At interpack 2026, Australian packaging and processing machinery supplier J.L.Lennard announced it has secured the agency for German confectionery equipment specialist Sollich, as well as Chocotech cooking systems, marking a strategic expansion into the confectionery processing sector across Australia and New Zealand.
PKN met with J.L.Lennard CEO Paul Meischke, packaging sales director Russell White, and Packaging Division NSW strategic sales manager Mahdokht Aghel on the Sollich stand in Düsseldorf, shortly after the agreement officially commenced on 1 May.
Aghel, who joined J.L.Lennard around 12 months ago and will lead the Sollich and Chocotech confectionery portfolio across ANZ, described the move as “a new era” for the company.
“It’s very exciting,” she said. “Not only for me, but also for the company. I believe this is also a new era for J.L.Lennard as well – stepping into confectionery, something new, exciting and at the same time challenging.”
Meischke said the addition of Sollich significantly broadens the company’s offering to confectionery manufacturers, a sector where J.L.Lennard had previously only limited involvement.
“It expands our portfolio and gives us many more opportunities with customers that we’re not intimately involved with now,” he said.
“Previously we’ve been quite shallow in our product range for confectionery. This gives us entry into a group of customers we can now be very active with.”
The Sollich portfolio spans chocolate handling, enrobing, cooling, tempering, sugar mass cooking and hard candy production systems, targeting manufacturers from boutique confectioners through to multinational producers.
According to White, both replacement demand and new product development activity are driving market interest.
“The Australian market is full of obsolete equipment,” he said. “There’s a lot of replacement work that will come up in the next few years.”
He added that customers visiting the stand during interpack discussions were exploring both line upgrades and new production opportunities.
“There’s a combination of line upgrades and new product development coming through as well. They’re not just looking at replacing old machines, but also finding new machines.”
The relationship with Sollich had been under discussion for around 12 months prior to being finalised at the show.
“It’s been a mutual handover,” White explained, referring to the company’s previous Australian representation arrangement.
The J.L.Lennard executives also highlighted the cultural alignment between the two privately owned companies as an important factor in the partnership.
“What we like about Sollich is that it’s also a family-owned business, so it’s a very flat structure,” White said.
“Our owner, David Boekemann, was here and met directly with the Sollich family. It fits very well with our business.”
At interpack, Sollich showcased a broad suite of confectionery production technologies focused on hygiene, digitalisation and flexible manufacturing. Highlights included the latest generation ENROMAT M6 Flex enrobing machine, upgraded THERMO-FLOW+ cooling tunnels, AI-supported process optimisation systems, and the compact MINICONBAR system for flexible bar production.
Digital integration also remains a major focus for the German manufacturer, with its SweetConnect platform enabling production management, maintenance planning and remote service connectivity across mixed-vendor production environments.
Sollich is also strengthening its single-source production offering through integration with cooking systems from Chocotech GmbH for sugar, jelly and caramel mass production.
