DEMM Engineering & Manufacturing
Oji Fibre Solutions unveils $30 Million investment in Penrose paper bag plant
Oji Fibre Solutions (OFS) has unveiled upgraded and expanded facilities at its Penrose (Auckland) paper bag manufacturing plant. The $30 million capital investment lifts production capacity and provides a world-class food safety environment that aims to future proof the business and continue to set the global standard in dairy bag production.
The new facilities were officially opened on Friday by the Minister for Economic Development, Hon Simon Bridges.
OFS chief executive Jon Ryder said the event marks one of the first milestones in an exciting new chapter in the company’s history.
“The decision to invest $30 million into this site was made in February 2015, within months of the purchase of our business (formerly CHH Pulp, Paper and Packaging) by Oji Holdings and Innovation INCJ in November 2014. It is a strong sign of Oji’s commitment to New Zealand and our intent to grow the Oji Fibre Solutions business in NZ and Australia.”
Dr Ryder said the business has traditionally been a supplier of commodity products – the Penrose investment reflects its transition to become a solutions company for its customers.
“We are determined to develop a portfolio of added margin products that address the sectors we support; in this case dairy, flour and sugar. Our investment provides a world-class food safety environment which is vital to ensure the integrity of the supply chain,” he said.
The investment project has seen the extension of the plant’s existing hygiene hall and upgrade of a conversion line that produces multi-walled bags for dairy powder packaging. It entailed upgrading of all aspects of critical hygiene, installation of state of the art bag-making equipment and construction of an additional 3,000m2 of on-site warehousing and associated facilities.
Purpose built and equipped to meet the Ministry of Primary Industries’ guidelines for the design and construction of dairy facilities, the facilities also comply with stringent customer engineering standards for food safety. The new conversion line produces 48 million 25kg dairy powder bags per year, bringing total production to around 100 million bags per annum.
Oji Fibre Solutions is the leading supplier of multi-ply paper bags in New Zealand. In addition to supplying the dairy bag market its Penrose business also produces tens of millions of paper bags for a diverse range of market segments including cement, vegetables and food products. Its current market is primarily domestic however the business has rapidly growing export volumes to Australia, the Pacific Islands and South America. Key customers include major dairy processing companies in New Zealand, Australia and South America along with other large scale food product manufacturers.