New Heidelberg XL 105 for Benson Group

July 2009

Exactly two years after returning to Heidelberg from a rival supplier, Benson Group, the current UK Packaging Company of the Year, is installing a second Speedmaster XL 105 at its Bardon plant. The press will be commissioned by the end of July.

The new six-colour with coating unit will again run alcohol free and is selected as a direct result of the performance of the first press.

Benson Group Managing Director, Mark Kerridge says: "Two years ago we bought the XL 105 because we wanted to look at new technology and use it in anger. It has proved very successful, running most commonly at 18,000sph, with an impressive make-ready time and taking the quality benchmark to a new and reliably good level."

As a result of public interest in environmental issues many of Benson Group's customers are concerned to engage in the green debate. The Bardon plant is very environmentally aware and this has resulted in the move to zero alcohol, the use of spectrophotometric measurement and print colour management to reduce waste sheets, and a focus on recycling and re-using of all resources generally.

Benson Group, which acquired certain trading assets of Cameron Linn at the turn of the year, is a £93m group. The Bardon plant outputs 750 million cartons a year for the food sector, whilst the group also maintains a strong interest in pharmaceutical carton production.

"Demand is still relatively good. People are eating in more (out less) and the pharmaceutical sector is still retaining good volumes," says Mr Kerridge. "We have noticed some change in product mix with a move from luxury to standard and economy products. But brand is still important and four process colours plus two specials is still a well used combination. There has been a lot of rebranding and repositioning for greater shelf appeal as a result of the downturn."

Both XL 105 presses at Bardon are fitted with Axis Control. "We like the ease and speed of use of AxisControl. It is very suitable to our production requirements. The key issue is that we have accurate colour measurement as we work to the ISO 12647-2 standard," says Mr Kerridge.

The press also has coating, like the first, and it will offer UV, IR and aqueous options to its customers.

"We have invested significantly over the past seven years and have grown organically and by acquisition. We will continue to look at more options in future," says Mr Kerridge.