Canpac Rises from the Ashes

Press Release for Pride In Print

Canpac Rises from the Ashes

It has taken one year but Hamilton’s Canpac company can say that it has risen again – literally – from the ashes.

Those ashes were the aftermath of an incident in the plant nearly a year ago, on May 20 2010, when an oven used for drying the print inks and coatings applied to baby formula cans exploded.

Print plant manager Greg Wardrop recalls the incident vividly because he was standing only a few feet away.

“The oven had been undergoing repairs and the technician began the start up sequence. We noticed the temperature gauge rise more quickly than we expected. He checked to see how things were going and wasn’t happy, and he was on the point of shutting it down when it exploded.”

Thankfully, there were no deaths or serious injuries among the dozen or so people who were close by.

“We were fortunate to be shielded behind a console. We all got flattened but the worst injury was one guy who suffered a broken nose.”

What was immediately apparent however was that the plant was a mess. The oven was transformed into shrapnel, the ceiling ducting was blown out, the three print lines were covered in debris and machinery had been hurled from one side of the room to the other.

The scale of the damage meant the plant was out of action and some staff feared for their jobs.

An emergency contingency plan swung quickly into action, in which competitor NCI Packaging came to the aid of Canpac by offering space at its production facility in Auckland, while some tasks were contracted out to the neighbouring Impress company in Te Rapa.

Canpac staff were seconded out to oversee the exacting hygiene standards required for the production, because the infant formula cans must be food-grade quality.

Only five weeks later, as Canpac worked towards becoming operational again, it was given a massive morale boost as it won the Supreme Award in the 2010 New Zealand Pride In Print Awards, the highest-possible accolade in the industry.

Wardrop says the award came out of the blue and gave a shot in the arm for the workforce — “We have a great group of people here but with what they were going through, it gave them a huge lift to know that what they were producing was deemed to be the best in the country.

“From the point of view of dealing with customers, it was a big boost for us to be able to stand in front of them when they visited the plant, and point out that this was a prestigious award based on absolute quality.”

Being able to attest to upholding “quality” standards was vital to Canpac holding its place in the market through the time it was adjusting to the post-explosion situation. Its customers are international pharmaceutical companies such as Abbott and Pfizer whose standards for food-grade hygiene are second to none.

“If anything goes wrong in production it constitutes a big deal for these customers. We could not afford to let standards drop. We had to show them we could still meet their standards regardless of the fact we were having to do a lot of tasks off-site,” says Wardop.

Now, one year on, Canpac has proved itself to its international customers, it has one print line back up and running, and its parent Fonterra is busy considering the case for investment in a replacement oven.

“I’m also pleased to say no jobs were lost during this time and Fonterra showed itself to be a very caring employer.

“It was important we kept faith because these are long-serving, skilled people who have been loyal to us. We have 30 in the print department and among them, the average age of service is about 12 years,” says Wardrop.

Having got through its hardest-ever year with pride in its print achievements, those staff look like staying even longer still.

ENDS

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