Founded in 1983, when Bill Ellis purchased the company, Ellis has grown into a three-facility organization serving all areas in the folding carton arena: Ellis Packaging in Pickering, Ontario, focuses on personal care, nutraceuticals, food and confectionery; Ellis Paper Box in Mississauga, Ontario, specializes in pharmaceuticals and personal care; and Ellis Packaging West in Guelph, Ontario, handles confectionery, food and specialty food tray business. The family-run company has over 200 employees and produces more than 500 million cartons per year across its three plants. It is a longtime Komori user, currently operating five Komori presses throughout its operations.

Deep rooted partnership

In fact, Ellis purchased the first Komori press in Canada in the mid-1980s — a five-color Lithrone, which was the beginning of their long relationship with Komori. "When Mr. Komori visited my dad in the mid-1980s, Komori was just starting out in North America. Komori not only wanted to sell us a press, they wanted to build a partnership, and that collaboration continues today. Dad never forgot that Komori was there for him in the beginning," says Cathie Ellis, President of Ellis Packaging, which is also home to the first Komori Lithrone GX40 in North America.

Dave Ellis, President of Ellis Paper Box, notes that the packaging market has changed significantly since the early days of their business: "Initially folding carton work was easy to get. Most of the work was two to four colors, maybe spot colors, but not nearly as sophisticated as the packaging we see today." Now the company provides value-added coating, cold foiling and special colors to meet and exceed their customers' expectations. "We are not afraid of a challenge, and through our structural design group and our value-added printing capabilities we can take a client's idea and turn it into an intricate, beautiful carton that helps build their brand," says Dave. Cathie adds that turnaround times have drastically shortened: "A four- to six-week lead time used to be standard — now it can be as quick as two weeks, so we really need to be efficient."

Maxed out to stand out

The drive for continuous improvement and maximized productivity led Ellis to stay on the cutting edge of technology — as evidenced by their most recent press purchase, an eight-color Lithrone GX40 with UV, PQA-S and full logistics. "We attended the Lithrone GX40 open house at the Tsukuba Graphic Technology Center in 2014, and were very impressed with the technology," says Cathie. Prior to choosing Komori, Ellis vetted other manufacturers to ensure they were making the right choice for their business. "The decision to go with Komori was based on many different factors. The success our other facilities have with their Komori presses, the extraordinary Komori print quality, and the fact that we would have a press that was different than others in the marketplace were key drivers," says Cathie. "We want to stand out from the competition."

Eye on Impremia IS29 for short runs

The Lithrone GX40, affectionately named "Marilyn," has been in operation since the fall of 2015, and the printer is pleased with the machine's performance. "One of the biggest challenges we've had is keeping enough board in stock. This press, running at 18,000 sheets per hour, chews board, so we've had to revamp how we schedule and order, but we're very happy so far," says Cathie. She adds that training their press crews on the new technology has been critical to the success of the start-up: "There is a lot to learn to maximize the efficiency of the press." Cathie is impressed that not only makeready times but also waste has been reduced: "Board is our biggest expense, and the more we can reduce waste, the more we add to our bottom line." Cathie also believes that the PQA-S will be a big help in maximizing waste reduction: "Identifying defects early has the potential for us to reduce waste by up to 50 percent. That's a tremendous boost to productivity and profitability."
The future for Ellis will continue to focus on process improvement. "We have these presses that can produce an extraordinary amount of work. Now we need finishing equipment that can keep up with it, so we will be looking for those kinds of solutions," says Dave. He also believes investment in digital equipment may be on their horizon: "While Cathie may not agree with me, I think inkjet, especially for short-run packaging, may be on our horizon. I think we need to start investigating that just to make sure we're not behind the technology curve. Who knows, maybe an Impremia IS29 is in our future."
For now, the company will focus on customer satisfaction and growing their business. "Our industry is changing. It is shrinking through mergers and acquisitions and we need to stay on top of our game. We deliver a quality product and our customers know we'll go the extra mile for them. Our goal is to be the largest private package printing company in Canada, and the only way we can achieve that is to be the best. We have great equipment, great employees and great customers. We feel very fortunate," says Cathie. "And of course, we have to feed Marilyn."