(Pictured above, Weipong Print Trials, Bigbox Site Manager Radoslav Kolbaba with Sales Director Steve Gabell.)

On the 22nd of October 2021, the strategic plan for a new factory for large format cardboard boxes and products was given the green light, and just last week delivery was taken of the final machine. Whilst it was always the dream at RH to have a new facility, entering new markets and creating new products, we have fast tracked this strategy. This was mainly due to our availability of a factory and nothing other than our raw excitement and enthusiasm to get going. The good news is we are now fully operational well inside the one-year anniversary of the £2 million green light being given.

(Pictured above, RH Bigbox, within these walls there are now four new machines, associated rollers/bundle strappers and additional space for storage of finished product and raw materials).

In generic terms, RH Bigbox, and its capability really focuses on boxes that are anything larger than a one-person lift/carry and are suited for transporting or containing heavy or large items.

With any major investment, the Journey has been a fairly standard one, meaning we have had delays, frustrations, unforeseen circumstances, and a host of challenges that you don’t ordinarily put in a strategic plan. Having said that the decision to take on a facility well before the machines were delivered and well before the acquired building had a change of use sign off, did mean we were able to solve storage issues, during a difficult period with raw materials. We were also able to move some of our secondary machines across, and help support the somewhat spontaneous purchase of an automatic taper for machine peel and seal. We are also very proud and lucky that our production team and engineers have been adaptable enough to run backwards and forwards from both factories, having to cope with training, and new health and safety procedures whilst still ensuring we remain efficient and focused on run times.

Following on from the installation of our Sodeme Gluer at RH Bigbox, our main purchase, a large format Weipong Printer Slotter is now operational and running its first few orders whilst our team are being trained on the job.

We decided on this machine because of the successful installation of our Weipong Casemaker in 2020, and this machine is the first one to be installed in the UK of this size. Frankly, the new installation can only be described as a beast. The 23-metre-long, £850,000 machine will slot and cut a piece of board 2.2 metres wide, by 3.6 metres long, and the capability of printing up to two colours in one pass gives our customer options for branding.

(Pictured above, our Weipong Printer Slotter is up and running and currently running print trials).

Our final installation, a Gazella Atlantique Stitcher/Gluer, has the capability to stitch and glue two pieces together, so in theory we can produce packaging five metres in length or more. This takes our machine spend along with rollers to around £1.35 million.

During our exploratory meetings with customers and prospects, we have been asked ‘so how big can you make a box?’ This is a difficult question to answer, because it’s the relationship of height width and length of the box which determines its size, but by way of an example, producing a box that is 1.5 metres in length, width and height as a cube, is not a problem for the Weipong and Gazella. As always, we promote our bespoke capability and ask our customers to tell us what box size they need to house their products, and we design this accordingly.

(Pictured above, our Gazella Atlantique Stitcher/Gluer is currently being installed).

Steve Gabell, Sales Director said ‘Naturally, an investment of this size has also created employment opportunities locally for our town in Wellington and provided training on new technology for our team – as well as adding to our region’s impressive manufacturing expertise. We are excited to get going on our product offering into a whole range of business sectors and would welcome any opportunities out there for supply’.

(Pictured above, our new facility in Wellington, Somerset).