Medica Packaging Adds Fourth Komori

Medica Packaging, part of the Benson Group, has installed a six colour B1 Komori as the latest addition to its carton press line up. Medica is based in Cheshire and a leading supplier of folding cartons and leaflets to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in the UK and worldwide. All carton work is printed on Komori presses; a four-colour Lithrone 428, a six-colour Lithrone 628 and two six-colour Lithrone S640s. The newest of these B1 LS40s was installed towards the end of 2007 and has already generated a production increase of 30%.

Formed in the 1920's, the company became part of GlaxoSmithKline, formally known as the Wellcome Group in the early 70’s, but still remained an autonomous business. In 1993 the company was taken into private ownership through an MBO, and in late 2005 was acquired by Benson Box. Today Peter Brassington is General Manager of the site which employs a team of 220. Medica’s profit margins have strengthened during that time and turnover has grown strongly to reach £17m per annum.

When asked about trends affecting the business, General Manager, Peter Brassington, said: “We are finding that customers are becoming much more focussed about print specifications including coatings and substrates. There is increased demand for security elements such as covert and overt features in the artwork and specialist label applications for counterfeit protection of global pharma products. Pilferage is a key issue for the pharmacies and supermarket chains and electronic labelling applications to counter this is also a solution that Medica is supplying to the market. We have had to reduce lead times whilst continually working to the leanest costs as it’s not unusual for customers to hold reverse auctions not just for complete business tenders but also individual product lines to lower the price.

“In order to help service these demands, we looked for the press with the shortest makeready speeds and the Komori is the best on the market. The LS40 has reduced changeover times drastically with its pre-set functions, wash ups and top running speed of 16,000 sheets per hour. Our main requirement was compatibility and a highly competitive commercially viable machine. We considered three major manufacturers but made the decision to order a fourth Lithrone based not only on the fact that our minders are familiar with the machines, but that Komori offers excellent service levels, good value and a commercial price. Komori is one of the strongest players in the market today.”

Medica is constantly implementing new technology and plans to widen its current market with an increase in exporting; many UK companies are moving to Europe making it necessary to follow the business abroad. The increased cost of raw materials has led Medica to look at ways of becoming even more efficient and flexible in adding value to their production processes in order to grow, and they have purchased an application for applying security labels, and a pick and place system for inserting plastic windows, as well as investing in new pre-press equipment, a gluing machine and the latest environmentally focused fleet of distribution vehicles.