Packaging
“ISO 12647 Proficient Printer” Standard for Benson Box
Friday 13. March 2009 - First UK Food Carton Specialist to Achieve Print Standard
Benson Group, headquartered in Bardon, Leicestershire, the UK Packaging Company of the Year, has announced details of its newly acquired “ISO 12647 Proficient Printer” status, as awarded by colour specialists Mellow Colour, for its Benson Box printed carton operation.
Benson Box, Bardon, specialises in the production of printed folding cartons for the food industry. Work on the colour standard is now underway at the three other Benson Group sites at Gateshead, Newcastle, and Crewe, the group’s 100% pharmaceutical plant.
“Colour standards are a hot topic in the industry at the moment, and we are therefore delighted to become the first food-focused packaging specialist to have achieved the status of Proficient Printer in the UK,” said Mark Kerridge, Managing Director of Benson Group. “Alan Dresch of Mellow Colour and our production team at Bardon have put in a lot of work during the last six months to make this happen. I believe that this will be a very welcome addition to our capabilities, and something that will help to make our customers lives just that little bit easier.”
“Whilst we have previously focused on our own internal quality standards, this internationally recognised standard means that we can offer customers the additional assurance that our printing will match that of other ISO 12647 printers supplying other elements of a campaign,” added Mark Kerridge. “We also anticipate being able to take the standard into customers’ offices, where they are often producing proofs. Once customer confidence has been established, proofs produced to ISO 12647 and then run at Benson Group under the same standards will significantly reduce the need for customers to pass press proofs.”
The site runs five B1-format litho presses and checks on the set-up of all of these machines needed to be carried out in order to ensure that they remained in balance and were all able to print consistent and repeatable results. Test jobs were run on the presses and measurements taken for dot gain and density. Following analysis and interpretation of the printed results any adjustments required to match the standard were then performed at the RIP of the company’s platesetter.
Commenting on his company’s work at the Bardon site, Alan Dresch of Mellow Colour, said: “Benson Group certainly has the right culture to be able to adapt to this process. Technical expertise, teamwork and commitment to colour quality at all levels are the keys to success when introducing a colour quality system of this type. The Benson Group colour team are fortunate to have those attributes in abundance, and they are already seeing the benefits of their work, with improved customer satisfaction and reductions in make-ready times and wastage.”
ISO 12647 is the standard upon which most serious printing specifications are based. Target gradation, ink colour, trapping, grey balance and dot gain numbers in the specification are based on hundreds of high quality print samples gathered and analysed from around the globe by the ISO TC 130 Committee.
About Benson Group
Benson Group, the Packaging Company of the Year for 2008, is the UK’s leading privately owned printed carton supplier, producing food cartons and pharmaceutical packaging.
Headquarters are in Bardon, Leicestershire, where the company owns 130,000 sq ft of production and warehouse space. Benson Group achieves annual sales in excess of £93 million. Food manufacturers are the main customers at Bardon and for the company’s two North East facilities in Newcastle and Gateshead. These two sites have a combined total of 200,000 sq ft of manufacturing and warehouse space. The fourth site in Crewe, Medica Packaging, serves pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. It has 73,000 sq ft of manufacturing, warehouse and office space. Since 2000, investment in new plant and equipment across the four sites totals in excess of £25 million. The company recently announced details of the acquisition of various trading assets of Glasgow-based packaging company Cameron Linn.
Benson Group creates packaging for many well-known companies, brands and retailers. Key account clients across the Group include GlaxoSmithKline, Northern Foods, Reckitt Benkiser, Greencore, Bakkavör, Samworth Brothers, and leading supermarket chains.