Page 27 - PWM2023_MAY

GLOBAL NEWS

Macfarlane packaging Ashgate Automation has
IN BRIEF

Innovation Lab officially been placed in
liquidation. Ashgate,
which supplied print fin-
ishing equipment, had
liquidators Simon Lowes
Protective packaging dis- chains including conveyor and Stephen Powell
tributor Macfarlane impacts, vertical drops, and appointed from Begbies
Traynor on 6 April 2023.
Packaging has opened its sec- last mile logistics. The firm sold some of its
ond packaging Innovation Also; an atmospheric con- chattel assets by auction before entering into creditors’ vol-
Lab at its flagship Northwest ditioning chamber that pro- untary liquidation (CVL) in order to realise the most it could
Regional Distribution Centre vides precise temperature for winding up. The company’s remaining assets will be
realised by the liquidators. The Oxfordshire-based company
in Heywood, near and humidity testing for was the sole UK supplier of Fastbind products, and one of
Manchester. According to applications such as food or several for Kasfold. Ashgate, which employed four, stopped
the Glasgow-headquartered pharmaceutical storage and trading in March 2023. Printweek understands that one of
Ashgate’s engineers is in the process of establishing a busi-
business, the 465sqm cus- delivery; full design, digital ness to service clients’ Kasfold and Fastbind machines.
tomer facility “is fully print, and CAD prototyping Family-run Ashgate was founded in 1989 by John Price.
equipped to create solutions Packaging Innovation Lab Stora Enso will consolidate
for the most demanding Packaging Optimiser soft- for making same-day packag- its book paper production
ing samples; HoloLens mixed
packaging challenges and ware, which is designed to and permanently close one
fully test them to ensure they reduce total cost and meas- reality headset and aug- of its two paper machines
can withstand the rigours of ure the CO2 equivalent mented reality design tools; at its Anjala mill in Finland.
In a statement, the pack-
supply chain handling”. The impact of packaging; stretch and a packaging automation aging and paper giant
Innovation Lab builds on the wrapping and pallet load con- showroom. blamed weak paper
success of its first facility in tainment testing; and a net- Last month Macfarlane demand and high input
Milton Keynes, which work handling simulator acquired specialist protective costs for the closure, which
will reduce the site’s annual capacity from 435,000tpa to
opened in 2016. “that evaluates solutions to packaging manufacturing 185,000tpa. Equivalent to a loss of ¤100m (£88m) to the
With an investment of International Safe Transport business A.E. Sutton, which group’s revenues, Stora Enso said it will start change nego-
£1.3m, the Manchester site Association standards”, emu- trades as Suttons tiations concerning all employees at the integrated
features the bespoke lating real world supply Performance Packaging. Anjalankoski site, which includes the Anjala paper unit and
the Ingerois board unit. The closure is set to take place dur-
Sappi’s mega mill sale is off ing the fourth quarter of 2023 and affect an estimated 110
people. The Anjala closure is only the latest action in Stora
Enso’s vast restructuring programme
Sappi’s deal to sell three plex carve-out” at the time cess Sappi said that it had DS Smith’s second Nozomi,
European mills to Aurelius and was subject to various received binding offers from and its first in the UK, has
been installed at its Ely
Group is off after the transac- conditions including approv- “several” parties for the mills. facility in Cambridgeshire.
tion failed to complete. The als from competition and It’s not clear whether any of The Nozomi C18000 Plus is
sale of its Maastricht Mill in regulatory authorities. Sappi the alternative offers can be the same six-colour con-
the Netherlands, Stockstadt said that the sale “has not revived. The enterprise value figuration as the device
Mill in Germany and materialised within the of the Aurelius deal had been installed at DS Smith’s
Kirkniemi Mill in Finland agreed timeframe of the con- approximately €272m Lisbon facility at the tail end of 2020. The deal was
was announced last tractual agreement and (£243m at the time). announced at last month’s CCE International Corrugated
September and was due to therefore the agreement has Aurelius had expected the and Carton Exhibition in Munich, and also marked EFI’s
complete in Q1 2023. The lapsed”. mills to deliver sales of more 50th sale of the 1.8m-wide single-pass inkjet. The Ely site
deal was described as a “com- As part of the previous pro- than €1bn. produces corrugated display packaging and is also home to
an Impact Centre where customers can explore different
HMRC’s £140m comms tender packaging and supply chain options. DS Smith said that
compared to litho-lamination, the Nozomi offered “the
most sustainable option with less waste”.
HMRC has gone live with be over the contract period Preston-based wide signwriter Optimum Signs was the first
a mega combined input and of five years plus a possible to sign up for PrintIQ’s latest cloud MIS software package,
output communications ten- extension of two years. Version 46 (V46). The new software, featuring more than 30
der worth up to £140m that This contract will be ena- new and updated features from July 2022’s V45, focuses
is likely to result in a reduc- bled for Government heavily on helping printers automate or speed up their
processes. Optimum placed its order on 21 March, the first
tion of its print output but day of the software’s demonstration at the Sign and Digital
still encompasses print Banking – a shared govern- UK show in Birmingham, and just days after its launch. Paul
requirements. ment function which pro- Bromley, PrintIQ’s global sales director, told Printweek that
The contract went live last Contract went live last week vides critical banking he was thrilled with the reaction to the latest version of the
week and is due to close at 2024 and end on 21 January services across central gov- “new kid on the block” MIS. Optimum has produced 3D,
1pm on 1 June 2023. It will 2031. The maximum con- ernment and for wider public interior and digital signage and awnings since its founda-
tion in 2009.
then start on 22 January tract value of £140m would sector customers – to use.
www.printweekmena.com May 2023 PrintWeek MENA 27