Colorpak pulls out of Reservoir

Two months after its last rationalisation, Colorpak sells its Reservoir plant sheeting operation to BJ Ball with the loss of 13 jobs.

According to Alex Commins, managing director for Colorpak, the exit from inhouse board sheeting marks a return to the company’s traditional model of outsourcing.

“This enables us to make a full exit from the Reservoir operation. The sheeting operation will be taken on by BJ Ball as of 17 December, which they will relocate to their operation out to Braeside,” he says.

Colorpak’s packaging plant is also at Braeside, barely 600 metres from where the sheeter will be reinstalled at BJ Ball.

“As the BJ Ball operation already has its own staff, the remaining 13 staff at Reservoir will be given their full redundancy entitlements and finish up by 16 December.

“Every facet of out business is under review, and this was the logical next step for that division. From our point of view, it’s economically neutral,” he adds.

In addition to the sale, BJ Ball will be partnering Colorpak with a sheeting contract, to look after the packaging company’s Melbourne sheeting requirements.

Craig Brown, CEO of BJ Ball, says the purchased 2.5m Marquip twin knife sheeter is bigger than anything in its current portfolio. “Its capacity is enormous, not quite double, but not far off. This is big news for us.

“We’re delighted that we’ve managed to acquire this particular piece of equipment. It lifts our sheeting capabilities to a mill standard by way of quality, size and efficiency.

“We’ve got to prepare the Braeside site’s floor with large concrete pads and the machine has to be broken into bits for transport. It’s a big engineering project,” he says.

Brown (pictured) notes that the acquisition better positions the company to service the packaging market, giving it the ability to bring in jumbo size reels and efficiently sheet custom sizes to fit the market.

BJ Ball has three sheeting operations around Australia, one in Western Australia, Sydney and Melbourne.