Linney ramps-up production with UK’S first Highcon Beam 2

With a slogan like “Restless since 1851,” it’s no surprise that Linney in Mansfield, UK, has installed the first Highcon Beam 2 digital cutting and creasing machine in the UK, trained their staff, and already ramped up production even during an exceptionally challenging year for all companies.

Covid-19 has dramatically changed the way everything is done these days, and for Linney, their agility aligned perfectly with Highcon’s agile production promise.

The Highcon Beam 2 digital cutting and creasing solution was developed as a robust solution to the challenges facing folding carton converters and print service providers who are expanding their services in packaging and retail displays. The Highcon solutions are all about agility and sustainability, enabling the replacement of the expensive and slow conventional die-making and setup process with a digital technology that delivers improved responsiveness, design flexibility, and the ability to perform a wide range of applications in-house.

Charles Linney, executive director, said, “Linney is proud to be the first in the UK with the Highcon Beam 2. We are constantly on the lookout for ways to innovate and to identify production improvements that will improve speed to market for our clients, including some global brands in the beauty and health industry, giving them the edge over their competitors. Finding the best way to do things is a pivotal part of our culture. Our investment strategy is about insourcing more to give greater production and quality control, and the Beam 2 is about three times more productive than a traditional analog device. The time to create make-readies is now reduced to minutes rather than days! The Highcon team installed the machine, trained the operators, and guided our team over the course of days, ensuring consistent, high-quality production and time savings. The machine performance and their consultative approach are highly professional and effective, and our whole team takes great pride in our new capabilities delivering high-quality on-shelf display products, as well as gifting and packaging materials to top brands every day.”

Jens Henrik Osmundsen, Highcon vice president Sales and general manager EMEA, said: “We have been very impressed by the speed with which Linney has adopted our technology. They are already running three shifts, producing numerous jobs for their top tier clients in health, beauty, and cosmetics, including on-shelf tray displays and personalized packaging for the gift market. More than anything else, we have been delighted with the positive reactions we have received not only about the process and efficiency from Linney’s management but also from their design staff and operators – the people who make the machine sing!”

Linney is a privately owned, multi-channel marketing communications company, employing over 1000 people. With expertise across all communications platforms, it covers the entire marketing supply chain, from insight, creative and digital, to print and displays production, digital signage, warehousing and fulfillment, film, and more. Its clients span many sectors, including retail, FMCG, hospitality, pharma, health & wellbeing, education, not-for-profit, and leisure. Key clients include Vodafone, Royal Mail, E.on, Cineworld, Virgin Active, The Royal British Legion, and many more.

The Highcon digital cutting and creasing solution is transforming the post-print market. Highcon offers folding carton and corrugated converters a product portfolio that covers a wide range of formats, substrates, and applications – from general commercial, folding carton and corrugated packaging, display products, and variable data cutting. The Highcon offerings introduced cost-effective solutions to the increasing manufacturing inefficiencies that the folding carton and corrugated carton manufacturers are experiencing. This is a direct result of the emerging market dynamics of shorter time to market and lower job sizes. Such requirements cannot be accommodated by the expensive and slow conventional die-making and setup process. The Highcon digital technology bridges the gap between agile production and design flexibility delivering improved responsiveness, JIT production, short runs, customization of structure and design, and the ability to perform a wide range of applications in-house. Highcon products are installed at customer sites all over the world.