Extrusion International 6-2021

48 Extrusion International 6/2021 COMPANY ANNIVERSARY – INTERVIEW Celebrating 70 Years of a Family Business Nick Coombes: Can we go back to the very beginning – how and where did it all happen? Frank Eisby: It all started 70 years ago in Kolding when my Father was speaking with a printer who was hav- ing problems getting ink to adhere to the new plastic packaging materials that were becoming popular in the early 1950s. Most people the print- er asked had no idea how to solve the problem, but Verner, who was an electronics engineer, was accus- tomed to working with high voltage bulbs and broadcasting systems – and because he was something of an inventor, was keen to accept the challenge and set about fi nding a so- lution in his workshop. What was it like growing up with an inventor in the household? Jan Eisby: Very busy! My parents worked around the clock – my Father ran his business during the day and spent all night inventing and building things. Our Mother, Grethe, looked after the fi nances to make sure the family always had food on the ta- ble. In fact, they were so committed to their work that even our family holidays were combined with visit- ing customers throughout Europe. We had an interesting but different childhood! ling around theWorld visiting various universities and institutes explaining the process and fi nally came up with the corona treatment theory – and it’s still the fundamental principle of what we do today. What have been the major mile- stones along the way? Frank: Without doubt, creating the corona discharge, because it’s central to the process. But it’s also thewaywe have managed to explain the theory behind the technology and convince people of its value. This has been es- sential to Vetaphone taking corona treatment from a workshop experi- ment to a viable commercial process. Equally, an understanding of the dif- ferent substrates has been important to developing the correct treatment – we call it watt density now, but it How did the company come to be called Vetaphone? Jan: That goes back even further to Verner’s schooldays, when along with a friend called Tage, he was building speakers and ampli fi ers for parties and the music business. One of the hottest technologies at the time was phonics, especially ship to shore radio, so they took the ‘Ve’ from Verner and the ‘Ta’ from Tage and added ‘phone’ to get the name Vetaphone – it’s as simple as that! What was driving the demand for surface treatment in the early days? Frank: The brand owners were want- ing to add more colour to their pack- aging especially in the food sector, where the new plastic materials were giving a longer shelf life to their prod- ucts. More colour also added custom- er appeal to their branded goods. Remember, we’re talking about the time when most food items were still being sold loose and were not pack- aged. How did Vetaphone cope with this? Jan: I think the early day were cha- otic! Verner had invented a process that everybody wanted, but nobody knew how or why it worked, which made it very dif fi cult to sell to the in- dustry. So, he spent 12 years travel- As Vetaphone passes another signi fi cant milestone in its history, owners Frank and Jan Eisby give a personal insight to Nick Coombes about the early days of the company and how their Father, Verner, became one of the great pioneers in the printing and converting industries The sons of the founder reminisce on 70 years of Vetaphone history