Woodberry Packaging has continued its acquisition led growth with the purchase of Reelvision, a company specialising in printing cartons, particularly pharmaceutical cartons, using flexo technology.
The company, based in Rossendale near Blackburn, has been printing flexo for 15 years on Edale presses, installing an FL5 530mm-wide machine as its third press last year.
The technology is ideal for the small format cartons. The concept enables printing from the reel and after printing, die cutting and folding inline, so labour requirements from clean sheet to finished product are minimal.
Woodberry chairman Mark Kerridge says that Reelvision’s services “will complement the healthcare and pharma markets served by Colorman, build on our growing presence in the UK and offer flexo printing technologies alongside our existing digital and litho capabilities”.
It will also tie in to previous Woodberry purchases in the UK, namely Incodia and Precision Card Services. The latter is in Macclesfield, the former in Colchester and Skelmesdale. There will be a closer tie for Reelvision with Dublin located Colorman which serves a similar customer base.
The flexo technology, once in place and running, offers stable printing and is capable of fine linework, ideal for pharmaceutical and some cosmetics packaging where the consistent colour flexo delivers is what customers look for.
Reelvision joint managing director Gareth Bakewell told Print Business last year: “We are selling on consistency which with flexo is better than litho. The use of a doctor blade and anilox gives very consistent colour and we do not suffer from colour shift during a run or for a reprint. We are better too than digital because they are spraying inks rather than printing with a PMS spot colour. We find that digital cannot compete with us beyond 1,000 units.”
The two companies started to talk at the end of last year, making this a smooth negotiation. Kerridge comments: “It was when we first entered into discussions, that the ethos and passion of the team with Reelvision Print mirrors the values of the Woodberry Group.”
Bakewell says: “Our state of the art, one-pass production process, combined with our highly experienced team and their passion and attention to detail, allows us to guarantee a rapid, reliable and flexible service. With the backing of the Woodberry Packaging Group, we are very excited to see how we can expand and grow the company.”
