Finishing & Screen Printing

Anglo Printers creates a higher efficiency with the MBO K80 + CoBo-Stack and Apressia CTX 132

Saturday 04. May 2024 - My name is Padraic Kierans. I have been in print for 35 years, and have been at the helm of Anglo Printers for 30 of those years. We are a family business, and my late father John founded the company in 1983 in Drogheda.

I was a Compositor back in the day, and really enjoyed the prepress side of the print business. The advent of the Mac changed everything in our industry, and since then it has not stopped changing.
I like the challenge of running a business and have been involved with our own Chamber of Commerce here in Drogheda for many years, as President for 2 years, and an active champion for change for 14 years. In 2019 I was humbled with my colleagues awarding me the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for my work in the local economy & business community and the success of Anglo Printers Limited.
While printing conditions are tough the challenge is still the motivator, to succeed against the adversity of the market is a thrill. Working with a great team here many of whom have been with us for a long time, is also very important to me. We push the boundaries to deliver excellence in customer service, and everyone is bought into that ethos.
I am married to Jean with 4 Children, Emma lives in London, Conor is in Sydney, Killian works with me in the business, and Aimee is at university. We live in the coastal region of Donacarney just outside the city of Drogheda which is an ancient and historic location at the gateway to the beautiful Boyne Valley region. I love the beach and will go there most days before work with my rescue dog Paul. I also love sport, in particular Ireland Rugby, and Horse Racing, two sports at which the Irish excel. I like to travel and love a bit of sunshine.
From small foundations to the leading full service commercial print providers
Our business was founded in 1983 by my late father John, who had worked for Independent Newspapers here in Ireland for 29 years. He was bypassed for the CEO position in the local print and newspaper facility having worked tirelessly to get it, and when another candidate was parachuted in he up and left and set up his own print works and subsequently his own local newspaper. It was a tabloid and the first regional newspaper to move to that format in Ireland. Revolutionary stuff really. He did all that without having much dollar behind him, so every day was interesting in our house, so much so that 5 out of the 7 siblings ended up working in media in one form or another. My brother Peter is my partner at Anglo Printers, and our Sales Director and a much needed sounding board and support. It was an exciting household to grow up in, with news, politics, print and entrepreneurship at the centre of the conversation over meals.
The print business grew from small foundations, and is now one of the leading full service commercial print providers in Ireland. We provide graphic design, litho UV and conventional print, digital print, wide format print, fulfilment, and delivery. No job is too big or too small and we re-invest in our community through various support mechanisms, sports and volunteering. We are very good at what we do, and we back that up with only the best equipment from around the globe.
The 5 business pillars
Our business is built on 5 key pillars, from which we derive most of our work:
Event Print: We provide high quality quick turnaround print for events such as large sports occasions. We specialise in providing Racecards to all the Horse Racing tracks here in Ireland. We also provide programmes for Ireland in Rugby, Soccer and of course for the national games of Gaelic Football and Hurling.
Packaging: We provide packaging for all sorts of goods and services, including printed sleeves and cartons for Food and Drink brands. We pivoted into this sector during Covid and having both UV and Conventional presses quickly attained success and growth, particularly in the Vinyl Record market which has seen a massive rebound in recent years. This has also opened up an export market which we readily developing.
Government Print: We also provide graphic design and print services to the Irish Government through various state departments and semi-state organisations, and have done for a very long time.
B2B: We have always supplied commercial print to many SME’s and larger multi-nationals in Ireland, in terms of their marketing collateral, business stationery and forms also.
Wide Format: This service is complimentary to all are other offerings, and we can ship posters, banners, pull ups, corriboards, dibonds and signage overnight upon request from our Drogheda facility to our clients.
Partnerships with suppliers are key to our success as a 41-year-old business. We have been in bed with a lot of the same businesses and people for a very long time. A good supplier relationship is built on a good quality supply chain, at a competitive price, but most of all it is grounded in reliability and service level. When you have suppliers who want you to succeed and work with you to make that happen, that is gold. When they are there for you when things are not going right, is the measure of the relationship. We are very lucky to have some great suppliers and tend to work with them for a very long time. Success of course also comes from within, and we have a super team of experienced print professionals led by our Production Manager Donnach Callan, who deliver excellence in service and top quality print products.
Full Service Comercial Print provider
The fact that we are a ‘Full Service’ Commercial Print provider differentiates us from our competitors. There are not too many print companies out there that can manage the range of products which we produce across the 5 pillars mentioned above. From concept to fruition of the product, we have the expertise, the resources, the quality and the service which sets us apart. Whether it is s business card, a tricky packaging piece, a foamboard cut to shape or a beautifully bound book, we have it covered at Anglo Printers. Also, our ability to manage change sets us apart, our approach to how we deal with that change in a narrow timeframe is documented, process driven and it works. We are not just reliable but super reliable, a great team who are committed to our customers in the delivery of excellence.
We have such a diverse range of Printing and Finishing equipment, the list is very long. In terms of presses, we run a Komori GL540C HUV, and a conventional Komori Lithrone S540. The mix of HUV and Conventional has been a huge success for us and our customers.
The HUV press is our little miracle producing such a brilliant range of instantly cured printed products from 70gsm to 700 microns, coated, uncoated, metallised boards and even plastics. Add to that the sensory finished from our Impact Gloss and Drip Off and the Packaging and Covers burst into life.
We run Agfa, Canon, Ricoh, Mimaki across our Digital output, and Komori MBO, Komori Apressia Morgana, Muller Martini, Rollam, Moll, Bourg in the finishing department.
The Komori Apressia CTX 132 Flowline
This is a combination of 6 machines – Apressia Lift 127; Apressia Paper Jogger 114L; Apressia CTX132; Apressia Turning Gripper BDG3e; Apressia Front Table Loading BAVB; Apressia Unloader 120; which work as one to bring automation and robotic assistance to the Guillotining of Print Jobs and will be the 1st of its kind in Ireland. The CTX 132 can receive CIP3/4 data files from our prepress department, setting out how the cuts are to be positioned for a particular job, and these send all the necessary data to the Flowline, to allow it to automatically cut, remove the paper waste for recycling, and push the sheets into and out of the Guillotine, and then to the Unloader, presenting efficiently for folding or packing. The arm of the Turning Gripper is robotic and enables fully mechanical lifting and turning of the paper pile in the Guillotine bed. This automation will bring huge benefits to Anglo Printers, and will speed up production, and enable us to guillotine larger jobs much more quicker and more accurately. It also frees up staff to work on other jobs and machines, while the robotic sequences and task scheduling moves and lifts the paper through the guillotining processes.
The anniversary edition of the new MBO K80 with A80 Delivery system and the incredible Cobo-Stack offers unrivalled automation in Folding and Stacking. The advantages of this new equipment for Anglo Printers are Shorter Delivery Times; High Precision Folding; Mark Free delivery; Automatic Stacking using Cobostack without a protective cage; Convenient Operation and Precise Folding. This automation level reduces the number of operators to just one for this combination of machines. The K-80 folder itself offers extreme ease of use for our operators, and is suitable to produce high precision, high performance production of all manner of folded products in medium and high print run lengths. Even the most complicated folding patterns can be produced with absolute precession and presented by the Collaborative Robotic Stacking System – Cobo-Stack to one or two pallets. Stacks of folded products are transported from the delivery on to the table of the Cobo-Stack. The Cobot picks up the stacks from the table and deposits them on pallets. This is an enormous physical release for the operator at the delivery. The pallets can be positioned on both sides of the Cobo-Stack, allowing uninterrupted operation. This offers labour savings, and both automated and robotic efficiencies in print folding at Anglo Printers.