Great Little Box Company (GLBC) has invested in a new HP Indigo 35K Digital Press to expand its folding-carton production capacity with a flexible solution to offer customers faster turnaround times and expanded application options. GLBC’s head office and main manufacturing facility is located in Richmond, British Columbia. It also has distribution locations in Kelowna and Victoria, BC, and in Everett, Washington. The new press is now operating at the Great Little Box/Ideon Packaging site in Richmond, where half its folding carton runs are below 5,000 sheets amid an upswing in demand for food and pharmaceutical products with high job diversity. Ideon Packaging is a folding carton specialist acquired by GLBC last year. A family-run company established nearly 40 years ago, Great Little Box Company/Ideon Packaging produces corrugated boxes, retail displays, folding cartons, protective packaging, flexible packaging and pressure-sensitive labels.
“We are continually investing in new technologies to bring the latest and greatest to our customers,” said Brad Tindall, President of GLBC. “Instead of investing in another offset press, we made a strategic decision to add capacity with HP Indigo digital. The Indigo solution will deliver production flexibility with offset matching quality – plus the bonus of digitally printing exact proofs for customers to sign off orders,” he added. The HP Indigo 35K is the third HP digital acquisition by GLBC in the past five years, as GLBC builds on its experience with the HP Indigo 6800 label press and the HP Scitex 15000 for corrugated boxes and displays. GLBC has also set up the HP Indigo 35K press production line with a new Tresu iCoat II, offering full connectivity and integration with HP Indigo.
GLBC will use its new HP Indigo 35K to support the packaging market in Western Canada and Washington State with high-quality folding cartons – including customers in the frozen foods, snacks, beer and beverages, cosmetics, and nutraceutical business. Some of GLBC’s customers have 100s of SKUs and GLBC also plays a role in inventory management. “We are running at full capacity and the HP Indigo 35K will allow us to bring work back in-house by migrating short-run folding carton work off of our 40-inch offset presses to digital, while becoming more efficient and cost-effective with digital by saving on tooling and significantly reduced make ready times and setup waste,” Tindall explained.