SANOVO and Hartmann

In the modern age, it’s not enough for a responsible company to focus on better cost-efficiency and performance. Those who are serious about the future must also be working to minimize their impact on the environment.

And as stablemates in the global THORNICO group (whose mantra is ”doing good whilst doing business”) SANOVO graders and Hartmann packaging have been championing the cause of sustainability for many years – both individually and together.

Both companies are well known for their innovations in the egg industry. For more than 60 years, SANOVO has been at the forefront of egg grading technology, producing a wide range of graders that can handle all kinds of packaging around the world – with a huge variety of capacity options.

And Hartmann is the world’s leading producer of moulded fiber egg packaging. Since 1965, our constant urge to innovate has transformed egg cartons from a simple means of transporting fragile goods into highly efficient systems that save space, improve packing line efficiency and reduce the footprint of the entire packaging and distribution process – a pretty amazing achievement in a product made solely from recyclable wastepaper.

In their own way, both companies have been striving for decades to produce ever more sustainable refinements.

For instance, SANOVO has made huge strides in recent years to reduce consumption of water and electricity.

And one of Hartmann’s smartest recent innovations was the simple removal of a flap on the front of their cartons. It may not sound like much, but the ingenuity involved in losing weight from the carton without sacrificing strength significantly reduces the space requirement per unit, meaning more eggs can be placed on each pallet, which increases the amount each truck can deliver.

This dramatically reduces CO2 emissions, significantly lowers waste disposal fees for customers and massively improves environmental impact.
Which means that by working with both companies together, customers can benefit from this perfect grader-and-packaging synergy and optimize their production towards each of these objectives.

It’s true of most machinery in any industry that the choice of materials used can improve performance and optimize functionality.

And while the precision engineering of SANOVO graders enables them to perform exceptionally with any material, they do find Hartmann’s moulded fiber egg cartons easier to handle – optimizing production and complementing the technology.
For one thing, Hartmann’s high-quality egg cartons deform less during processing, so they don’t cause problems in the denesting operation. And for another, the closability of Hartmann cartons make things so much easier on the packing line.
What’s more, once closed, the lid sits tight and is simply ready to be packed into the crates at the end of the lanes.

It would be remiss of us not to mention the effects that future regulations may have on the packaging industry. For instance, it’s highly likely that in the US, plastic packaging will be banned within the next few years.



Of course, many grading centers have already adapted to more sustainable packaging, and we, as suppliers, are helping our customers to make a smooth transition.

And the good news is, thanks to the complementary nature of SANOVO grading systems and Hartmann egg packaging, that this is the optimal grading and packing partnership of the future.