The one year anniversary of our new label printing factory
We can’t believe it! It’s been a year since we moved from our old factory to our new one. And what a great year it has been. To celebrate the anniversary of our move, we’ve had the GoPro videos we recorded of the move edited and have published them here to give a sneak peak at what our factory used to look like, and what it looks like now. While the videos move pretty quickly, you can check out some of our label printing equipment, and perhaps even share the excitement we had at driving some huge trucks into the middle of our workplace!
About the move
After more than 30 years of producing great labels from Regent Street, Petone, Label and Litho made the leap and purchased our very own building. When the opportunity arose in December 2012 to acquire the former Goulds building in Lower Hutt, we knew we had to act fast. In a matter of weeks we were the proud owners of the Hutt Park Road premises. Given that beer labels, wine labels and food labels are some of our main products, we certainly felt at home in the former factory of a Fine Foods producer, even if it did take a bit of extra effort to get the sausage smell out!
Pre-move makeover
Having outgrown our previous home, the new facility allows us to meet the ever-expanding demands for full colour labels with multiple embellishments (including inserted RF tags), blank labels and barcodes. And we don’t just print on paper – we print on synthetics, cards, unsupported film and shrink films too. It was no small task converting a former small goods manufacturing facility in to a label printing facility, however. All the refrigerated rooms and ceilings had to go, new lighting needed to be installed and the floor had to be levelled and polished. In just four months we were ready to begin the task of migrating over to our new home.
Here’s the first clip as we moved out of Regent street:
In order to move over to the new factory without interrupting production, we had to progressively move our machinery from one building to the other. By 1 May we were fully operational at our brand spanking new location.
A leaner, greener, facility
We’ve been undergoing a huge technology upgrade over the past few years, and the new building tops it off with some fantastic new features:
- A purpose built digital press room
- A well laid out open-plan setup for our conventional flexo presses
- A finishing department
- The latest in lighting technology to meet the targets of our environmental policy
The new building is also helping us make huge strides in our commitment to the Lean journey, (which we started in Regent Street) and we are systematically working through the facility to ensure continuous improvement in everything that we do.
Arriving in the new facility
As you can see, we’ve got some pretty huge and complex machinery – moving was no easy task!