Established in Albemarle NC in 2005 to provide a customer service ‘second to none’, Global Packaging Solutions (GPS) has built a highly successful business that now employs 15 staff in a modern 34,000 sq ft factory and enjoys annual sales in excess of $3m. Founding partners Jim Anderson and Paul Griswold brought previous experience from the print industry but have taken a decidedly more customer-focussed approach this time around.
Beginning with a 10-colour 18” Comco Commander that dated from 1994, and which is still performing well in daily production, GPS added a Mark Andy Performance Series P5 at the end of 2013. Early business revolved around producing coffee and condiment packs for hotel and motel chains and moved on to sugar paper and labels for bottled water. The market sector for the latter is still a significant part of the company’s business, with one customer ordering three million labels at a time. In fact, GPS now includes three of the country’s top ten suppliers of bottled water amongst its portfolio, while coffee can labels for one major supermarket brand has become GPS’ largest customer.
Business developed well up to 2007, but took something of a downturn thereafter, and it was not until 2011 that demand picked up sufficiently for GPS to begin to look for a second press. With Comco no longer manufacturing, the decision was made to install a Mark Andy P5. The 17” 10-color line was installed with laminating capability to handle the majority of film work that the company produces, mostly BOPP, PE and PET. And it’s this specialisation in filmic substrates that makes the choice of corona treatment so critical.
Jim Anderson explained: “We had an American system on the Comco, which initially worked well, but gave us arcing problems whenever it was humid, and cleaning meant virtually taking the unit apart in order to make it operational. The treater on the second press was from the same manufacturer and proved to be even more problematic. After weekly troubleshooting calls with Mark Andy, they recommended we try Vetaphone technology, so we contacted Donnie Hopkins of JDH & Associates, the local agent for our area. The end result is that we fitted a new Vetaphone VE1A corona treater and iCorona generator to the Comco and were so pleased with its performance that we replaced the nearly new American corona unit on the new P5 press with Vetaphone equipment too. We haven’t looked back since!”
With his arcing problems cured and a vastly superior level of service support, Anderson now states that he’d never buy or recommend any other corona system.“The difference in performance and reliability is amazing and we’re delighted to have the wealth of knowledge and expertise, which you only get only from the inventors of corona, supporting our business.” He especially praised the fitment of stainless-steel rollers, and the speed and ease with which the treater heads can be cleaned, though admitted this tended to done less regularly than recommended by the manufacturer!
With GPS products delivered across the US and shipped as far as the UK, Asia and South America, business is booming for the company, which has recently added a third press to extend its production capabilities. “It’s a ten-color 22” Mark Andy P7 that is set up for high speed water-based printing and has UV or dry bond lamination capabilities inline. Of course, we specified Vetaphone technology – you need quality equipment to produce quality work!” he concluded.
