Left to right: Gary Large (ProPrint Group Cartons Production Manager), Bob Green (ProPrint Group Operations Director) and Nick Hart (Heiber & Schröder UK).
ProPrint Group has been investing hard as it looks to bolster its position as a leading packaging provider in the UK market. In just the last two years, the company’s carton division has doubled its litho printing capacity with a £1.8m investment in a Komori Lithrone GL640 press, as well as adding a third Eterna ELITE 1060 E die-cutter to their inventory. Now, they have added two CE PRO tray erectors from Heiber + Schröder.
Left to right: Bob Green, Gary Large and Harro de Vries (Komori).
Collective Print Power
ProPrint Group is operated by two like-minded directors Nigel Tollman and James Denny. It is comprised of ProPrint Group Cartons, established in 1997 and ProPrint Group Labels, formed in 2011. The ProPrint Group collective goal was to widen the printed packaging range and optimise already high service levels. With shared overheads and management, a combined investment strategy has followed consistently year on year.
A £4.5m investment plan in 2022 resulted in the acquisition of its third modern, high-performing site that matches the company’s approach to printing. Now, the ProPrint Group operates across 83,000 sq ft of facilities. Their growing range of machinery includes twelve UV/LED presses that cover three print processes: litho, flexo and digital.
A dedicated studio manages a variety of pre-press, artwork and design work. The whole team fulfil a wide range of printed packaging requirements, from single mock-up samples to high volume carton and label orders.
‘One stop shop’ for labels & cartons
Now employing 150 people as well as temporary staff across three factories on the Park Farm Industrial Estate in Wellingborough, Northants, the company generates in excess of £22m per annum in sales. Today, the split between folding carton and labels businesses is a balanced 50/50.
As a print supplier for FMCG packaging and with a specialisation in fast turnaround for fresh produce companies, ProPrint Group prides itself on taking away pain points for customers.
“We pull together as a team and believe in going that extra mile; we take problems away from our customers to provide the best possible label and packaging solution. Working together means we can streamline processes to be super-efficient,” explains Nigel Tollman, Owner. “We combine technical expertise for print, colour and artwork management across various print formats, and use this to support and develop our staff. Notably, our team offers extensive print experience across many packaging sectors. This adds value for customers as we can support the full product and packaging development process, right from concept to shelf.”
Kerbside recyclable packaging
One area that has seen particular growth is carton board packaging solutions for fresh produce, as supermarkets strive to minimise the impact of hard to recycle film. In response, ProPrint Group provide two fully kerbside recyclable, paper-based retail pack formats for fruit and vegetables: the Linerless Pro-Produce Pack (comprised of a nested carton-board tray with linerless lid) and more recently, the WingTray.
“With the pressure on brand owners and retailers to move away from single use plastic and into sustainable fibre-based packaging, we have invested in two new tray erector lines for our Faraday site,” Tollman continues. “We opted for two machines from Heiber + Schröder, as we needed machines that had the ability to run at ultra-high speed and produce high volumes of carton trays. Our mission is to meet the needs of our customers who are actively making the switch away from single use plastics.”
Added strength and capacity
As part of a £1.5m investment plan undertaken in the summer, ProPrint Group took delivery of two machines from Heiber + Schröder – a CE 1000-2 PRO and a CE1000-2 PRO plus an extra length folding station. Importantly, the folding station enables production of reinforced wall trays, adding even better protection for fruit & vegetables.
ProPrint Group customers are already benefitting from stronger trays manufactured at higher volumes. Manufactured in Germany, the CE1000 PRO can form both Wing Trays and nested trays at high speeds. Thanks to a rotary stencil or bottom/top glue gun, the lines are not limited in their flexibility. Each machine is quick and easy to set, thanks to the processor controlled blank feeder with intuitive set-up functions. To increase productivity and reduce downtime, each line has a preparation jig for off-machine set-up of new configurations. With the latest servo drive technology, the machine is energy efficient and an onboard computer system can store previous job recipes for fast set-up from memory. It can handle folding carton from 200 to 600gsm and even corrugated board up to E flute (1.5mm).
“When it comes to tray production or carton nesting the CE PRO is a first-class solution in terms of productivity and ease of use,” says Ricardo Molina, Head of Sales, Heiber + Schröder. “It is a machine that gives you the opportunity to create a wide range of products for customers that demand out-of-home food container for fast food and take away. We are really excited about watching ProPrint Group enhance production utilising these two new machines – and in a short period of time, their operators had them flying at high speed with no issues.”
Speed, strength and energy efficiency
“With the addition of the two new CE PRO lines, we have greatly enhanced our tray capacity for the fresh produce and food market,” says Bob Green, Operations Director. “With a keen eye on energy usage as we look to reduce our carbon footprint, these new machines are the ultimate in efficient operation.”
Green adds, “We saw Heiber + Schröder as the market leader in terms of tray production, which strongly influenced our decision to invest. Their expertise has proven invaluable, the Heiber + Schröder UK team have been first class in terms of installation and training. The first few months of production have really impressed us, with output comfortably meeting increased demand.”
He concludes, “ProPrint Group’s core ethos is focused on meeting and exceeding customer expectations, providing timely solutions with minimum fuss. Our customers enjoy the convenience of ordering a range of carton board packaging and labels from one reliable, high-quality printed packaging provider. The addition of the new tray formers from Heiber + Schröder certainly means that for customers looking to move to fibre-based trays for fresh produce, they need look no further than ProPrint Group.”
