Package printing in paradise: this Hawaiian printer introduces folding cartons into its commercial printing business

Paperboard Packaging, April, 2004 by Jackie Schultz

If the economy had eyes, Hawaii's business conditions would be forever bright and sunny. However, much to the dismay of business managers like Erwin Hudelist, president of Hagadone Printing Co. in Honolulu, the market doesn't work that way.

Hudelist admits that from a climate standpoint, Hawaii is a great place to live and work, however, from a business perspective his commercial printing operation was getting squeezed in recent years by competitors in the mainland and in Asia.

"(Business) is extremely weak," he says. "We've had printers go out of business. It's very, very tough."

Hagadone's profitability is stable but flat, which is why two years ago the company diversified into folding carton printing. This places the company in a unique position because it is the only business in Hawaii that offers both commercial and package printing under one roof, according to Hudelist.

"Because of the bad economy all over we're looking for different legs to stand on. There's a lot of folding cartons done over here for Macadamia nuts. But they're (the cartons) only being shipped from Asia or from the mainland and this takes a long time. We're the only guys who can convert and finish it, diecut and glue it," he says.

Hudelist now has a leg up in the carton business because shipping boxes from Asia to Hawaii is very expensive, Hudelist says.

About 5 percent of Hagadone's business is folding carton packaging, the majority of which is for macadamia nuts. Hagadone also makes cartons for healthcare products, retail gift items and a local fast food company.

The company services a worldwide client base, from the East Coast of the United States to the Orient.

Embracing A New Market

Hagadone's venture into the folding carton business involved an exclusive partnership with a local packaging company called Creative Packaging, which is located about 10 miles from Hagadone Printing.

"They actually bought printed sheets out of the mainland and brought them here and converted them," Hudelist says. "At Hagadone we print and coat the sheets and then we send them to Creative Packaging and they diecut and convert them."

Hudelist says this entry into folding cartons is the opportunity he was looking for to grow the business.

"When we started out a year and a half ago it was a very tough thing. We didn't make any money. Actually we lost money on several jobs," he says. "Many people, including me, thought packaging printing was the same as commercial printing. I was completely wrong. It was a hell of a learning experience."

For instance, Hudelist says he works with advertising agencies on commercial printing jobs, and "we are very particular with their quality.

"Not to downtalk packaging printers, but they're rather down and dirty guys. They put the thing on press and run it. Our guys, when the sheet is on press it takes hours and everything is perfect and they run it and if there's a little hickey they stop. So it's a different mindset. You want to keep the quality up but it doesn't have to be the perfect annual report front page quality."

Reshuffling Departments

Hagadone acquired several new pieces of equipment in order to print on carton stock.

The investment included a Bobst folder-gluer and 40-inch platen diecutter, a new coating tower and a sheet cleaner from Simco. The cleaner is for the company's new six-color 40-inch Komori Lithrone sheet-fed press, which is used to run folding cartons.

"The cleaner dramatically improved productivity," Simco's Jay Perry says. "The largest improvement was recognized in running board stock where they experienced a 20 to 30 percent increase in production."

Adds Hudelist, "When we run a six-color job on a six-color press, on the first blanket cylinder there's a lot of buildup of the coating of the board, of the dust and the coating itself. So after 1,500 sheets or so you've got to stop the press and clean those blankets. It's very time-consuming, and if you have to run six colors you cannot run the first unit empty or blank just to pick up the dirt.

"We did some research on cleaners and this particular cleaner got recommended to us by our plant manager who said this is one of the best ones out there. So we purchased it and it really helped us so now we don't have to clean those blankets anymore. It's had a big impact."

Additional equipment includes an in-house ink system from Ink Systems and a Galileo computer to plate system, which is used for package printing.

On the administrative side, the company hired a full-time employee to run the new folding carton department. The department is interwoven with the prepress and press operation.

Hagadone, which employs 142 and runs three shifts 24/7, had to re-shuffle its 100,000-square-foot facility in order to accommodate the new equipment and the inventory of paper.

"The second challenge was when we got our first job for 150,000 sheets, I realized that there were only 4,000 sheets on a skid so I had to have a whole bunch of skids and figure out where to put those things," Hudelist says.