Hard work and innovation have helped Serbian moldmaker and injection molder 
Inmold come from scratch in less than three years to carve out a successful niche.

Goran Jankovic left his former employer to set up shop in Pozega, Serbia in 2007 to offer specialized toolmaking for customers keen to jumpstart their product promotion with good graphics and innovative IML packaging. Taking with him four experienced engineers, he soon saw that design and moldmaking alone were not enough, so he added custom injection molding. Originally the injection molding equipment was intended only to test new molds, but he soon saw the operation offered the potential of providing another profit center under the same roof.

Buying a 3000m² former government warehouse and converting it into a shop floor, the small (today staffed by 40) operation sees its future providing customers with a turnkey offering that includes design, molds, in-house-designed and -built robotics, and downstream operations.

One recent success he points to is the sale of two complete IML lines to the country’s largest food processor, Farmakom Koncern, which uses the new kit to process containers for its soft cheeses. “Is IML recession-proof?” as MPW asked recently (May 2009). Jankovic sees no decrease in the demand for food and packaging, so he sees IML as a safe bet. Farmakom, which took the two lines that include injection presses from Stork Plastics Machinery (Hengelo, the Netherlands) with Inmold-designed and -built robots plus all downstream equipment, is “a perfect example that to attract shoppers to your product, you have to invest in eye-catching packaging,” Jankovic says. To spread that message, Inmold last February held an IML open house in cooperation with Farmakom, Stork, and other producers for 70 customers and prospects from throughout Serbia, neighboring Balkan states, Russia, France, Italy, and Austria.

Thanks to the help of attention-grabbing IML visuals on the injection molded packaging, Farmakom has been able to jump from number two in soft cheese products to becoming the county’s top producer. “Sure, the initial investment might be more expensive than other decorating means, but the end result is overall less expensive for long runs, offering faster cycle times and more dynamics in the packaging,” says Jankovic.

Jankovic was up against tough German, Italian, and Austrian competition for the Farmakom order. What sold Farmakom on giving the contract to Inmold, a local firm? Jankovic says it was the company’s ability to provide fast, efficient service and good quality. Its cooperation with well-known Western European brand Stork also helped.

Another new business for Inmold is mold repair. “Many injection molders in financially troubled times like these are unwilling to invest in new molds, but are happy for us to refurbish their existing tooling,” he says. In June he opened, in cooperation with a Slovenian firm, a new mold repair shop in Pozega with Serbia’s only laser welding operation. Laser welding, he says, produces less stress on a mold and enhances tooling service life. In 2008 the company invested more than €600,000 in a variety of CNC milling machines and EDM equipment.

Jankovic remains amazed when fellow moldmakers and processors complain about the difficulty finding and keeping qualified staff. “But when you ask them if they are investing in continuing education for their staff, they see this as an extra, and often unnecessary, expense,” he notes. Not so at Inmold, which provides weekly business and technical English classes along with other company-related training programs free of charge to the staff. “Especially our younger workers are excited about the opportunity to take part in such classes,” he says. This has helped the young operation to maintain and build its staff without the usual fluctuation. Jankovic  sees his company’s future tied to being just one step ahead of the competition. —Robert Colvin