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Ribble Packaging completes £3.5m investment project
Oldham-based packaging solutions provider, Ribble Packaging, has successfully completed a £3.5m investment project on time, despite the challenges presented by Covid-19. The project, which included a warehouse extension and the installation of various state-of-the-art machinery, started in February and concluded in early September. The investment will allow Ribble to expand its capacity and continue its growth in the future.
Over the past 5 years, Ribble has created a position as the European market leader for the manufacture and supply of corrugated Fanfold, in addition to pioneering ‘right size’ packaging solutions in the UK.
Ribble Packaging has completed a £3.5m investment to expand capacity and continue its growth in the future / Picture: Ribble Packaging
The investment consisted of four projects involving contractors from all over Europe, all of whom came together with Ribble’s team to coordinate the installations. Complying with Ribble’s comprehensive Covid risk management plan, the projects completed were:
Project 1 – The ‘Airbond’ system
The system, installed by JKSP Services, was an investment on the drying section of Ribble’s conventional corrugator. It is designed to dry double-walled board at higher running speeds, allowing Ribble to increase the line speed of double-wall from 170 metres per minute up to 220 metres per minute.
Project 2 – The Unifold
The largest part of the investment was The Unifold, the latest generation and fastest fully automated fanfold stacker in Europe. This machine was manufactured by Universal Corrugated B.V, shipped from the Netherlands and installed and commissioned within two weeks. The upgrade will allow Ribble to increase its running speed by 33% from 150 metres per minute to 200 metres per minute, with the capability for higher speeds in the future.
Project 3 – Dedicated press track
The press track, dedicated to The Unifold stacker, incorporates a state-of-the-art palletiser, turntable, pallet pusher and conveyorization. All of which will aid the manufacture and delivery of Fanfold to the various right size automated packaging systems available across the market.
Project 4 – Warehouse and factory extension
PLP Construction was contracted to build the warehouse extension, which has increased Ribble’s storage capacity by 18,000 square feet. This significant increase will allow on average an extra 1,000 pallets to be stored and cope with the newly increased running speeds of the Fanfold stacker.
Stephen Rector, managing director of Ribble Packaging, said: “The work done on this project has been immense and the result is, in my opinion, fantastic. The Fanfold and right size packaging market has grown significantly over the past few years and shows no signs of stopping. We, therefore, needed to evolve with the market to protect our hard-earned market-leading position.
“This investment will ensure we do exactly that whilst also giving us the ability to strengthen our relationships and partnerships with the leading right size packaging machine manufacturers such as Panotec, Quadient and CMC.”