In the UK, Integrated Packaging has moved the production facilities from four sites in Newcastle to a 120,000ft2 factory in Gateshead. The company has spent £3M refurbishing the building and investing in new equipment, which includes a six colour Lithrone LS640 with coater.
"We carried out the entire move, including 140 employees, within one week and have achieved this without losing any productivity," says managing director Alan Hall. "Staff have been superb at pulling out all the stops to ensure that our service to customers has not been affected. We've had to spend a lot of money refitting the Gateshead factory but it is now perfect for our needs and within the first few weeks of being here we are reaping the benefits of having everything under one roof.
"Being as cost effective as possible at every stage of production is vital. For instance, we were previously spending £50,000 a year simply transporting part finished jobs between our different plants, an overhead that is eliminated completely now we are on one site. Efficiency is also why we have chosen the new Lithrone LS640, which provides an extremely high level of automation that enables consistent print quality."
The Komori press was delivered directly to the new premises and was producing work prior to the move of all the other equipment, which includes a three-year old Lithrone L640.
"Both are similar six colour UV presses with coaters but the latest offers significant productivity improvements," says Alan Hall. "Komori has continually pushed forward the boundaries of productivity…quicker makereadies, faster running speeds, the ability to handle greater stock ranges. All of these features help us to keep wastage to a minimum, while allowing us to produce large amounts of print very quickly.
"The new press has lived up to all our expectations," he concludes. "We've had good experiences of the Lithrone's reliability, even when in use 24 hours a day. We plan to operate each Komori press six days a week, with maintenance split between a Saturday and Sunday."
Integrated Packaging supplies most of the UK's main supermarket chains, including Tesco, Morrisons, Iceland, Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer and Asda, as well as customers throughout Europe.
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