E.B. Box’s growth continues to accelerate with its Speedmaster XL 106 and Prinect Production Manager from Heidelberg

A leading food-grade packaging company located in Richmond Hill, Ontario, E.B. Box is on track to experience exponential growth this year despite the current pandemic. Since the onset of COVID-19, the company has seen a tremendous increase in both the volume of its business and the demand for shorter turnaround times from its customers – who are seeking to keep grocery store shelves filled with their products. Installed in February of 2020, E.B. Box’s new Speedmaster XL 106-6+L offset press with Push to Stop technology and Prinect Production Manager from Heidelberg, helped the company to increase its capacity by 50% to 60% per shift – helping to accelerate both its growth and speed-to-market capabilities.

While E.B. Box has been in business since 1972, the company was primarily a carton finisher until 2015 when it installed a 2001 press from another OEM and started printing in-house. This led to a period of significant growth, especially on the custom-printing side. Seeing the opportunities that lie ahead, E.B. Box began building its own custom facility and decided to invest in its growth by upgrading its print technology and replacing its older press. According to Director of Business Development Irfan Rajabali, selecting the Speedmaster XL 106 for this move was a relatively easy choice. “If we were going to take our growth as a company seriously, we needed to invest in technology that would reliably exceed the expectations our customers have for us,” he said. “It only made sense for us to invest in Heidelberg, the market leader, if we wanted to be the market leader.”
E.B. Box prides itself on being a “nimble” printer that can accommodate all its customer needs – with turnaround times 2 – 3 weeks shorter than many of its competitors! “Prior to COVID-19, customers were very focused on price and didn’t always care that we could get them jobs faster than other printers. Now, customers are coming to us and asking how fast they can get a job. It’s really broken down a lot of barriers in conversations with new customers,” Rajabali added. Due to the advanced automation, faster speeds and flexibility of the XL 106, E.B. Box has been able to exceed the demands of both current and new customers – trusting that the press will print, “whatever we throw at it.” Today, E.B. Box has significantly increased its capacity to provide even shorter lead times with make-readies taking approximately 75% less time, and running at speeds of 18,000 sheets per hour.
Printing primarily on board stock, E.B. Box was impressed with the ease of changeovers for the Speedmaster XL 106, that can go from thinner 18-pt. board to printing on thicker 32 pt.-board. E.B. Box first witnessed the press’s ease-of-use and flexibility at a demo at the Print Media Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Rajabali added: “It’s one thing to see a press running in a demo environment, but another to really put it into full production. We were amazed – this press does exactly as advertised and then some.” The company has also eliminated a full production shift due to the increased throughput it’s currently achieving.
E.B. Box also decided to invest in Prinect Production Manager workflow to maximize the efficiency of the press – creating seamless integration from prepress to press and beyond. Through the Production Manager subscription model, E.B. Box receives technical support for all fixes and upgrades, so it’s always up-to-date on the latest versions and newest Prinect modules as they’re developed. E.B. Box recently signed on for the Prinect Customer Portal, which will enable the company to have online interaction with its customers – creating even greater efficiencies when it comes to job approvals and job tracking.
E.B. Box has been manufacturing custom boxes and standard folding carton boxes since 1972. With in-house die-cutting, printing and gluing capabilities, the company produces a wide variety of folding-carton boxes for food products, bakery and confectionary items, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical packaging, retail-ready displays and boxes for a variety of other industries.