The company specialises in full-service flexible packaging for owner-managed and medium-sized businesses and brands and exports around 60%-70% of its work across Europe and the US. It produces the short-run digital work in-house and outsources longer-run, conventionally printed elements to production partners across Europe.
Managing director Paul Young said the new press will help the BRC AA accredited business expand its customer base and springboard it into discussions with larger brands.
The circa €1.5m press will join a brace of web-fed Indigos at Foxpak’s new Collon, County Louth facility, a WS 6000 and WS 6800, although once the new machine is bedded in it will decommission the older 6000.
According to Young, the new machine will help the 32-staff business, which has grown sales from €2m to more that €5m in three years, offer new and existing customers a wider range of products and possible applications.
“Foxpak was the first company to produce digitally printed flexible packaging, when we installed our first Indigo WS4500 in 2008.
“And the 20000 will also open up new markets, primarily because of its width – which will enable a much broader range of products.”
The 762mm wide press is capable of 42m/min in EPM (Enhanced Productivity Mode) or 25m/min in five-colour mode and, according to Young, will more than double Foxpack’s digital capacity.
The Indigo spend followed a €1m investment in a new bespoke pouching line and an upgrade to the business’s IT infrastructure in anticipation of its move to larger 1,850sqm premises in Collon, around six miles away from its current Dunleer base, which began in May and should complete in August.
The 15-tonne 20000 will be installed at the new site in a few week’s time. After which Young said the company would begin looking at the next stage of its strategic investment programme.
“The digital transformation in the flexible packaging market is incredibly exciting, but to keep up with the speed of change and realise the opportunities it creates you have to constantly invest in the latest technology, and that, along with respect for all and employee development, is one of our core values,” he said.
