The Kidlington-based company is a sister operation to haulage firm Johnyck Brothers.
Kolbus acquired UK manufacturer Autobox in 2018. The firm retains its UK manufacturing and engineering support setup, and this local support was a key factor in the decision-making process for Ion Packaging managing director Ioan Soporan as he made the move into a new area of business.
After researching the market, Soporan ordered an Autobox AB300 box making machine with SC100 Slitter-Scorer and PG100 Progluer.
The flexible setup can produce over 100 box styles, from large boxes using heavy corrugated grades to small and lightweight boxes. It can make bespoke sizes to marry with customers’ precise requirements, avoiding the annoyance of wasteful over-sized boxes.
It’s also a low energy use device thanks to the use of kinetic energy.
Speed is 500-1,000 boxes per hour, depending on format.
The Autobox was installed in late August. It was up and running, and with training completed in “just a few days”.
Kolbus UK sales director Arran Sethi commented: “We were delighted to strike up a working relationship with Ioan and were excited to have contributed to his business flourishing so quickly.
“The Autobox is the perfect machine for Ion Packaging. It will give them the ability to say ‘yes’ to as many jobs as possible due to the machine's versatility and flexibility producing close to fifty different Fefco styles and even bespoke products in a near infinite range of dimensions and sizes.”
Soporan said he had invested around £140,000 in the new setup, and it was a win-win in terms of producing the optimum size of boxes for customers, and also for haulage purposes.
“Arran and his team have been very helpful explaining everything about the machinery and what I need to fit my requirements. It’s been very good,” he said.
Ion Packaging is currently producing plain boxes, but Soporan said he would consider adding a print module in the future as the business develops.
The two companies currently employ five and have sales of around £500,000.
