analyse their clients' staffing needs, sift through candidate profiles, select suitable applicants and recruit, coordinate and supervise them. TimePartner benefits from its considerable number of corporate and university contacts, many of which belong to well-known large or medium-sized companies. And it is important to cultivate these contacts. For example, with small gifts. "Our business model and our way of working are shaped by digitalisation. This makes us a very modern, progressive company," says Thomas Dick, managing director at TimePartner. "Of course, this modernity should also be reflected in our presents and our external communication." That's why TimePartner decided this year to personalise the Easter chocolate for its business partners and customers according to the latest trends: Individualised mass products, so to speak. TimePartner decided to use personalised banderoles as outer packaging for the chocolate.

"From idea to implementation, two days: terrific!"

The catch was time, PackEx was the solution. Because it was only shortly before Easter that the personnel service provider, which operates a branch in Worms, became aware that PackEx offered individual folding boxes. It was not only the regional proximity that was decisive for TimePartner. "We only had two days from the idea to the implementation," describes the TimePartner managing director. "After these two days we actually had the finished folding boxes in front of us. That was terrific! " is Dick's résumé. In 72 hours, TimePartner digitally configured the boxes together with us and finally had them delivered. Thomas Dick is enthusiastic about our speed: "That was outstanding. We are not normally used to something like that."

As PackEx was still in the pilot phase at that time, one of our employees helped TimePartner with the structural design of the banderoles. He instructed Dick, showed him the optimal dimensions and explained how the print data had to be created. In the meantime, the PackEx portal takes care of this. This is also a virtual warehouse for the configured packaging models, which customers can access at any time. If Thomas Dick wants banderoles for presents again next year, he can simply call up his product in the virtual warehouse.

Adé, high edition - hello, personalised small series 

And the relatively small number of units was also a hurdle before the order was placed with PackEx. This is because many packaging companies only produce in large quantities. Thomas Dick explains: "We were often faced with the question: personalised gift in large quantity or small quantity and therefore suitable for mass production? No matter which decision TimePartner came to - very few of them were profitable: Either the company had too much customised packaging, which was expensive to order and which still entailed destruction costs due to the excess quantity. Or it had the right number of pieces, but not the desired individual result. This difficulty is a thing of the past for TimePartner. PackEx produces exclusively in small batches - starting at just one piece and up to a quantity of 5,000 folding boxes. As a result, TimePartner's needs are always covered to the letter, no box is ordered too much and none too little. The tailor-made concept is also valuable beyond Easter and Christmas presents. For example, at trade fairs.

Business cards? No, business cubes!

An example: TimePartner needed creative gifts and business cards for trade fair visits. Personalised again. Again in small batches. With PackEx, these were configured in no time at all. The special feature of the give-aways: they were also business cards. On the outside were TimePartner's contact details. Punched-out logos, which were produced fully automatically by our high-power laser, served as optical refinements. TimePartner filled the small business cubes with sound boxes and chocolate bars. 

Not only the contents were well received by the fair visitors, but this time also the packaging. Thomas Dick sums up: "The cubes were a real customer magnet, I would almost say a lure. We generated a lot of attention with them. The creative idea of turning business cards into folding boxes also presented the innovative company spirit of the employment agency. "This was a real novelty and therefore fitted particularly well with our progressive company philosophy. Apart from us, no one had these visit cubes à la PackEx," says Dick happily.

Lots of highlights and environmental protection on-top

Another highlight of ordering through PackEx for Thomas Dick was the packaging waste reduced to a minimum. The banderoles and folding boxes did not arrive at TimePartner on huge Euro pallets and were not awkwardly packed in large cardboard boxes. Because PackEx only delivers in customised outer packaging. Thomas Dick puts it in a nutshell: "Because the outer packaging was ideally suited to the goods, we had less waste to dispose of and thus lower disposal costs - for me, this is also a criterion when choosing a suitable service provider". In addition, shipping reduces CO_2-emissions. After all, trucks no longer transport pallets that are far too large and unnecessarily heavy. On top of that, Thomas Dick sees the resource-saving production. The automated PackEx workflow prints the orders together so that there is room for as many orders as possible, even different ones. And it is even possible to save a number of resources: because the high-power laser replaces punching tools, there are no more set-up costs. 

The cooperation continues

Dick sums up the wow effect of the order as follows: "Thanks to PackEx, we have individual and personalised folding boxes - an advertising medium that we had not thought of before and which is an efficient advertising measure." The speed, the simple configuration, the small quantities and, last but not least, the environmental concept - all this ensures that TimePartner will continue to plan with PackEx in the future. Thomas Dick sums up: "The cooperation with PackEx was very good. Very fast. Very reliable. And easy on the environment to boot." The personnel service provider likes to order from such companies - and will continue to do so. Next up are trade fair give-aways, followed by personalised packaging for special promotions. And then comes Christmas with personalised Father Christmases.