Rovema GmbH ceased its ongoing partnership with Rovema Packaging Machines L.P. and opened a 27,000-square-foot facility in Norcross, Ga., that will serve as the headquarters for its new entity Rovema North America.

Though Rovema North America will initially focus on sales and service, it is planned that the plant will eventually be utilized for engineering and manufacturing as well.

"We appreciate the relationship we have had with Klaus Kraemer and Charlotte Koellner [of Rovema Packaging Machines L.P.], but this completes our goal to become a unified worldwide organization," says Thomas Becker, managing partner of Rovema GmbH. "In recent years, it has been our goal to reunite our North American operations with our headquarters and technology center in Fernwald, Germany. We believe the change in ownership in North America will benefit our customers by better leveraging our strong technological developments, global business insights and stable financial structure."

Food packaging equipment veteran John Panaseny was tapped as Rovema North America's first chief executive officer.

"We at Rovema are very pleased to have John join our team and believe he will be a strong contributor to the growth of the reunited Rovema North America business,” Becker adds. “He has a proven history of growing business through a combination of strong customer focus and solid business management."

"Our success is truly tied to our customer's success, and Rovema has a long tradition of partnering with its customers to help them succeed in their respective markets with superior equipment designs and new package developments,” says Panaseny. “I look forward to leading the North America business, as we continue to build on the accomplishments of the last 50 years of Rovema market leadership."

Rovema GmbH manufactures equipment for dosing, vertical form-fill-seal pouching, cartoning and final packaging operations.