Doubling Down

Often touted as one of humanity’s greatest technological achievements since invention of the wheel, the printing press has undergone countless redesigns, upgrades and refinements since Johannes Gutenberg first developed the original mechanical device for transferring large quantities of ink onto paper in the middle of 15th Century.

And while the novelty of that breakthrough invention may have worn off somewhat with the passage of time, its contribution to the development and enrichment of the modern consumer society and commerce cannot be overstated.

With modern printing technology making printing more affordable and accessible than ever before, printing companies are often spoiled for choice nowadays when it comes to investing in the latest print technologies to keep their businesses running.

However, making that choice has become a fairly straightforward decision in recent years for the privately owned Canadian folding carton producer Beneco Packaging, whose familiarity and comfort with the offset printing presses made by German-based manufacturer Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is handsomely paying off with brisk continuous growth in business volumes and client base.

Founded in 2004 by company president Carol Jiang, the company’s remarkable rise through the ranks of the Canadian paperboard industry has gone hand-in-hand with its considerable capital investment in Heidelberg offset printing-press technology, including a late-2023 installation of a brand new Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 six-colour printing press at Beneco’s new folding-carton production facility in Cobourg, Ont.

Acquired less than two years ago, the sprawling 600,000-square-foot building that once housed food processing lines for the likes of Kraft and General Foods is now home to two state-of-the-art Heidelberg printing presses—including the Speedmaster CX 104 seven-colour press installed about a year ago—with plenty of room to accommodate more in the future.

“Beneco has been a long-time customer, and it’s been a privilege for me to deal with them,” says Steve Thomson, senior account representative at Heidelberg Canada Graphic Equipment Limited in Mississauga, Ont.

“It’s a very valued relationship,” says Thomson, citing Beneco’s proactive approach to making timely and far-sighted major capital investment decisions to support its growth.

“They have really embraced technology, which is a necessity in today’s market,” says Thomson. “If you don’t embrace technology, you get left behind.”

Says Thomson: “Printing today is very much like manufacturing—it’s all about getting the highest number of printed sellable sheets on the floor in the shortest amount of time.”

With throughput rates of 18,000 sheets per hour, the new Speedmaster XL 106 is a remarkably befitting companion to the Speedmaster CX 104 press installed a Cobourg a year earlier, which has throughput capacity of 16,500 sheets per hour.

Between the two presses, the Cobourg plant can execute more print runs with a much broader range of run quantities and design complexities with minimal downtime for job changeovers, according to Beneco’s director of sales Jim Wickware.

“What drives Beneco’s growth is the desire to be one of the most efficient folding carton producers in Canada,” says Wickware, who joined Beneco a little over five years ago.

“Our owner Carol Jiang has built a wonderful environment here, with everybody on the same page both in Cobourg and at the company’s headquarters facility in Scarborough (Toronto),” says Wickware, pointing out the relatively short time-frame in which the once-mothballed Cobourg facility, which lay dormant for about three years, has been transformed into a modern, state-of-the-art printing plant housing world-class printing and converting equipment.

“Our team has done a wonderful job on retrofitting the old Kraft Heinz building into a wonderfully efficient, high-performing folding carton production converter,” says Wickware.

“Because of the size and scope of this building, we were able to accommodate a lot of storage facilities for our raw materials and for some finished goods under one roof,” he states.

“Combined with our strong production capabilities, we can turn our rollstock board into sheet very quickly,” he says, “which gives us a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.

“And as our expertise and our capacity continue to grow, we are able to bring on larger and larger clients that have multiple SKUs (stock-keeping units) and all sorts of other different demands that we are now very capable of managing,” Wickware states.

“We also have a lot of smaller companies as clients,” Wickware points out.

“That’s the beauty of Beneco: We can satisfy customers’ demands anywhere from 5,000 to five million cartons.”

Designed to accommodate frequent job changes, the Speedmaster XL 106 provides steady production speeds of 18,000 sheets per hour, along with parallel make-ready processes for enhanced productivity.

According to Heidelberg, the intelligent interaction of the automation components of the press, and continuous process optimization through artificial intelligence, enables cost-effective production of all printing products.

Moreover, the machine’s automated air settings eliminate the need for additional make-ready time when changing substrates using characteristic profiles, while the patented AutoPlate XL 3 technology enables plate changes in under one minute.

The user-friendly press is operated via the Prinect Press Center XL 3 control station with intuitive Intellistart 3 operator guidance system for fast, process-oriented setup, user-friendly operation, predictable results and improved performance.

For its part, the versatile Speedmaster CX 104 can easily handle all materials from lightweight paper up to packaging carton stock for packaging at speeds up to 16,500 sheets per hour.

Like its counterpart, Speedmaster CX 104 offers user-friendly control through intuitive touch operation on the Prinect Press Center XL 3 control station featuring a 24-inch multi-touch interface.

Incorporating integrated support systems for short set-up times and reliably high print quality, the machine’s ergonomic design allows for easy and safe access to all areas of the press, while its flexible configuration allows users to switch between conventional and instant-drying UV colours, supported by the additional washing cycle for the inking unit, blanket, and printing cylinder.

For Beneco’s production manager Shyam Sasidharan, adding a second Speedmaster to the Cobourg plant was an eagerly anticipated milestone moment for the plant, allowing for an unprecedented degree of production flexibility and OEE (overall equipment effectiveness).

“We have crews of very well-trained multiple operators for each machine who know the presses inside out,” says Sasidharan, who joined Beneco about six years ago.

“They are really experienced operators, many of them with over 10 years of experience running printing presses, and all the new operators joining our facility get several days of training with Heidelberg experts to learn the technologies and all the technological updates on these presses.

“It’s all part of our on-boarding process,” says Sasidharan, noting that the plant’s Speedmaster CX 104 press installed a year ago has been found to be the highest-performing Heidelberg press anywhere in the world, according to the “real time” production data and analytics compiled by Heidelberg.

“These two presses feature the most advanced technology out in the market right now,” says Sasidharan, noting that choosing to go with Heidelberg again was not a hasty slam-dunk decision.

“We actually evaluated four different press options for the plant,” he recalls, “and the Speedmaster was selected purely on merit and on the basis of its advanced production capabilities that will help the Cobourg plant achieve its full capacity and potential.

“We were also really impressed with the level of service and technical support Heidelberg offered us with first press (Speedmaster CX 104) we had,” Sasidharan notes, “and service is one of the biggest things for Beneco.

“Machine parts and technologies get updated all the time,” Sasidharan points out, “and with Heidelberg we were sure that we would get all the support we needed to stay on top of it all without incurring downtime.

“Being able to support us and troubleshoot our machines in case anything breaks down within an hour or two is the kind of service that really puts your trust into a brand,” he adds.

While the Cobourg plant is currently producing about eight million boxes per week, according to Sasidharan, it only represents about 50 per cent of plant’s maximum manufacturing capacity at the moment.

“Once we reach about 70 per cent, we may well be looking on adding a third press, most likely another Heidelberg, and still have room for at least another two presses down the road,” says Wickware, noting that being ahead of the curve is one of the many core competencies that have enabled Beneco to grow at such impressive pace from the outset.

For example, both of Beneco’s plants are fully certified to the IFS PACSecure standard for assessing packaging material manufacturing and converting processes concerning product safety, quality, and customer and regulatory compliance.

In addition, Beneco has recently embarked on obtaining the vaunted international EcoVadis certification for business sustainability in terms of environmental impact, labour, and human rights standards, ethics, and procurement practices—just barely missing the top-level certification on its first audit.

Moreover, the company’s SoOPAK.com subsidiary offers a truly unique service that allows small start-ups and mom-and-pop shops to order limited quantities of boxes online with simple keyboard strokes choose the box format, shape, quantities, graphic, colours, etc., and receive their orders shipped to them in under three weeks.

As Wickware points out, Beneco also houses a large amount of raw material on-site, storing dozens of giant rolls of paperboard at any one time from a variety of different board suppliers.

“One of the things that we do a lot differently than most other converters is that we bring in massive amounts of rollstock,” he says, which provides priceless flexibility and supply reliability.

“We have very good relationships with our vendors,” he says.

“In fact, they will often contact us to offer us surplus rolls, further enhancing to our competitiveness,” Wickware notes.

“Adding the second press in Cobourg has improved our ability to manage and to accept all the business that our that our clients require,” Wickware states.

“With the amount of capacity that we’ve added to our facilities, we can offer some unprecedented lead-times in the marketplace,” says Wickware, citing three-week lead times as standard.

“Being able to offer such short lead times, and having the capacity to manage any volume, gives us a significant competitive advantage,” Wickware proclaims.

“We now have clients running millions of sheets on our equipment and getting outstanding results, along with exceptionally quick turnaround,” Wickware remarks.

“We have several well-known CPG (consumer packaged goods) manufacturers now buying 50 to 60 million boxes a year from us, says Wickware, saying everyone at Beneco is committed to driving the company’s growth well into the future.

“We are very excited about the future,” Wickware states. “We have had many years of continuous growth,” he confides, “and in the last five years that growth has been really kind of on an uptick.

“This year we are hoping for continued growth opportunities,” says Wickware. “Our client base is growing nicely, and we have some outstanding customer service reps doing a spectacular job for us in the market.

“Most importantly, we have all our departments at both facilities pulling in the same direction of achieving our common goal of becoming one of the most efficient and highest-output paperboard converters in Canada.”

As Wickware relates, “Our customers say the best part about working with Beneco is our customer service, our quality and reliability, being able to manage significant purchase orders and very complex ordering patterns, and very short lead times.

“With all the technology investments that we’ve made over the last several years, combined with our investment in people and the safety and quality programs, we are well on our way of reaching our goals,” he concludes.

“What that means for our customers is that they’re going to have a very reliable supplier, someone they can depend on to come through in the clutch for them, while providing the highest-quality product at a very competitive price.”