Smurfit Kappa UK confirms significant investment in the South West during 2013

Smurfit Kappa the European leader in innovative paper based packaging has announced a major investment package consisting of a six-colour flexographic, rotary die-cut press, an enhanced material handling system and corrugator upgrades for its Yate, Bristol plant.

The main investment is part of Smurfit Kappa’s continuing development of its High-Quality Post Print service at the BRC and AIB certified site. Supplying a wide range of customers in the South of England, as well as major national brands and Pan-European customers, Smurfit Kappa Yate has drawn from the knowledge and experience of award winning HQPP, six-colour printing expertise at other Smurfit Kappa UK plants.

Beyond the new machine outlay Smurfit Kappa Yate is upgrading the plant’s material handling system for greater accuracy and reliability, and and when combined with modular enhancements on the corrugator will drive additional improvements in quality and service at the high volume site.

Clive Bowers, CEO Smurfit Kappa UK, explains what the investment is designed to deliver and why it has been undertaken; “We listen continuously to our customers and ask how we can help them achieve their future business objectives. The decorative corrugated market continues to outperform the general market and our customers and potential customers have asked us to leverage our skills in print into the wider corrugated market. Our investment at Yate allows our customers to source the highest quality post print, flexographic packaging and differentiate their products from their competitors in an increasingly competitive marketplace.”

Terry McGivern, Regional Director for Smurfit Kappa South, comments; “Our long-standing expertise of producing award winning HQPP in the UK gives us a unique advantage when working with demanding print requirements on corrugated. Moreover, Yate has had an excellent year in quality and service with complaints per million items produced running at less than one in a million and On time in Full delivery (OTIF) exceeding 98%.. These three investments will help us to improve our industry-leading statistics and provide a compelling case for any customer who needs to source the highest quality, combined with superior service and superb printed corrugated, to look no further than Smurfit Kappa Yate.”?