One of the UK’s largest and fastest growing packaging and label manufacturing businesses is using ArtPro+ to simplify complex processes
The Greenhouse Studio, a multifunctional artwork, reprographics and platemaking business, is the prepress division of Reflex Group, one of the UK’s largest and fastest growing packaging and label manufacturing businesses. Headquartered in Leeds, The Greenhouse supports 13 out of 20 Reflex sites - 6 label manufacturing sites, 2 specialist beverage label sites, 3 film packaging facilities, 1 In-mold label site and a litho folding carton business. The Greenhouse team certainly has its work cut out!
We operate four plate rooms with a head office in Leeds and a separate design and protoyping agency in Stamford, Lincs, as well inplants at every Reflex site too,” said Ben Cox, Director of Reflex. “Reflex has successfully grown through acquisition in recent years so you can imagine the complexity we have dealt with.
“Every site we inherited had to be moved on to our preferred software to support connectivity and automation. We had to look carefully at our workflow and try to standardize, wherever possible, to ensure we maximized synergies and drove efficiency across the business. That being said, I must admit we’re pretty agnostic from a supply partner perspective. We simply work hard to identify the right best-in-class solutions and partners for the business and integrate them effectively to ensure we are delivering on time, every time for our customers.”
The Greenhouse team historically managed graphic file editing with Esko Deskpack and ArtPro but successfully moved several operators across to ArtPro+ in 2018 due to its higher editorial capability, which was especially suitable for some of the specialist complex beverage work Reflex handles at two of its sites.
Sam Donohoe, The Greenhouse Studio Systems Manager, commented: “It’s clear that ArtPro+ is easier to use than the original solution. Even experienced operators using ArtPro for over 15 years were impressed and happy to switch over, which is sometimes difficult to achieve when someone is very used to one way of working. Those who were reluctant to change actually enjoyed using it; particularly the tool selector wheel that simplifies the navigation without repetitive clicking.
“It’s important that we’re responding to our customers’ needs quickly and efficiently. The label sector is growing, but as with many industries, the turnaround time is shortening and run lengths are decreasing too. We’re therefore handling more complexity in a faster time frame than ever before and we need technology that helps us deliver that efficiently, while maintaining quality, and without accruing additional unnecessary cost,” added Sam.
The Greenhouse team operates seven Automation Engines linking to a central Esko WebCenter to manage workflow around the Reflex sites. Esko solutions are utilized from preflighting up to the plate production stage and there is more to come.
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