The new owner of packaging printer Anzpac has renamed the company New Anzpac as half the 75 staff left with their redundancy packages.

Hong Kong based Jerome Chan – who has little previous connection with the printing or packaging industry – was in Sydney to oversee the transition of the iconic company from previous owner New Toyo Group to his hands.

The redundancies were put in place by New Toyo, with the staff finishing on the final day of its ownership. The company now has around 30 staff at the plant. Steve Arduin remains as head of operations at the plant, located in the heart of Sydney.

The business will continue with its aim of growing in the food, beverage, confectionary and cosmetics markets.

New Anzpac as it is now known is one of the oldest print businesses in Australia. At one stage it was feared it would have to be closed, as the company struggled with the plain packaging laws for its major activity, cigarette cartons.

Anzpac was founded in 1900 as a family owned business Deaton & Spencer. It was bought by its major customer cigarette manufacturer Rothmans in1986, which merged with British American Tobacco in 1999. In 2004 it installed the world’s longest KBA 142 press which came with multiple print and coat units.

By 2005 it was one of the top three Australian packaging printers and produced the packaging used for cigarettes across the country. However a decline in cigarette consumption and latterly the plain packaging laws made most of the new press virtually redundant, so the company switched to other packaging sectors.

Anzpac was sold in 2008 to the New Toyo Group for $60m. New Toyo is currently producing the plain packaging used in Australia’s cigarette packets, although it is no longer done in the country.

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