What made you decide to found Maksima in 1992?
It’s in my nature to make things happen and to make decisions for myself. I’m also not afraid to take risks and accept responsibility for the consequences. Seen in this light, I was born with the character traits that an entrepreneur needs. I wanted to create something lasting for my family and friends. Together with a good friend, I was able to implement this vision in 1992.
The production of plastic packaging involves a lot of technology and mechanics. How do you feel about these things?
Mechanics and technology are in my blood. That’s probably why I ride a motorcycle, windsurf and fly model helicopters in my free time. All these activities require technical skill and some knowledge of mechanical laws. There is also a sporty, competitive component to them, which complements their appeal to me. I must say I see it as a bit like a sporting challenge to keep a production facility with high technological and mechanical demands going day after day.
Technology and mechanics are required in many production processes. Why did you decide to manufacture thin-wall plastic packaging?
I originally trained as a radio and television electrician at a technical university and then worked for a number of years in a company that manufactured televisions. I was fortunate there to get to know the entire manufacturing process, including the production of the individual components, which included injection moulding technology. Even back then, plastic was increasingly replacing glass or metal in many parts, which convinced me of the future for this material. Thus, it became clear to me that I wanted to found a company that was involved in plastics processing.
You established your company in Kaunas, 100 kilometres from Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius. What advantages does Kaunas offer?
There are several reasons for this choice. Kaunas has a long industrial tradition and is one of the most important industrial centres in Lithuania thanks in part to its free economic zone, a site that offers tax reductions to companies. Internationally known brands like Hella, Continental, Frazer and Kraft Foods are based here. The industrial area is located outside of the city and has large land reserves to expand. In addition, Kaunas is connected to other important centres in Lithuania and the surrounding countries by two main highways, and it is easily accessible by air and rail.
Let’s turn to Maksima now, which sounds a lot like the word “maximum”. A coincidence?
When you start thinking about founding a company, you soon start thinking about a suitable name for it. In the Latin vocabulary I came across the word “maximus”. It stands for the greatest, the highest goal. It sums up a kind of a philosophy for me. Everyone should define their highest goal in life, for today, for the next month, for next year and even for their entire life. And then they should do everything in their power to achieve those goals. For this reason, I chose the name Maksima for my company.
So your company name reflects your attitude?
Absolutely. The road to improvement has no end. If you improve something today, you can’t help but make progress in something else tomorrow. The world does not stand still, and we must adapt to it, not the other way around. In my view, it’s the duty of each individual to keep improving. Ultimately, quality of life depends on it. Some rules in life are simple. You can use your potential to shape your personal life or to help others. Right now, we have to support the people in Ukraine. This preoccupies all of us here at the moment. What we can do, we must do.
How big is Maksima today?
Our production facility covers 2500 square metres. We currently run 34 injection moulding machines from 100 to 650 tonnes, and 18 in-mould labelling systems. We also have around 6000 square metres of storage space. Our production lines run around the clock, seven days a week, staffed by 120 employees.
Which markets are you active in?
Maksima concentrates on thin-walled plastic containers and buckets, with a focus on the food industry. As previously mentioned, we have an ideal location in Lithuania to reach our export markets. This enables us to sell a quarter of our production domestically, while the rest is exported, with Germany, the Netherlands and the UK taking the largest shares. However, our customer portfolio extends to Iceland and even to Australia.
Which brands rely on your quality products?
One of our most important domestic customers is Vici – a seafood brand belonging to the Viciunai Group based here in Kaunas. Maksima is one of their main suppliers of waterproof thin-wall packaging. We also sell to well-known brands in the UK, but the big multinational brands are missing from our customer list. At our current size, we would simply have to devote too much of our capacity to meet the needs of one very big customer. And this would be unfavourable for our future development. We’ll wait to add the big names until some time in the future, when Maksima has grown a bit.
Why do companies choose Maksima?
As with everything in business, it is all about trust. However, this does not mean just interpersonal relations. Trust, in our business, also has a technical component because quality, reliable deliveries and hygiene are all extremely important in the food industry. For this reason, we work with the most modern machines, relying on IML systems from Switzerland. And we buy our injection moulds almost exclusively from Otto Hofstetter AG.
How do you build personal trust?
In my view, building trust is not about visiting your customers several times a year. People are busy with their own affairs. We prefer to keep in touch with our customers and partners via telephone calls or video conferences. Above all, we focus on keeping the quality of the products high, meeting our delivery dates and keeping response times very short when a customer contacts us. With those things under control, there is hardly anything we need to discuss with our customers, except for new projects.
Maksima produces packaging that is 100% recyclable. What conditions have to be met for this to be maintained?
Recycling happens at the end of a product’s life cycle. But right at the beginning, it is important to design the packaging in such a way that as little plastic as possible is used. That’s what we focus our full attention on at Maksima. We strive to reduce the material thickness of the packaging as much as possible, given its form and function, while ensuring the safety of the food stored in it. We have basically reached the limit of thinness with currently available plastics. If new raw materials become available, we will see whether further reductions are possible. Back to your question, to ensure that our products are 100% recyclable, we only use a single material per product and water-soluble printing inks for all our packaging products.
The moulds from Otto Hofstetter AG are known for being able to produce very thin packaging walls. To what extent did this influence your decision when you bought the first mould from Uznach in 2003?
I already knew about the quality of Otto Hofstetter AG’s moulds. But, as always when we make an investment, we send enquiries to various suppliers. Not only do we review the offers that come in, we also do a deep dive into the people who sent them. The decision to choose a mould supplier must be sustainable over the long term. After all, a mould is in service for many years. It needs maintenance and sometimes a replacement part or a repair.
How has Otto Hofstetter AG changed over the past 20 years?
I know that Otto Hofstetter AG constantly invests in improving its products. I like that in a company. At Maksima, we also constantly invest to improve quality and increase production. So, even after 20 years, most of our moulds still come from Uznach. This is because we see that our Swiss partner has also continuously improved.
How important is it to you that Otto Hofstetter AG is a family company?
Working with family-run companies is easy. And when you’re dealing with a reliable individual like Otto Hofstetter, it’s even easier. If I need to find something out, I feel free to contact him directly, and I know I will get an answer in a timely manner. Furthermore, in family businesses, the employees are usually also loyal. This is demonstrated by the long and pleasant cooperation we’ve had over the years with Fabio Crestani.
In 2019, Maksima started to digitalise its production. Where do you see the potential benefits of this effort for your company?
If Maksima wants to increase its production capacities and continue to grow, we cannot avoid adding more cavities and raising the performance levels of our systems. This will not be possible without introducing substantially more automation into our processes and using more robots. At the same time, we also have to train our employees so that they can operate and maintain the new technologies properly. This is a far-reaching project, with many different aspects to it that require a lot of time and investment. The good news is, for the first time in Maksima’s history, we can count on support from the European Development Fund.
What is the situation on the labour market in the Kaunas region?
More than 300,000 people of working age live in our region. Since we train our employees ourselves, and thus are not looking for specialists who are already qualified, the situation is not very problematic for us. At Maksima, a new employee starts in a relatively undemanding job. When mutual trust has been established and we see what talents the person has, we devise and implement an individualised training programme for that employee. Trust and training are crucial because we work with expensive machines and want to deliver quality to our customers at all times.
What are Maksima’s goals for the next five years?
At a minimum, we want to double our sales in five years’ time. We’ve invested a lot in our plant in recent years, and we believe we have the potential for this kind of growth. Now, with the war in Ukraine, supply chains have been disrupted and energy prices have risen. Instead of climbing, our sales curve is rather flat or even points slightly downwards. However, this situation is, we hope, a hiccup, and I remain positive about the longer term.
Where do you get this confidence from?
Rising electricity and commodity prices and higher inflation are generally temporary things. As long as we have some blue sky over our heads, there is still hope. When you wake up in the morning, you need to be grateful for the new day. You need to fill it with positive energy and bring smiles to those around you. This is very important. If you receive a smile, you should give one back.
Mr Matulis, thank you very much for this open and interesting conversation. We wish you all the best and hope that you achieve all your daily, yearly and lifetime goals.
