Installations News
New Beneco Packaging plant installs Heidelberg

Beneco Packaging and subsidiary company SoOpak say they have more than doubled its capacity with one huge leap forward.

The company recently opened a second facility in Scarborough, Ont., and when fully operational, will offer a complete design, manufacturing and finishing production house that will eclipse another Beneco Packaging plant in Brampton, Ont.

“We are now prepared to offer our customers: quicker delivery, faster service, and strategic product placement,” says Carol Jiang, Owner of Beneco Packaging. “Our new facility is filling up with new equipment, for example: a Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102-6+L with full automation and UV capabilities, a Heidelberg MK Promatrix 106 CS die-cutter and a Heidelberg MK Diana Easy Folder Gluer. This gives us a complete production line up and running, serving our customers right away. We will continue to add pieces as we settle into our new facility.”

The new facility also includes a prepress department, ready to process files and output plates.

Beneco Packaging and SoOpak operate as two different entities under one roof. While Beneco focuses on traditional packaging work for the food, beverage and personal care industry, SoOpak is an online service for clients with typically short runs or have specialty packaging produced. Beneco Packaging and SoOpak have been operating in the Brampton, Ont., area for 14 years, and in the past seven years have grown in the double digits.

“There is a need in the market for short run, specialty packaging that needs to be served, we have worked very hard in the past several years to create this online environment for customers,” Jiang says. “Therefore we needed a printing press and finishing workflow that could serve the short run environment, meaning fast make-ready machines, but also ready to produce our typical packaging work via the Beneco operation without sacrifice, meaning longer runs with higher speeds.”

After an extensive search for equipment, Jiang chose Heidelberg as her partner vendor.

The Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102-6+L is designed to handle both short runs with quick turnaround and longer run work. Featuring the PressCenter XL 2 operating system with the Wallscreen XL, jobs are pre-defined as they are output from prepress, helping to cut down on job transfer and loading, the company explains. Once at press, the job data simultaneously initiates a “job change” which may include blanket and roller washes, automatic plate loading with AutoPlate Pro and spectral colour measurement with Prinect AxisControl. This is what Heidelberg calls Autonomous Printing, which falls in line with the Smart Print Shop philosophy.

Producing at speeds of 16,500 impressions per hour, the Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102-6+L is complete with an IST UV system for special effect printing and high gloss coating. “The quality of the products coming off this press are beyond expectation.” says Jiang, “consistent, vibrant colour, we can now produce whatever our customer’s demand.”

Once the work is printed, then the finishing must take place. “We are very pleased with the performance of our Promatrix CS. Flexible and easy to operate, with automation meeting our needs,” Jiang says.

The new Heidelberg-MK Diana Easy is a great addition to the facility. “It is the right size, has great flexibility and we can also add options as required in the future” she says. “We are not complete in our new building, but in a few short months, we have ramped up to complete production. It has been a very successful start-up for Beneco, SoOpak, and Heidelberg.”