Triumph invests for growth

Day-to-day running is carried out by a young, dynamic team headed by MD, Garth Currie, and including Rowland Tramontino’s two sons, Gary and Michael.

Following the success of its printing business, the Triumph Group has expanded to include three additional operating companies – Triumph Cores, Diverse Converting (manufacturing quality single-face corrugated board and providing sheeting and slitting services) and The POP Shop (specialising in point-of-purchase and packaging).

This year, bold steps have been taken to revamp the corporate image and to upgrade the Stapleton Road (Pinetown) facility from which Triumph Printing and The POP Shop operate. Diverse Converting and Triumph Cores each operates from separate premises a few kilometres away.

Achieving Triumph Printing’s ISO 22000 and PAS223 accreditations and investing in production equipment to boost capacity and maximise efficiencies has been top priority and, most recently, a round of purchases from Beswick Machinery – including a Bobst Expertfold folder/gluer with a Bobst Plasma Treater Plus and in-line HHS gluing unit, and a high-speed Lamina laminator – have boosted finishing capabilities. A specialised wide-format Bickers GlueJet gluing table has also been introduced to handle various point-of-purchase (POP) and packaging configurations.

Boosting quality gluing performance

Prior to the recent Bobst purchase, Triumph Printing’s gluing division included two high-speed Jagenberg/Heidelberg carton gluing machines for both side seam and crashlock style cartons, with a blank width of 1 000mm.

‘Our existing gluing stations already feature the top-quality HHS technology, but the latest Bobst system has all the “bells and whistles”,’ comments Garth.

Featuring five stages of alignment, the high-speed Bobst Expertfold 110 A2 CS can process paper, board and semi-rigid plastics up to 800g/m2 at speeds up to 450m/min. The Expertfold is the first of its kind in South Africa to be equipped with the ‘kit corrugated’, which minimises the fish tailing often experienced when folding and gluing corrugated boxes. It includes a Bobst Plasma Treater, which uses plasma technology to optimise the adherence of glue on to metallised, UV-coated, laminated and plastic-based packaging.

Other special features are the HHS Xmelt hotmelt glue application system with glue detection for maximum performance on cartons destined for automated erection, plus a colour code reader and inline flipper ejector to remove non-conforming cartons.

‘Full training on the Bobst and HHS package was carried out in-house by a Bobst-certified technician and the entire installation was coordinated by the expert Beswick Machinery team,’ remarks Garth. ‘Now bedded-down, the technology is making a huge difference to our overall production performance.’

Swift and simple laminating

An upturn in demand for high-quality laminated packaging prompted investment in a high-speed Swedish-built Lamina FAS laminator, also supplied by Beswick Machinery.

‘Until this year, we were managing with just two laminators, one of which is a semi-automatic Lamina for litho-laminate work and the other a hand-fed laminator. However, faced with the emergence of numerous brand extensions, we needed to increase our capacity and improve efficiencies,’ Garth explains. ‘Processing up to 6 000 sheets/hour, compared to 600 sheets/hour on the older equipment, the Lamina FAS is creating a streamlined finishing process and a wealth of opportunities to improve our service offering.’

Developed as a highly accurate high-speed sheet-to-sheet automatic laminating/mounting machine, Triumph’s latest acquisition handles most materials, while compact construction makes it operator-friendly with short set-up time. The touchscreen monitor displays simple adjustment, operating and troubleshooting instructions and a single-face feeder, down stacker and pressure belt ensure swift and simple operation.

‘The Lamina is delivering top-quality laminated packaging to a host of leading blue chip consumer goods manufacturers such as Tiger Brands, Federal Mogul, USN, and more,’ states Garth.

Perfect positioning

Established in 2008, and headed by experienced POP specialist, Bruce Ross, The Pop Shop is the newest addition to the Triumph Group.

Reinforcing the one-stop-shop philosophy, an expert team offers creative design and innovative packaging and POP, manufactured in-house by Triumph Printing using advanced machinery.

Utilising versatile and accurate gluing systems is vital to producing top-class POP and the latest Bickers Gluejet (X and Y) adhesive table, which is a 2 000mm x 3 000mm configuration, now meets the ever-growing needs of this fast-expanding business.

It’s a multi-axis servo-controlled adhesive automat that applies hot and cold glue in a single operation on up to four separate work positions. Specifically designed to maximise productivity and product quality, processing speed can be set at any value from 0.1 to 1.2 m/sec and all functions are checked and managed using the self-explanatory control unit with touchscreen and joystick.

‘With the ever-increasing expectations and requirements of the POP market, we need to know we’re producing finished designs of the very highest quality,’ remarks Garth. ‘The Gluejet and all our other investments serve to confirm our commitment to quality and service excellence, delivering what the market is looking for,’ he adds.

Summing up, he says: ‘Our building revamp is almost complete and we’re looking forward to hosting an open house event in the next couple of months, showing our fresh investments and strategy for growth. I’m positive we’re positioned to provide the “full package” when it comes to top-class packaging, printing and POP material.’