Big in small batches

22 December 2005



Short runs a speciality at Scandiflex UK


Some 12 months ago UK based Roloflex was a privately owned, medium size flexo printer and flexible packaging converter. Then the company joined forces with the Scandiflex Pac Group, Sweden's leading producer of short run food packaging laminates. Roloflex offered a perfect fit for Scandiflex to expand its position in the UK as a supplier of small batch laminates to the food industry.

Roloflex was established in 1995 by Robin Newell and two partners - "to offer suppliers of food packaging the kind of response times for printed films increasingly demanded by retailers in search of time based competitive advantage". This philosophy very much embraced the values of service and flexibility upon which Scandiflex had built its success. So, late in 2003, Roloflex became part of the Swedish group.

Scandiflex Pac was established in 1986, "in response to the growing customer need for the opportunity to order smaller batches - combining short lead times with high flexibility and superior print quality". Today it has three production units for lamination and printing - two in Sweden and the one in the UK. There is also a factory in Sweden producing PE film for hygiene products. Group turnover is in excess of SEK300M.

Closeness

Now a big name in small batches, it is one of Sweden's leading producers of printed laminate packaging for the food industry. The group's philosophy is closeness to the customer, "working creatively in partnership" - with an organization to provide maximum flexibility and fast response.

That organization has allowed the UK company to offer the capabilities for which the group has become synonymous while continuing the high level of service upon which Roloflex built its own reputation. Now known as Scandiflex UK, the £4.5M turnover operation has 35 employees converting flexible and semi rigid plastics and laminates. It supplies packaging for Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, and Waitrose, among others, the average job length being 20,000m.

A €1M investment at the 22,000ft2 site near Pershore recently provided a new building to BRC/IOP standard, with a 12,000ft2, warehouse, a solventless laminator, a slitter rewinder, and an automatic core cutter.

Managing director Robin Newell explains: "We started as a trade printer mainly for suppliers of complex film structures who produced their materials in mainland Europe but could not justify local manufacturing, especially printing. We had the expertise and experience and became the first port of call for many companies. We had always planned to get into laminates. That's why we got together with Scandiflex. I liked their ideas, they liked our customer focus and commitment to service provision, and the link-up facilitated our move into laminates and end users.

"We needed a laminator. It was the first time we had used lamination so, based on the Swedish experience with the same machine, we opted for a Comexi solventless model. It was installed in December, 2004. Then, we needed the slitter, because when Scandiflex came in there was an extensive range of products to be manufactured, and our existing machine could not handle them. We had to be able to convert a wide range of materials on one machine." The slitter chosen was a Panthére, from DCM.

"Scandiflex is a DCM house – it's the manufacturer of choice for the Swedes," he expands. "They already had a Usimeca slitter, a DCM product. The only other comparable machine was much more expensive. The Panthére is very versatile: it's very easy to change from one job to the next. This one machine could do all the things we wanted. It also has a very compact footprint , which was important as its location in the plant set-up was crucial. In addition to its scope and size advantages, it's also very fast and easy to use."

The Panthére has two rewind shafts with air differential control bars, a 1,400mm web width, a 1,000mm unwind diameter, and a rewind of 800mm. Minimum slit width is 10mm and the maximum production speed 600m/min, depending on material. It features electronic web tension control and can handle films from 10-800 micron, foil from seven micron, non wovens from 18g/m2, papers and light board, and two-ply laminates up to 500 micron.

The new slitter was installed in January, along with a Parkland TC35 automatic core cutter. "Our cores were cut manually before, but we needed a more precise system to match our new slitter and customer expectations," explains Robin Newell.

For printing there are three flexo presses: Uteco Amber eight colour and Coral six colour CI models, and a four colour Omat stack press, all of 1,200mm print width, and 1,270mm web widths. Plans are afoot to replace the four colour machine with another eight colour press. Repro is supplied from outside, but inks are mixed in-house on a Rexson system. Only solvent based inks are used, Mirage being the main supplier.

A Flexo Wash FW 3000 automatic anilox cleaner installed two years ago was a "fantastic investment," he enthuses, "due to the very wide range of work and different inks we handle".

A £250,000 Sutcliffe Croftshaw SC Bio-Scrubber, a biological treatment plant to control VOC emissions, meets the company's environmental requirements.

Since the link-up with Scandiflex, the UK company has been expanding its existing business and developing new markets for products like the Paperbase and Paperflow paper/plastics laminates developed in Sweden for packaging premium cool-shelf products such as sliced meats and sausages. The introduction of Paperbase, used for tray forming, was one of the main reasons for buying the DCM machine," he remarks. It is a difficult material to slit."

Reflecting on his company's progress, Robin Newell notes: "We still have a good reputation as a trade printer - outer packaging for magazine publishers, for example, and a whole range of other materials used in a variety of sectors, not only food. But the trade print business now accounts for no more than about 20 per cent of our turnover, which leaves us plenty of capacity to maintain the level of service for which we have always been known.

Successful

"Three years ago our business was exclusively print based, but not now. The success of the move into being a supplier of laminates rather than a provider of printing services is based on the successful marriage of the Roloflex and Scandiflex reputations in the UK," he emphasizes. "We will want a second laminator for the future."

What of that future? "The multiples will strengthen own labels and promote them via their packaging. And because time is such a competitive commodity, it's easier for companies of our size to offer quick response. We've always been good at staying close to the customer. Working with the creative people in the supply chain is important. It's about having the access: when you strike a chord with them you can develop relationships which give substance to the concept of partnership. The customer then becomes your best salesperson.

"This comes back to the quality of the machinery we buy – when you have good equipment, operated by excellent people, your customers have confidence in the product they receive."



Contacts

Scandiflex UK Tel: +44 (0) 1386 565730 DCM Tel: +33 01 41 37 52 70




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DCM
Scandiflex UK

Robin Newell (right) with slitter operator Craig Humphries Robin Newell (right) with slitter operator Craig Humphries
Paperbase laminate for premium product packaging Paperbase laminate for premium product packaging
Uteco press produces quality print Uteco press produces quality print
Comexi laminator opens new options for Scandiflex Comexi laminator opens new options for Scandiflex


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