In 2016 Firstan in Cambridgeshire celebrates its 40th anniversary. Since its start in 1976, the company has always concentrated on packaging for the pharmaceuticals and food industries, its workload split evenly between the two.
Today, Firstan Pharmaceutical is one of the UK's leading pharmaceutical and healthcare packaging manufacturers, specializing in developing packaging solutions for cardboard cartons. And Firstan Quality Packaging is a UK leading supplier of food, confectionery, cosmetics, and beverage cartons and sleeves.

The six-color Lithrone GX40 and Lithrone GX40RP are Firstan's first Komori presses. Both machines' specifications include the in-line Komori PDF Comparator that automatically checks every element of the printed sheet against the proof, identifying even the smallest discrepancy. This is especially beneficial for Firstan, who regularly produce foreign and multilanguage versions of packaging.
The company has an award-winning CAD design team that creates innovative and, more often than not, unique designs ranging from folding cartons to pillow boxes. The six-strong design group has also devised its own groundbreaking anticounterfeiting devices to guarantee product security. These include tamper-evident products such as its patented M-Lock^® system, created initially for the pharmaceuticals market but increasingly used in food packaging.
Says Managing Director Andrew Hartwig: "We're one of the UK's few remaining large independent packaging specialists. We pride ourselves on offering a personal, responsive service to the industry, and this inspires us to identify new ideas and continually develop new solutions for our clients."

Investing to extend markets

Although Firstan has traditionally served the UK, international opportunities are growing, especially across Europe, as its blue-chip clients extend their own markets. Production Director Paul Hartwig explains: "Several of our UK-based clients now have divisions within the EU, and our new Komori presses give us the capacity to supply these new locations and beyond."
Operating from a 7,900-square-meter purpose-built site near Huntingdon, the company has revenues of more than 18 million pounds annually and produces 500 million cartons a year with 140 staff. When the new Lithrone GX40RP joins the six-color Lithrone GX40 in mid-2016, annual capacity will rise to 2 billion cartons, signalling an increased turnover target of 24 million pounds within a year.

Surpassing all industry standards

The heart of Firstan's operations is extensive quality management and assurance systems. "We aim to surpass all accredited industry standards. During 2015, we became the first UK packaging manufacturer to be certified with the pressSIGN Offset Standard, which is based on the rigorous ISO 12647-2 color management standard. Certification involves passing tests in prepress, platemaking and printing, and we exceeded the required scores across the board," says Paul.

Monitoring environmental impact

Andrew describes Firstan's environmental practices: "Protecting the global environment is one of the most important issues facing mankind, and we employ exhaustive policies in assessing every business decision that may impact the environment. We conduct environmental evaluations of all our activities; our managers annually review their individual and collective goals and set new targets; and we train staff to fully understand environmental issues and responsibilities."
This is the ethos that led Firstan to the Komori booth at IGAS 2015 in Japan. Continues Andrew: "Komori Corporation's own environmental conscientiousness in incorporating so many energy conserving initiatives into its high-technology Tsukuba factory and into its press design certainly contributed to our decision to place the order with Komori for the two new Lithrones."
"At IGAS we saw just how productive the Lithrone G40 and GX40RP could be for us, with their fast makeready systems and the larger sheet size. More than that, it was evident that the presses intrinsically helped to protect the environment. We also came to realize how knowledgeable the Komori family was on every level — from the technical know-how of the sales personnel to the business understanding of the technical team. The willingness and experience of the installation and training teams have underlined these capabilities and confirmed to us that working with Komori will play a major role in the future development of Firstan Quality Packaging," Andrew sums up.