Hein Stevens, CEO of Topa, looks back at 2023 and the 40th anniversary of the Topa Institute.

Looking back at 2023, I can say that it was another ‘normal’ year. During the COVID-19 pandemic, which peaked from early 2020 to mid-2022, we expected the demand for packaging to fall. But the opposite happened. Since shops were shut for a long time, a huge amount of shopping was done online. The demand for packaging increased rapidly and, thanks in part to expensive raw materials, prices rose. Although the economy is showing resilience under turbulent macro-economic circumstances, growth fell from 4.5% to 0.8% in 2023. There is a lot of uncertainty about economic development in the medium-term too.

Our mission is to make things easier for our customers, day after day
This uncertainty has actually made little difference to the operation of Topa. We have no plans to change course in the future. We will continue to focus on cooperation with our partners, suppliers and customers. Topa is a company focused on today’s demand and tomorrow’s developments. Our mission is to provide our customers with support and their products with optimal protection, day after day.

We look at the footprint of both our company and our products
Sustainability is a specific policy area at Topa. Together with our partners, suppliers and customers, we are aiming for less. Less CO₂ emissions, less material, less waste, less time and less space. We want to work together to operate as sustainably as possible. Our focus on less is determined partly by laws and regulations, but also by our own convictions. We look at the footprint of our company on the one hand and the footprint of our products on the other.

We can officially call ourselves a climate-neutral company once again in 2023. We have compensated for our CO₂ emissions by supporting a wind turbine project in Chile. We are also switching to green energy, improving the sustainability of our business premises, reducing our waste streams and making our car fleet greener.

Our products are getting greener too. They are made more and more often (partially) from recycled materials and are recyclable again after use too. We are also aiming to use less cardboard, less filling materials and less tape to protect fragile products.

2023 saw major investment in the Topa Institute
In 2023 we celebrated 40 years of the Topa Institute, the development, testing and research centre for packaging. The institute has seen major investment. The lay-out of the Topa Institute has been completely reimagined and the horizontal shock machine, compression-testing machine and free-fall shock table have been replaced. We have also invested in a new acceleration machine, allowing us to test load security. We now have everything we need to carry out all transport simulation tests perfectly. This allows us to provide our customers’ products with optimum protection using less and/or more sustainable packaging materials.

We will be happy to help you find an alternative solution that costs less
The great thing about our approach of ‘aiming for less together’ is that it results in the right packaging, not only with a lower carbon footprint but also at an attractive price. As a packaging specialist, we will be by your side every day in word and deed, to come up with the packaging solution that best suits you. In 2024 too!

With greetings from our CEO, Hein Stevens.