In recent decades, society has become increasingly digitalized, creating new opportunities and possibilities, but also challenges. It has become easier to purchase products from all over the world. However, at the same time, you also face challenges such as potential language and cultural barriers and possible time differences when setting up a good collaboration. Additionally, you can’t just drop by if something is unclear, and it can often take a long time before you receive the product. With a local partner, you don’t have to deal with these issues.

The Dutch Manufacturing Industry Connects

Gefken Cases has been designing and producing custom cases and flightcases from the Netherlands since 1959. With its own factory in the Netherlands, they are the local partner for your packaging solutions. The wide range of aluminum profile cases and custom flightcases offers solutions for every industry and application. In this article, we highlight several companies from the manufacturing industry, also based in the Netherlands and producing there, for whom Gefken has produced one or more packaging solutions.

Flightcases for Avy’s Drones

The scale-up company Avy builds ‘fixed wing VTOL drones’ for two markets. In medical logistics, the drones transport blood samples or vaccinations from hospital to hospital or to laboratories. But they are also widely used in emergency response for tasks such as locating and rescuing drowning victims, detecting forest fires, and inspecting oil spills in ports. Avy had previously ordered flightcases from Gefken and sought a custom case again for their new product, Area 3.

“Important factors for choosing Gefken again are their experience in understanding what we want and can do with the drone, as well as knowing the requirements for taking it on an airplane, etc.,” says Head of Tech Matthijs Damen. “As a scale-up, we may not be the easiest customer because the product itself is still in development. And as a startup, timelines and budgets can sometimes be quite tight. We look for partners that we can work well with, where we can go to and explain our requirements. And Gefken meets those requirements.”

Local Benefits in Logistics

The fact that Gefken is a Dutch company located somewhat near Avy’s office was especially convenient in terms of logistics. “It’s not only practical for the delivery of the flightcases themselves, and that you can still drop by to pick something up if needed,” says Matthijs, “but also that you can bring the drone by so Gefken can hold it and fit it to see if everything, as the CAD model showed, is correct. These kinds of verifications are incredibly valuable.”

Matthijs found the whole process very pleasant. He really felt that they were thinking along with the difficult requirements and that Gefken came up with out-of-the-box solutions for some problems. He also found the 3D models, called renders, extremely useful. These photorealistic designs are created in advance by Gefken. “You can not only see how the layout roughly works, but also better imagine what size it will be and if it will be practical for the end user.”

The Luxury EDGE Case for FritsJurgens

A completely different customer of Gefken Cases is FritsJurgens, a supplier of a hinge system for pivot doors where the hinge is integrated into the door rather than the floor. FritsJurgens developed this system in response to the specific request, particularly from architects, to create larger doors with fewer architectural implications. Architects, designers, and door manufacturers from around the world now apply the pivot hinges. Since each pivot hinge is hidden, this results in beautiful pivot doors with a very luxurious appearance.

Quality is a top priority at FritsJurgens. And this applies not only to the products but also to the service and presentation. For their dealers, FritsJurgens was looking for a packaging solution in which they could present all the products to their clients. They found Gefken Cases online and chose them because the level of quality Gefken strives for aligns perfectly with FritsJurgens’ philosophy.

Matching the Company’s Image

An important requirement was that the desired presentation solution not only had to be practical but also had to match the image of FritsJurgens. This led them to the EDGE, the luxury ‘custom-made’ presentation case from Gefken Cases. “The EDGE case has the most beautiful appearance and fits best with our company. The quality of the material is also excellent,” says Marko Kamminga, CEO of FritsJurgens. With the EDGE case, the pivot hinges can be presented in a professional and distinctive way. The curved aluminum profile of the case provides a unique and exclusive look, which can be fully customized to match the company’s corporate style.

The fact that both companies are based locally in the Netherlands was an advantage in the collaboration. For the intake meeting, Diego Noriega, Commercial Director at Gefken, visited FritsJurgens. “He worked very efficiently and solution-oriented,” says Marko. “Together, we looked for a solution that closely aligned with what we had envisioned. You can tell they really have a lot of experience and immediately pinpoint the key issues. Gefken took care of all the fittings for our products in the EDGE case and fully relieved us of that task.”