ADELPHI MASTERFIL ACQUIRES KARMELLE
Karmelle has joined the Adelphi
Group of Companies, an award-
winning, family-owned UK
manufacturer and supplier of
packaging machinery and equipment.

This strategic step reflects Adelphi’s
ongoing commitment to delivering
the very best in British engineering
and customer service.

Part of the Adelphi Group since
2007, Adelphi Masterfil designs and
manufactures high-performance
liquid filling and capping machinery,
and complete turnkey production
line management for full-scale
manufacturing. The company is best known for
its highly regarded Masterfil range
of filling machines and Mastercap
capping machines, which offer
reliability, precision engineering, and
robust performance.

Karmelle has earned a strong
reputation over the last 35 years
for precision-built machinery,
reliability, and long-standing
customer partnerships, which will
complement and enhance Adelphi’s
existing capabilities.

Karmelle’s former owners are
working closely with the Adelphi
team to ensure a seamless
transition for employees,
customers and ongoing projects,
with uninterrupted service.

Chris Wilson, Managing Director
of Adelphi Group, said: “Karmelle’s
acquisition marks a significant
milestone for the Adelphi Group.

Adelphi Masterfil and Karmelle
share a deep commitment to
UK manufacturing excellence,
engineering innovation, reliability,
and long-standing customer
partnerships. By bringing the
teams and technologies together,
Adelphi and Karmelle will offer
customers more comprehensive,
end-to-end solutions.”
REQUALIFICATION AS A STRATEGIC
OPPORTUNITY FOR SUSTAINABLE
PHARMACEUTICAL PACKAGING
Requalification is often viewed
as a critical though inconvenient
disruption in pharmaceutical
operations, essential for ensuring
product quality, consistency, and
safety. But beyond its compliance
function, this planned downtime
presents a strategic opportunity
to rethink packaging processes and
implement innovative solutions
that enhance sustainability and
efficiency, explains Ian Chapman,
Strategic Manager - Digital Coding
at Domino Printing Sciences.

Pharmaceutical companies are
facing mounting environmental
pressure. According to American
Pharmaceutical Review it is
estimated that pharmaceutical
manufacturing contributes roughly
52 million tonnes of CO 2 annually
via packaging and operations.

The implications are not only
regulatory and financial; consumer
and investor scrutiny is also driving
change. Consumers are increasingly
assessing companies’ environmental
performance and approximately
70% are willing to pay more for
sustainable packaging options.

waste and unused resources. The
use of pre-printed materials, risk-
averse stock levels, and inefficient
changeovers remains widespread.

Even worse, when regulators
change requirements or artwork
evolves, entire batches of packaging
often become obsolete overnight.

Together, these factors are driving
soaring demand for sustainable
pharmaceutical packaging, with
the market set to soar from
$92bn in 2024 to $372bn by 2034,
at a CAGR of 15%. This surge
underscores that sustainability is
no longer optional - it’s essential.

Volatility within supply chains also
adds to the challenge: pharma
manufacturing increasingly
demands agile models that support
small batch sizes and late-stage
customisation. Embracing inline
digital printing systems lets
manufacturers print on demand,
eliminating stockpiles and mitigating
wastage. For example, using blank
foils with inline digital print not
only removes the need for pre-
printed stock but also reduces
inventory complexity. Many
The challenge for pharmaceutical
manufacturing goes beyond a shift
towards sustainable packaging
materials: long-standing packaging
practices contribute to excess
16 CHP PACKER INTERNATIONAL update



LEADERSHIP TRANSITION AT VETTER
Vetter announced the retirement
of its Managing Director Thomas
Otto, who stepped down at the
end of 2025 after more than 35
years at the company.

Through his clear leadership
and commitment, Thomas Otto
was instrumental in shaping
the sustainable development
and continued growth of the
company. As a partner to global
biopharmaceutical companies for
the production of life-enhancing
medicines, Vetter’s success is
partially due to his strong and
reliable leadership alongside his
management colleagues.

“Thomas Otto has decisively
advanced our family business with
his vision, innovative strength
and great sense of responsibility.

His contribution to Vetter’s
development and internationalisation
is outstanding and deserves the
highest recognition,” says Senator
h.c. Udo J. Vetter, Chairman of the
Advisory Board and member of the
owner family.

“For more than three decades, he
was a reliable designer, initiator
and bridge builder - both within
the company and externally. On
behalf of the Vetter family and the
advisory board, I would like to
manufacturers over order between
15% and 20% of pre-printed foils
for each product line, resulting in
significant waste – an inefficiency
eradicated by blank-foil workflows.

Requalification inevitably causes
disruption. The smart approach
is to treat it not as downtime,
but as a strategic opportunity for
continuous improvement.

Inline digital printing systems
also support pharmaceutical
manufacturers to achieve the agility
demanded by constantly evolving
regulations and local adaptations
to support a global market. To
avoid expensive and frustrating
bottlenecks, pharmaceutical
packaging processes must
adapt swiftly, avoiding lengthy
changeovers or new tooling.

Requalification is an ideal time
for manufacturers to modernise
with inline digital printing systems
in order to align packaging with
ESG goals, operational resilience,
and regulatory demands. And
collaboration is critical: partnering
with experts who bring validated
pharmaceutical technology, and
a cooperative approach helps
ensure scalability, accelerated
return on investment, and
reduce risk.

Leveraging adaptable digital
technology allows updates to
languages, graphics, or regulatory
text to be made in real time,
enabling smaller batch runs,
localisation, and rapid adaptation.

Modern connected solutions offer
cloud-enabled capabilities that can
minimise downtime and accelerate
time-to-market, crucial for patient
needs and regulatory demands.

thank him for his extraordinary
commitment and lasting impact on
our success story.”
The planning for the new structure
of the Vetter management team
had already started Long-term
experienced Vetter executives
Henryk Badack, Titus Ottinger and
Carsten Press were appointed to
the Management Board as Managing
Directors at the beginning of 2025.

With their in-depth understanding
of the company, its customers and
the industry, they are making a
significant contribution to Vetter’s
sustainable future and the trust
towards the owner family.

Requalification doesn’t have
to mean falling behind. In fact,
if treated strategically, it can
accelerate the transformation
of pharmaceutical packaging
operations into a more efficient,
sustainable, and future-proof state.

The industry is moving regulations,
markets, technologies are evolving.

Research from Mordor Intelligence
states that the digital packaging
printing market is forecast to grow
from $34bn in 2025 to $56bn
by 2030, a CAGR of over 10%.

More brands are moving away
from analogue prints to plate-
less workflows to enable mass
customisation, reduce waste, and
simplify changeovers.

Another powerful benefit is that
digitalisation dramatically reduces
lead times for artwork changes.

Historically, approvals and printing
could take weeks or months.

Digital workflows, however, can
compress this timeline – getting
lines back up and running and
revenue flowing again, much faster.

By taking the opportunity to
upgrade technologies and
workflows during the
requalification window,
pharmaceutical manufacturers
can reduce waste, improve
responsiveness, and build
long-term operational resilience.

CHP PACKER INTERNATIONAL update 17