The seventh HP Indigo 200K to be installed by ePac Flexible Packaging has bedded in at the group’s second UK site in Sheffield.
The company has installed the previous six of what its HP’s flagship flexible packaging press at locations in the US. The installation is part of a multi-press order announced at Drupa last year.
The announcement of the Yorkshire site to be the sister of the established factory at Silverstone, was made at the end of 2022. It has gone into operation this year with installation of the 200K along with thermal laminator and pouch making equipment. The business has partnered with Nordamerica to develop a thermal laminator and has used Karville as the supplier of pouch making equipment.
The plant can produce stand up and flat punches as well as roll stock flexible packaging with short run production and fast delivery as the USPs over conventional suppliers.
The Silverstone site has a brace of Indigo 20K presses installed in 2019. The Indigo 200K is 30% faster than the older model and achieves a 45% higher productivity thanks to this and other developments.
The initial argument for ePac Flexible Packaging has been to serve artisan and emerging brands located within relative proximity to the production sites. That has been refined to include production spread across multiple sites under the ePacOne (One Network Anywhere) service. This manages global production for a customer spread across different sites exploiting digital distribution using a cloud network. The standardisation on the HP Indigo platform helps achieve this.
“HP Indigo remains integral to our mission,” says ePac Holdings Europe managing director Johnny Holbeika. “Their technology has enabled us to grow from a single-site operation to a pan-European network. This latest investment is not just a tech upgrade, it’s a reaffirmation of our shared vision for high quality flexible packaging.
“We have witnessed firsthand the ways in which digital print has transformed communities and created new economies in recent years. Now, with our focus on expanding in the Emea region, we’re building momentum and unlocking new opportunities for brands ready to embrace digital.”
While this is the first Indigo 200K within ePac in Europe, it is not the first example of this press in the UK. That is in operation at BakPac in Brentwood.
