The general manager of Anzpac Services, Geoff Boshell, says, “When we decided to invest in a new press we did not want to play catch-up with everyone else, we wanted to go as far as technology would take us, to set the new standard.”

Anzpac was established just before the separate colonised States became a Federation, in 1900, as a family owned company, Deaton & Spencer experienced rapid growth during the 1960s and 70s as a supplier of cigarette cartons to Rothmans, and was then bought by the customer in 1986. A new greenfield site was established in 1992, and with it came new gravure presses and a 50” sheetfed litho press. In 1999 the merger of Rothmans and BAT resulted in Anzpac becoming the regional printing and packaging arm of BAT Australasia.

The company is today a stand-alone business unit of BAT, and is one of the top three Australian packaging printers. It produces work for BAT’s four Australasian regions; Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guineau and the South Pacific, but is also printing for a growing number of non-group customers, including McDonalds, Colgate and Mars, with the outside work now accounting for 35 per cent of throughput. Some 20 per cent of its work is exported. It is one of only two gravure and litho packaging plants in Australia, and has 180 staff producing packaging 24 hours a day.

Goeff Boshell says, “We decided to invest in a new press when our capacity on our existing machine was full, and we could see the need our customers had for more work, and for quicker turnaround times. Our existing machine in terms of productivity it has been superceded by the modern machines. We want to grow our business, we believe that we have an excellent business, so we wanted to build on what we have achieved and take it to a new level.”

Why specify such a large machine though, after all no-one had gone that long before? Geoff Boshell says, “We knew with a new press we had the opportunity for something special, we didn’t just want a typical six-colour with coater, we wanted to lift the benchmark as high as it could go, we wanted UV, more colours, perfecting, not just because we could have them, but in order to be able to offer the market new benefits and new possibilities.”

Anxpac went through a careful analysis of the market when choosing the manufacturer of its new press. Mr Boshell says, “Our choice came down to one of two presses, however the KBA press was more suited to our requirements, it offered perfecting for instance, and we found it to be very user-friendly for the operators. The level of automation is remarkable, we have automated plate changing, automated ink and dampener wash-up, then small aspects such as the hickey pickers just suited us.

“Further the KBA approach of having high levels of press automation fitted with our desire to have our press operators essentially acting as quality control managers at the delivery end of the press, rather than manually operating the press, so enabling the highest levels of quality, and maximising their skills. This was all in the concept of the Rapida 142. Minimising make-ready was a key aspect for Anzpac, and we aim to have the KBA making ready in 25 per cent of the time of the existing machine.”

The new KBA Rapida 142 is joined by new die cutting and gluing equipment, and the company’s first computer to plate system, which will give Anzpac one of the most modern and productive packaging plants in the world. It is the latest part of a $30m investment programme that the company initiated two years ago. For the first time every aspect of production will take place in-house.

Geoff Boshell says, “Until now we have never been able to aggressively market our sheetfed business because of capacity constraints. Now however we have the firepower to go to market with a very attractive proposition. The press has only been running for a short time, but so far we are delighted with it, and I’m sure it will help us all to grow our businesses.”

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