The Heiber & Schröder WP 1100-2 Master, which cost the firm £200,000, will be installed at its 2,800sqm Nottingham plant in April and will replace an existing Kohmann F1120/2 window patcher. It has joined Komori B1 presses and a range of die-cutters and gluing lines at the site.
The WP 1100-2 Master features a master feeder allowing for a larger variety of carton blank styles. It also features four different run modes to achieve optimum speed and a minimum marking for each of the blank styles.
Chief executive Jeremy Bacon said: “Our packaging business in volumes is growing by about 25% per annum and this investment continues to support that growth, predominantly in the food market. It will probably give us productivity improvements of anywhere between 30% and 40%.”
The Kohmann device will be sold to KMD Company in Leicester, with which the Sherwood Group formed a strategic alliance last year, alongside a Bobst Fuego 110 A2 gluing line.
“KMD’s expertise is in the point-of-sale market and ours is in the packaging market, but we both have customers in both sectors. So they support us with regards to the growth in our point-of-sale business and we support them with the growth in their packaging business, and we’ve helped and supported them with investments,” said Bacon.
The Sherwood Group’s UK operation has 90 staff and a turnover of £12m. Globally the group has 350 staff and a turnover of £30m.
As part of its long-term succession plan the company is currently recruiting a new managing director to work alongside the existing management team including current managing director Graham Garrod, who will remain in position.
“We tend to find it takes about five years for a successful succession plan to operate at a senior level,” said Bacon.
“We’re looking to double our group turnover to £60m within the next five years and we’ve got a number of people that would like other opportunities within the wider group. At the moment we’ve got too small a team to really make the most of all of the opportunities that present themselves.”
The firm anticipates the recruitment process to find the right candidate will take up to a year.
“Last year we looked at bringing in an operations director to support Graham, but the quality of the candidates we got was not necessarily what the business required,” said Bacon.
“Rather than recruit an operations director, this year we’re focusing on looking for a managing director and people with experience in different disciplines, like a marketing, sales, IT or finance background. We felt we were narrowing our choices by looking at somebody for an operational route.”
The Sherwood Group won FMCG Packaging Printer of the Year at the PrintWeek Awards in both 2014 and 2015.
