Banbury Litho has installed a Kama Comcut to relieve a bottleneck as demand for its packaging print services grows.
The company has relied either on a slow and steady Heidelberg Cylinder or trade suppliers to keep up with demand for boxes produced on its pair of B2 Heidelberg Speedmaster. Shorter run packaging, printed on a flatbed Mimaki is dealt with effectively by a Kongsberg cutting table.
The company has shifted its balance towards creative packaging, something that has fed into a 14% increases in sales compared to pre Covid levels and to projections for a similar double-digit growth this year.
“What has worked well in particular has been large format,” says commercial director Matthew Plant. “This has exceeded all expectations along with digital thanks to investment in a Xerox Iridesse, Mimaki and the Kongsberg. Compared to this, litho has stuck at close to pre pandemic levels.
He says: “Targeting shorter run packaging which is printed with sensory effects on the Mimaki to create the wow impact for influencers describing the unboxing experience on social media. This packaging goes to 500-1000 influencers for a brand.”
Now the ComCut will tackle longer runs. “We are being asked to do more and more in packaging and the Cylinder we have used for cutting and creasing in limited in speed and is causing a bottleneck. The Kama can also emboss and deboss and produce braille and will deliver a significant impact on those bottlenecks,” he says. “We are also able to produce kiss cuts on the Kama where the Cylinder was not up to this.”
The flatbed platen was supplied by Friedheim International in the UK with assistance in training provided by the German manufacturer.
As well as the tactile effects that are possible with the ComCut, Banbury Litho increases the impact of printed packaging through the use of fluorescents and especially white which is printed, with a double hit for opacity, on its LED UV press. “There is definitely a market for printing white on coloured substrates,” Plant says. “The message that we want people to come to Banbury for creativity is getting out. We have grown the design team over the last couple of years so we can take the consultative approach for customers who are coming to us even before they know precisely what they are going to produce.”
The next step is likely to be a carton gluer as the next logical progression in the company’s development. “It’s about investing in people as well as the equipment,” he says.
