Page 22 - PWM2025_MARCH EBOOK

NEWS GLOBAL

IN BRIEF BOBST boosts

Former prime minister
Theresa May, now the
B ar on es s Ma y o f
Maidenhead, has accepted efficiency, productivity
the Printing Charity’s invi-
tation to become its 2025
president. May will be BOBST customers can cut minutes with the SPEED
keynote speaker at the patching time by up to 15 CHANGE feature set. By
charity’s 196th annual
luncheon, held on 13 minutes per job and reduce adding the optional Energy
November 2025. Now a member of the House of Lords, as an cardboard consumption after Efficiency Pack and a new
MP she held her seat in Maidenhead for 27 years, standing the global leader in printing range of technical innova-
down in 2024. Prime minister from 2016-19, she was only and converting equipment tions, the EXPERTCUT 106
the second woman to hold the office. She has been a sup-
porter of the mentoring and promotion of women’s and services added two EXPERTCUT 106 PER PER sets new standards for
involvement in the Conservative party, co-founding pres- unique new features to its production efficiency. At
sure group Women2Win in 2005. May said: “Print plays a EXPERTCUT 106 PER. The PATCHING plate, which drupa 2024, BOBST intro-
vitally important part in ensuring that as many people as minimize or compensate
possible can have access to information they need to know. upgrades to the die-cutter are duced the world to a first-to-
Printing Charity CEO Neil Lovell told Printweek he was designed to help converters platen deformation, as well market innovation in the
delighted to welcome May as the charity’s figurehead. save set up time and as POWER REGISTER Plus, die-cutting sector:
resources by optimizing which reduces sheet waste by ACCUPLATEN. “This rede-
Macfarlane Group’s pre-
tax profit has climbed by machine tooling and increas- introducing a new register signed machine platen is a
3% while its revenue ing sheet register capabilities. mark registration system. game changer,” says Bodo
dropped by 4% in 2024. In These include the new BOBST already reduced Junge, Product Marketing
its preliminary results
posted this morning (27 ACCUPLATEN machine setup time on its folding car- Director responsible for the
February) for the year pl at en an d ZE RO ton die-cutter range by 15 die-cutter range.
ended 31 December 2024,
th e G las gow -
headquartered packaging giant recorded turnover of Automation of coating process
£270.4m, down from the £280.7m it achieved in its 2023
results. Its pre-tax profit was £20.9m, up from the £20.3m Controlling the coating strain on the production pro-
figure it recorded for 2023. Group adjusted operating profit coating layer thickness
as a percentage of revenue improved to 10.1% (2023: 9.8%). layer thickness is a decisive reduces waste and optimises cess. The new inline coating
Basic and diluted earnings per share were 9.76p per share factor for the quality of coating consumption. layer thickness control fea-
(2023: 9.44p per share) and 9.74p per share (2023: 9.34p per coated sheets and plays a Manual checks of the coat- ture from Koenig & Bauer
share) respectively. Packaging Distribution revenue fell by MetalPrint solves these chal-
7% year-on-year to £228.8m . The group said continued central role in the produc- ing layer thickness are often lenges. By measuring and
weak customer demand and selling price deflation were tion of metal packaging. associated with uncertainty. controlling the coating layer
partially offset by strong new business performance and the With the new inline coating To be on the safe side, more
benefit of the acquisitions of Gottlieb in April 2023. thickness in real time, the
layer thickness control, coating is often applied than system ensures stable process
Walstead Group has Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint is actually required. This quality and minimises both
announced plans to close guarantees precise coating leads to increased material waste and coating consump-
one of its continental web application and optimises costs and inefficient con- tion. In addition to saving
offset factories. The group production quality. sumption. In addition, qual- production costs, automa-
is already in consultations
with employees at its Automatic and continuous ity defects may only be tion relieves the burden on
Eurohueco web and gra- measurement and con- discovered late in random employees, who can then
vure facility near Barcelona trolled adjustment of the samples, which puts further concentrate on other tasks.
in Spain over proposed
downsizing at the huge
Walstead has now informed employees at its NP Druck facil- A fourth Delta SPC 130 press
plant. The Eurohueco consultation began a month ago.
ity in Austria that it plans to close that site by the end of the
year. NP Druck is based in St Polten to the west of Vienna. Koenig & Bauer Durst has Open Day at its plant on
Walstead acquired the business in 2018 from publishing announced that Schumacher March 13 from 09.00 to
group Niederösterreichisches Pressehaus Druck- und Packaging Birmingham has 14.00.
Verlagsgesellschaft. It became part of Walstead Leykam. started full commercial digi- The Koenig & Bauer Durst
Since then the NP Druck operation has been downsized
from four web offset presses, including a 48pp, and is cur- tal production with its Delta Delta SPC 130 in
rently running two 16pp webs along with associated ancil- SPC 130 single pass high vol- Birmingham is the fourth
lary equipment. Group chief executive Paul Utting told ume digital press for corru- taken on by Schumacher
Printweek: “We can confirm that the group has entered Schumacher Packaging Birmingham Packaging. Two others are at
into a consultation to close the NP Druck business. As ever gated markets. markets as one of the UK’s its headquarters in
Walstead is seeking to ensure that group capacity matches The FlexLine Eco+ with leading plain and printed Ebersdorf, Germany, and the
the requirements of an ever changing market.” The site six colours is the first installa-
employs 69. He said there was nothing to add for the time cardboard manufacturers. another is at Saica in
being regarding Eurohueco as the process there has not tion in the UK and will be a Schumacher Packaging Wroclav, Poland, formerly
yet concluded. In the UK, the Walstead York facility central focal point as Birmingham, together with Schumacher Packaging.
remains out of action after its gas supply was isolated Schumacher Packaging Koenig & Bauer Durst, will They also have six-color capa-
eight months ago.
expands its presence in UK also be hosting an official bilities.
22 PrintWeek MENA March 2025 www.printweekmena.com