The security print arm of the packaging giant is investing in technology that will enhance the security of supply chains through print.
Smurfit Kappa Security Concepts is installing a specially configured Rotatek web press to produce passports, security documents and a host of high value printed products that are designed to be impossible to replicate and so “to make the world a safer place, helping to protect against criminal elements”.
The machine is being erected at the company’s factory close to Dublin where Peter Thomas took over as full time managing director a few weeks ago. He had joined the business as interim managing director in September to succeed Tom O’Mahony who had been managing director for 20 years.
Thomas says: “This investment forms an integral part of our strategy that is designed to take our business through to the next stage of its development. We will be using our current success as a launch pad to expand our solutions to more governments and corporates across the globe, supporting countries and companies who are at different stages, but all with increased vulnerabilities as the world continues its digital transformation.”
This is a return to a business that Thomas, then sales manager, left the group in 2015 after 18 years. He joined DLRT, part of the Tall Group, which was acquired in January last year by Parseq. Thomas became sales director for Parseq UK, leaving nine months later.
SKSC supplies the government of Tanzania with biometric passports for example, alongside passports, driving licences, birth certificates, motor tax discs and other documentation for the Irish government.
The new press represents an investment of €3 million. While the company is understandably reticent about precise specifications, it will be capable of producing high security documents in a single pass including excise labels and enabling SKSC to produce self adhesive security labels to strengthen brand integrity by mitigating losses along the supply chain.
This is as close as the business comes to lining up with the main thrust of Smurfit Kappa’s (soon to be Smurfit Westrock’s) core business of corrugated packaging for transit and point of purchase packaging.
SKSC was set up as a joint venture between De La Rue and Jefferson Smurfit in 1976 to produce security documents including passports for the Irish government. De La Rue sold its share in 2007 leaving it as a chilly owned subsidiary within Smurfit Kappa.
Rotatek is a Spanish press manufacturer that develops rotary and semi rotary blanket to steel web presses, combining offset and flexo print units combining foiling and laminating. Other inline finishing options are available, helping the company specialise in presses for security applications.