Elanders trebles its footprint in Scotland with move to Bellshill

Elanders Packaging specializes in printing luxury packaging and labels for the drinks industry, with a strong heritage in Scottish whisky through its acquisition of McNaughtans the Printers in 2013.

With the move to Bellshill, the company has invested two million GBP (3.1 million USD) in both its 17,500 sq ft new premises and equipment, which includes specialist digital print and high-quality finishing machinery. These new tools will sit alongside its existing machinery, further enhancing the company’s print for packaging capabilities available to customers.

New equipment in Bellshill will include HP Indigo digital press technology with an AB Graphic Digicon finishing unit, which will enable printing, die-cutting, embossing and the preparation of pressure-sensitive labels for premium drinks brands, ready for self-adhesion at bottling plants. This investment enables spirit manufacturers to introduce personalization for gifting or limited edition expressions. This unit will run alongside Elanders’ existing wet labeling equipment. To complement the digital print equipment, Elanders has also invested in a priming unit, which treats any substrate and prepares this for digital printing – enabling a wider range of materials to be used, so achieving the same quality as litho printing, the printer said.

For the first time, Elanders will also be able to offer its clients in-house finishing services with a new gluing line, and B1 hot foiling, die-cutting and embossing.

Chris Hewitt, managing director of Elanders UK, said: ‘Elanders always aims to be one step ahead when it comes to innovation within the packaging and print sectors meaning we are able to offer our customers the very best solutions to meet their individual needs. Our new site in Bellshill is more than treble the size of our previous site in Cumbernauld meaning we can expand our offering and purchase new cutting edge machinery to sit alongside our existing machinery, offering our customers more choice.

‘Elanders has an ambitious growth plan which includes further investment in Scotland, building on the previous success of McNaughtans within the whisky and premium spirits sectors. We are looking to invest in both our facilities and people in Bellshill and we expect to employ a number of new people over the coming months.’