Paulding County Economic Development (PCED) and RONCHI America, LLC. announced Monday that RONCHI Mario, S.p.A of Milan, Italy, one of the world's leading manufacturers of high speed flow meter based liquid filling and automated packaging machinery for the personal care, house hold cleaner and pharmaceutical industries has selected Paulding County for its new U.S. headquarters location. The facility will include RONCHI America's administrative, sales, spare parts, service, assembly, warehouse and shipping/receiving operations. Michele Falsini, Director of U.S. Operations for RONCHI America

The 2010 figures reported by Italian packaging machinery manufacturers show that the industry has put the crisis firmly behind its back. The sector's turnover totalled 3,759 million euro at current prices, 16,4% up on 2009, when it slumped to 3,229 million euro. Last year's turnover even surpassed that of 2007 (3,610 million euro) and was not far short from the record figure of 3,827 million euro achieved in 2008. The excellent 2010 performance also enabled the Italian packaging machinery industry to strengthen its international leadership position and secure a 25,7% share of the world market

In the world of consumer products, shelf appeal is becoming increasingly important and packaging has become a major product differentiator. But sometimes the marketing geeks come up with a packaging geometry that is not compatible with automated equipment, which sets up some interesting design challenges, says Michele Falsini, export sales manager for RONCHI Mario, a manufacturer of flexible packaging machinery in Gessate, Italy. DN: How important is packaging to today’s consumer product companies? Falsini: As a huge element of brand awareness and promotion, packaging can literally be the key

Bologna might be best known abroad for its meat sauce and for being home to the oldest university in the western world, the University of Bologna. But this city, situated between Italy's Po River and the Apennine Mountains, has earned the nickname the "Packaging Valley." Packaging machinery has become one of the dominant industries throughout Italy. Though the United States, China and Japan all produce automatic machinery, Germany and Italy produce two-thirds of all packaging machinery sold internationally, according to a study by the Confederation of Packaging Machinery Associations. Italy