No corrugator, no problem

17 August 2005



Garthwest invests in Bobst converting equipment


Garthwest has secured its position as the largest independent box plant in the UK by sticking closely to its strategy of putting customers and their requirements first … and all without the aid of an on-site corrugator

"Corrugators are fabulous machines," explains sales and marketing director Lindsay West, one of three brothers who run the Hull based company. "But at Garthwest our focus has been on providing our customers with a flexible, cost effective service and we find that having a number of quality sheet feeder suppliers has been the best solution for us.

"The advantage of this approach is that we have been able to implement an extensive capital investment programme over the past five years," he continues. "This has seen us purchase and install an incredible range of converting equipment, rather than tie up all of our capital in a corrugator."

Garthwest's latest investment is a Bobst SPO160-Vision die cutter which is the first complete Bobst Vision die cutter and Vision flexo line in the UK, following the launch of the latter last year.

"This new Bobst line is very efficient, with quick set-up times," explains Lindsay. "It's helping us reduce lead times, which is what our customers are after, it gives us production flexibility and it's more reliable than the two machines it has replaced."

The Vision line is a 1.6m wide configuration, capable of handling sheets up to 1,600 x 1,100mm, and the company has been very impressed with the quality of print produced on it. "We originally saw the Bobst as an investment for our packaging business. But now we can see that we can develop work for it from our point of purchase business, purely because of the print quality we're achieving," explains Lindsay West.

The Bobst line runs at up to 4,500 sheets/hour and, by using independent drives and printing length adaptation technology, ensures the quality of register on the printed sheet. The line features complete integration of printing and die cutting, ensuring maximum production with minimal change-over times. Capable of handling corrugated board from 9mm down to 0.75mm and cartonboard from 0.75mm up, its flexibility was an immediate attraction for Lindsay West and his sales team. "We're getting more and more requests for heavy solid board products and it's now an area that we've got expertise and capacity in."

Garthwest comprises five separate, but inter-related, businesses and reflects the company's far from traditional approach to seeking out opportunities. The original core business, Garthwest Packaging, produces around 1.5M boxes/week in both corrugated and heavy board. This part of the company is the main beneficiary of the new Bobst equipment, using it to produce high quality packaging for hand and auto-erect applications. This part of the business also carries out packaging consultancy on behalf of major retailers.

Garthwest Point of Purchase, located on the same site, is a designer and manufacturer of in-store materials, ranging from counter displays and standees to information centres and dump bins. Then there is GO Design, also on-site, which acts as an agency to both manufacturing operations and to other packaging and retail customers, including a number of major film distributors. At the other end of the artistic spectrum, Garthwest Machinery distributes, installs and maintains TECO automatic tray erector machines in the UK. The fifth and newest part of Garthwest is an internet related business, due to start operation in the next few months.

Lindsay West and his two brothers, managing director Angus, and operations director Raffan, believe that the continued success of the company is due to constantly reappraising what it offers the market. "We set up Garthwest Point of Purchase over 20 years ago, when POP was a very new idea, and it's been a huge success," he explains. "Our view is that we are stronger as a business if we constantly remain at the forefront of our industry in terms of both production and design, and hence we all agree that the Bobst line is a great investment."



Contacts

Garthwest: Tel: +44 (0) 1482 825121 Bobst Group: Tel: +44 (0) 1527 519710




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Bobst SPO160-Vision die cutter in line with three Bobst SPO ... Bobst SPO160-Vision die cutter in line with three Bobst SPO ...


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