Tavil injects €60 million to double down on end-of-line automation in Spain

A massive footprint for multiformat technology

In the packaging machinery sector, scale is often the ultimate proof of market validation. Spanish end-of-line manufacturer Tavil is currently executing a €60 million expansion at its Sant Jaume de Llierca complex in Girona. This investment will push the company's total industrial footprint to an impressive 120,000 square meters, signaling a robust response to the global surge in demand for highly flexible, automated packaging lines.

The expansion, spearheaded by the engineering firm Edetco, involves a new 35,000-square-meter ground floor facility, a 27,000-square-meter semi-basement, and 3,000 square meters dedicated to engineering, laboratories, and corporate offices. With construction advancing steadily since last year, the new infrastructure is expected to be fully operational by late 2026. For a sector constantly battling supply chain bottlenecks and SKU proliferation, Tavil's capacity increase is a direct indicator of where the market is heading: hyper-flexible automation.

The financial muscle behind the expansion

Tavil's trajectory over the past decade provides the context for this aggressive capital expenditure. The family-owned company, now in its fourth generation under the leadership of Manel Vilanova Alzamora, has multiplied its revenue sevenfold since 2010. In 2024, the firm reported sales of €141.8 million—a 13.6% year-over-year increase—and a net profit of €17.7 million, which was entirely reinvested into reserves.

This financial health is heavily supported by an aggressive export strategy. International sales account for roughly two-thirds of Tavil's revenue, nearing the €100 million mark in 2024. The company now operates 14 global subsidiaries across markets including the United States, the UK, France, Poland, and Latin America, supporting a workforce of approximately 600 employees.

Engineering flexibility for FMCG and Pharma

The core driver of Tavil's growth is its proprietary multiformat technology. In today's packaging environment, where FMCG and pharmaceutical companies demand rapid changeovers to accommodate diverse product sizes and secondary packaging formats, rigid lines are a liability. Tavil's systems boast automatic format changes in under four seconds, a metric that drastically reduces downtime in case packing and palletizing operations.

Beyond traditional corrugated case packing, the company has been diversifying its portfolio. In 2025, Tavil successfully entered the horizontal flexible packaging market, developing continuous motion machines with ultrasonic welding for pouches and doy-packs. Furthermore, their integration of artificial intelligence and vision systems for traceability in the pharmaceutical sector demonstrates a clear alignment with Industry 4.0 standards.

The European mid-market for packaging machinery continues to prove that specialized, family-owned engineering can outmaneuver larger conglomerates through sheer technological focus. Will the four-second multiformat changeover become the absolute baseline for any new FMCG line by 2028? Follow The Paper for daily news, market signals and key updates from the global paper, corrugated and packaging industry. — Sigue toda la actualidad del sector en www.thepaper.ai