Manufacturing News

Procter & Gamble closes Somersby facility

Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest maker of household goods, has finally closed its Somersby plant after first confirming that it intended to do so in 2007.
A spokesperson for the company said the decision to close the plant was part of P&G’s move to consolidate the Company’s Asian hair care manufacturing operations to help reduce complexity and costs.

Approximately 100 employees were at the site when this announcement was made.

The plant at Somersby was originally built by Wella hair care products some twenty years ago and was acquired by P&G Group in 2003. It is the second time that P&G has closed a plant on the Central Coast and moved to Asia.

In 2005 the company built a new plant at Berkeley Vale to produce a new global skin care system. Within a few years they closed and relocated the plant to Hanoi in Vietnam.

The closure was not the only bad news for manufacturing in 2009. In August, Albany International Australia announced that it was transferring production to their parent company’s South Carolina facility in the US.

The move was a blow to the manufacturing industry on the Central Coast, particularly as Albany has been an industry leader in the region since establishing at Lisarow forty years ago.

At the same time Albany also announced that their West Gosford Rapid-Roll Doors division would be relocated to China. The closure of the Lisarow facility will take effect from June 2010.

Paper bag manufacturer moves to Gosford

Clarke Packaging Products, manufacturer of paper bags for the retail industry and their sister company, Clarke Polybank, manufacturers of banknote handling systems, have relocated from Lewisham to a factory at North Gosford.

A family business that was first established in 1920 as distributors of paper bags, Clarke Packaging Products is now owned by the great grandson of the founder. The company moved into the manufacture of paper bags in 1937 and is now owned by Greg Reid who is a resident of the Central Coast, and whose father, Stewart, continues to support him in the business.

“Lewisham is a difficult place to run a manufacturing and distribution business from, and now that freight rates between the Hunter, Sydney and Illawarra are all the same it made sense to relocate,” said Mr Reid.

The company is the only paper bag manufacturer to offer three- and four-colour print options.

Following the introduction of plastic banknotes, the family established Clarke Polybank and introduced a suite of products designed to allow more convenient handling and storage of the difficult to handle banknotes.

RFID n Print signs US deal

In mid-November, Warnervale manufacturer of bar-coded and imprinted wristbands, RFID n Print announced that they had concluded a deal with US company, VentureAxis – a private firm dedicated to solutions for enhancing multichannel customer experience.

Together they will form a new business, Talisman, which will focus on delivering real-time business intelligence for brand rewards and mobile marketing at amusement parks and attractions in the leisure, entertainment and hospitality markets worldwide.

RFID n Print Managing Director, Bruce Hegan was at the annual International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Expo in Las Vegas for the announcement. He told CCBR, “In short, the concept is designed to make the purchase of the wristbands a profit centre as opposed to what has historically been a cost centre.”

RFID n Print is an innovative supplier of custom RFID wristbands and smart labels and has recently developed the first dynamic mobile-marketing solution in an RFID wristband. The innovative smart wristband, called Re-Coup™ (a trademark of RFID n Print Pty Ltd) brings new opportunities for revenue to organisations and their affiliate businesses and sponsors in the leisure, entertainment and hospitality industries.

The new wristband provides, for the first time, instant rewards for brand loyalty and unlimited promotional offers through the Talisman service.  

“Talisman leverages the secure functionality of RFID-tagged wristbands with a web-based software service to deliver best-in-class mobile marketing capabilities,” said Cindy McNamara, Vice President of Business Development at Talisman.

“It’s easy to implement and translates into top line revenue gains as well as bottom line savings for theme park operators,” she said.

Re-Coup wristbands are flexible, multi-use mobile marketing “platforms” containing a removable, reusable RFID coupon, and are a green alternative to single-use disposable wristbands.  The Re-Coup™ wristband delivers unlimited promotional capability thanks to the combination of variable data, photo-quality printing, a reusable RFID coupon and the real-time intelligence software and service from Talisman.

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