Kingston Carton breaks into new markets with Bobst

Both lines have been supplied with a Bobst Helpline+ system that allows remote diagnostics by technicians at the Bobst UK offices in Redditch or its worldwide headquarters in Switzerland should an equipment or production problem arise at Kingston Carton's Hull factory. The system also offers a platform for the later implementation of remote production monitoring.

This investment has allowed Kingston Carton to ‘exploit very high volume markets’, which the company has not previously entered, as well as allowing it to service the current double digit growth in sales to its existing customer base.

David Wilson, chairman of Kingston Carton, said: ‘The economy is picking up, especially here in the UK, which has resulted in us seeing a 25 percent increase in our order book compared to a year ago. Our ethos has always been to invest in new capacity before we need it, so that we can ensure continuity of supply to our customers.

‘However, we wanted to do more than that with this investment and use it to develop markets that are new to us. Very high volume work takes up a lot of machine time and, historically, we have chosen not to take it on because it might compromise the service levels that we provide to our existing customers. But now that our capacity has increased so dramatically we can easily handle that sort of work without any knock-on effects.’

Arend Buitendam Snr, managing director of Kingston Carton, said: ‘The Visioncut gives us an extra thousand sheets an hour, while its optical lateral register system means that we can run faster on tight register work. It complements our existing Visioncut and the number of sheets that these two machines can put on the floor is very impressive.’

Wilson added that the equipment Kingston Cartons is using allows the company to differentiate itself from its competitors. ‘We firmly believe that as an organization we have some of the most modern and productive equipment of any carton company in the UK, and probably in Europe. We are always focused on what's best for our customers rather than for us. They expect quality of product and consistency of that product quality – it has to be as near 'zero defect' as possible.

‘Yes, we might be a couple of percent more expensive than other companies, but customers might gain a 10-15 percent increase in the productivity of their packing lines because of the quality of product we supply and the carton re-engineering we can offer them.’