Pride In Print media release (March 2009)

Regional Printer Sets Global Benchmark

A Hamilton print and packaging operation has achieved “world’s best” standards in hitting the global printing benchmark for its customer.

Despite being one of the smallest print operations used internationally by Abbott Nutrition -- and having the least time to prepare -- the Fonterra-Canpac Print Plant excelled with its reproduction of the Abbott Gain Plus 900g can.

Abbott Nutrition Supply Chain New Zealand Contract Manufacturing Manager Peter Veen says the Hamilton printer matched the quality of the global standard set for the new can “right off the bat”.

“The advertising agency used by corporate headquarters in the United States came up with the standard which went out to all the manufacturing operations Abbott uses around the world,” he says.

“It was somewhat of an eleventh-hour decision to have this product manufactured here and so the request to New Zealand came much later in the piece than anywhere else.

“These are pretty hi-tech labels -- very challenging due to the colour combinations. The feedback I’ve had from our label-development people is that Fonterra-Canpac pretty much hit the mark right off, whereas many of our other operations had several iterations before they got there.

“They did a great job and have certainly set the benchmark in being able to match the global standard.”

The production of these Abbott cans in New Zealand is made further unique by the fact Fonterra-Canpac prints, manufactures and then fills them, as opposed to the separated manufacturing and filling processes undertaken elsewhere.

Fonterra-Canpac Print Plant Manager Greg Wardrop says he is very proud to be able to compete on the global stage against “competitors utilising much newer and more sophisticated machinery than ours”.

Mr Wardrop says although the job is “technically demanding”, it is nonetheless a reflection of the quality required by today’s nutritionals market.

“It is indicative of the type of work that we produce on a day-to-day basis,” he says.

“It has certainly challenged the print department over the last few years to meet the higher-than-usual quality standards of the nutritional customers and continues to do so.”

Originally established to service dairy packers on the same site, the Fonterra-Canpac Print Plant is understood to be the only print/packaging operation within the organisation.

Produced in New Zealand on a Crabtree two-colour press, the 900g nutritional milk powder can label entailed 10 UV-cured inks being printed on a 0.25mm tin plate.
It has been entered in the Specific Products and Processes (Metal Printing) section of the 2009 Pride In Print Awards, which are being announced in a Wellington function on May 8.

Last year the Fonterra-Canpac Print Plant made a spectacular debut in the Awards – picking up both a Gold Medal and coveted Supreme Award Finalists Nomination.

ends