Colorpak has announced that the final asset it acquired in its 2011 purchase of the Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) folding carton assets, its plant in Mt Waverley, Victoria, is to be relocated to the company's facility in Braeside to create a new manufacturing 'supersite'.
Speaking to PKN, Colorpak managing director Alex Commins said the move to Braeside, expected to be complete by April next year, will create a single site for the company in Victoria, generating in the order of $90 million worth of business annually.
“It made sense for us to eliminate duplication and put all our operations together in the one supersite,” he said.
He said the Mt Waverley facility was also ageing, and its upkeep would have been too expensive and difficult to maintain.
“It's an old plant, it was built in the 1950s, and there was an issue of the cost of maintenance and customer compliance questions,” he told PKN.
The Braeside facility, on the other hand, has undergone a major expansion and now includes three new purpose-built, state-of-the-art plants. It is also subject to ongoing investment in new equipment. Later this year, for example, a new Roland 700 press will be installed at the plant, Commins said.
“It shores up our future and moves us onto a sustainable basis to grow our business,” he said.
“Against a background of tough economic conditions, it was financially prudent for us to make the investments we have done.
“We really are competing on a regional basis with companies on our doorstop in Asia, so we have to meet that challenge.
“The rationalisation and the expansion at Braeside has given us the economy of scale and the world class technology to allow us to do that now.”
Commins said the closure of the Mt Waverley factory will result in the loss of a dozen jobs. “But we will work with [the employees concerned] and look after them as best we can,” he said.
The Mt Waverley plant was one of a number of facilities in Victoria and NSW acquired by Colorpak from its CHH purchase. Earlier this year it merged the former CHH plant in Villawood, NSW, to its existing operation in Regents Park.
Commins said he was now relieved at the completion of the CHH asset integration.
“We have been at it for about 28 months now, and by the time it's totally complete next year, it would have been over three years of work,” he said.
“It's been difficult at times, but soon it will be mission complete, and if I was given the choice I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.
“It has meant we have now built a solid platform to serve us well into the future.”
