Herbert Walkers is awaiting delivery of a six-colour plus coater Speedmaster XL106 to complete a £10 million investment programme at the Shipley business.
The new machine joins a seven-colour XL106 installed 18 months ago and investment in foiling, cutting and creasing and folder gluing capacity that started six years ago. Managing director Mike Lammas says: “Once we had the finishing in place we have invested in print.”
Carton printing is proving to be a growth area for the company. Greetings cards, its traditional market, are stable and show steady growth says Lammas “but not as quickly as packaging work”.. The opportunity he explains is in working with brands that prefer to work with independent suppliers and the service they receive rather than work with the multinational groups which are set up to serve international brands. “These are customers that are big for us, but not for the groups,” says Lammas.
The company becomes a three-press operation with an XL105, the seven-colour machine and now a six-colour press which replaces the oldest of two XL105s. “All the machines are combination presses able to un both conventional and UV inks. That is why we have kept the older machine,” he says.
The idea is to keep one press on conventional inks where possible. “We did think about whether we would need UV, but the demand is there in the short term at least. We had to make sure we thought about future proofing because the trend is to come away from UV.”
There was no need to match the seven colours of the first XL106 as the majority of work only needs six colours he says. “By installing a second Speedmaster XL106 6+L, we are increasing our capacity, improving efficiency, and ensuring we continue to deliver the highest quality for our customers.”
The press will slot into a Prinect workflow which in turn links to an ePS Tharstern MIS to have a cross factory workflow.
The new press will position Herbert Walkers among the best invested of the independent carton converters in the country.
