Emballator manufactures packaging solutions for a wide range of industries and products—from metal and plastic pails to tubes, closures, and other packages that people encounter in everyday life. The group has around 900 employees, its head office in Ulricehamn, and operations in several markets across Northern Europe.
It became clear to Emballator that the group needed a unified and more future-proof platform. Not least important in the background is how the company has evolved within its systems environment. This picture looks quite typical: for a long time, several of the companies in the group had operated on an older SAP system originally installed back in 1999. Over the years, the systems environment had become increasingly customized locally. Different companies had developed their own ways of working, new companies had been added through acquisitions, and certain operations were running on older systems with limited support.
A cloud strategy for a growing group
The decision to move toward a cloud-based solution was made as early as 2021 as part of Emballator’s overarching IT strategy. For the group, this was both about reducing vulnerability within an older legacy system environment and about creating better conditions for growth, security, and ongoing development. The choice fell on the cloud-based business system SAP Cloud ERP. The company already had extensive experience with SAP and saw security in building further on a global platform with support for future regulatory frameworks, standardized processes, and new digital opportunities. The work is being carried out together with the SAP partner Implema.
For Emballator, it has been important to work closely with a partner who both understands the technology and aligns with the group’s way of working. This is generally typical of Implema’s track record, which PLM&ERP News has covered in several interesting case studies. The project initially encompasses seven companies within the group. Two companies are already live, and further rollouts are planned step by step. Along the way, analyses are also being conducted on how smaller companies in the group can best be integrated into the platform without making the administration overly burdensome.
From Local Workflows to Shared Standard Processes
The new platform covers core areas of operations, ranging from sales and production to invoicing. For Emballator, a guiding principle has been to adhere to standardized processes as closely as possible. This represents a major shift for organizations that previously relied on numerous local workflows, manual workarounds, and shortcuts outside the ERP system. At the same time, it is precisely within those traditional habits that a great deal of legacy value was once generated.
”In a cloud-based solution, you need to follow the established processes. If you handle tasks on the side in tools like Excel, you also lose traceability. But when you stick to the system, you gain superior transparency, better analytical data, and less reliance on knowledge that previously existed solely in individual minds,” says Thomas Ekström.
For Emballator, this transformation is therefore about much more than just technology. Equally critical is establishing shared working methods and encouraging people from different companies to collaborate more across corporate boundaries. ”This is a vital part of our long-term development. We want a modern, secure, and future-proof environment that helps us work more cohesively and supports our ambition to grow sustainably in Northern Europe,” says Maria Backlund, Head of Marketing and Sales Processes at Emballator Group.
Better collaboration with customers
In the long term, Emballator also sees clear opportunities to create greater value for its customers. Several of the group’s larger customers use SAP themselves, which opens the door to more efficient connections between systems, improved information flows, and increased transparency in their partnership. This can range from simpler integrations to a better overview of inventory, faster forecasting, and more accurate decision-making in shared workflows.
For Emballator, the goal is for the business platform to contribute to a more cohesive, data-driven, and scalable way of working. It will also lay the foundation for the future use of AI in areas where there is a clear business value, such as forecasting, financial closing, supplier invoices, and other recurring administrative processes.
A Foundation for the Future
Emballator’s slogan is Always create future. For the group, this means adopting a long-term, future-proof approach across products, sustainability initiatives, and digital development. The new business platform is a vital part of that journey. Before taking the next steps into fields like AI and advanced automation, the foundation must be stable, unified, and reliable. ”We are still building the foundation. When data, processes, and systems are seamlessly interconnected, it unlocks entirely new possibilities moving forward. But we want to take it step by step, focusing on initiatives that deliver real business value,” says Maria Backlund.
