The carton printer's new Masterfold 75 A1 lines will replace four older machines. According to Benson Group managing director Mark Kerridge, the finishing spend was the latest part of a wider investment strategy.
He said: "Having recently invested in both print and die-cutting to release bottlenecks in production at our Gateshead plant, we now needed to attend to finishing. The folder-gluers at the plant are the oldest in the group and the strategy behind ordering two new Bobst Masterfold lines is to balance capacity there."
Each machine will be configured with a Bobst Easyfeeder GT automatic feeder and a Cartonpack GT.
The 900-staff business is expecting the new investments to create extra capacity for the future.
"Our core market for Gateshead is high-volume sleeves and straight-line boxes for food packaging and these machines will be ideal for producing these products," said Kerridge.
According to Kerridge, the £93m-turnover business opted for Bobst over other manufacturers on the market because of previous positive experiences with the company.
He added: "Across the group, we have had great success with Bobst Alpina's, the forerunners to the Masterfold, and we expect a similar experience from these new lines.
"It is this mixture of speed and consistency that gives us the production levels we need and we will use the productivity of the new Masterfold lines to help drive organic growth at our Gateshead plant."
Benson Group buys two Bobst Masterfolds for capacity boost
Benson Group has invested in a brace of high-speed Bobst Masterfold lines to both remove a bottleneck and to balance capacity in folding and gluing production within its Gateshead plant.
