Ian branched out on his own in 1983 and established Beswick Machinery to represent Blumer, Elcede and Codimag who are still three of the company’s key agencies. He later founded Barcodes SA supplying verifiers, scanners and film masters and then went on to found WEB Graphics with Heinz Schweiger and Peter Persson as well as Laserform (now Laserpac) with his eldest son Craig.
Before agreeing to take on the Bobst agency, Ian consulted sons Bruce (MD of Beswick Machinery since 2012), Craig (MD of Laserpac) and Gavin (joint MD of Fellowes Beswick). They all recognised the breakthrough moment this represented for Beswick Machinery and Bruce transferred from Laserpac as a technician alongside Bob Mason, Ian Clark and Tyrone Wallace. He recalls the intensive eight-week introductory training course at Bobst’s factory in Switzerland, followed by intermediate level, product specific training as well as advanced courses that focus on all mechanical, electrical and operational aspects of each machine.
This type of extensive training has always been seen as pivotal by Beswick Machinery and right from day one local Bobst installations were carried out by Bob, Ian, Tyrone and Bruce without the need to bring in factory technicians.
Introducing local market firsts
One of the highlights for Beswick Machinery and Bobst in the territory was around 23 years ago with the commissioning of South Africa’s first fully servo-driven sleeved Bobst Flexo press (among the first in the world). ‘Many local equipment suppliers were rejecting the technology as unworkable; but that first press is still running 24/7, producing globally-acclaimed print quality and today all sleeved servo-driven flexo presses are based on that early technology, demonstrating just how innovative and advanced so many Bobst developments are,’ Bruce enthuses.
A few years later, a similar achievement followed in the corrugated sector with the installation of a few servo-driven Bobst Masterflex lines, all of which are also still in production, turning out award-winning quality corrugated packaging.
‘Installing a world first right here in South Africa is always a special occasion and over the last five years we’ve recorded several examples in both the sheet-fed and web-fed sides of our business. A number of these were during Covid-related travel restrictions and despite being world firsts had to be managed without the physical help of international technicians, so we’re very proud of the way our personnel stepped up and successfully completed these complex installations.’
‘As a service-oriented organisation, after-sales service is transversal to everything we do and although our engineers are cross-trained in different areas, they have received specialised overseas factory training to become technical champions in specific technologies,’ Bruce reveals. ‘This is a necessary investment because the machine/model development and replacement cycle has decreased from a decade or two to five years or less, making it far more complicated to provide technical and spare parts support.’
He also commends Bobst on superb parts management – not only same-day shipping of parts for the latest models but also for machines that are more than 40 years old. ‘A truly amazing achievement,’ Bruce declares.
‘Beswick Machinery’s engineers are complemented by dedicated product managers, each responsible for a specific business area,’ he explains. ‘We believe this focused approach offers customers more value as they deal with an experienced specialist in their particular field.’
Forward-thinking family approach
Bruce describes Bobst as a truly remarkable organisation that has led the packaging printing and converting sector, not only in terms of innovation, but also product and process development, for more than 130 years. ‘It’s an honour to represent this forward-thinking company whose name is synonymous with quality, performance and service with corrugated, folding carton and flexible packaging converters throughout the world,’ Bruce enthuses. ‘We have been fortunate to enjoy the support of and form great friendships with the likes of Paul Enzler, Phillipe Michel, Willi Joehr and many others as well as current CEO Jean-Pascal Bobst in our business and private capacity and have always appreciated their visits to South Africa.
‘Additionally, because both are generational family-owned businesses, our values, culture and emphasis on quality and service excellence are strongly aligned. The excellent relationships built over the past 30 years have also enabled most of our business to be conducted based on trust and loyalty, a commendable feat in the modern business world,’ he notes. ‘We look forward to the next 30 years of innovation excellence and jointly helping converters in their sustainability drives to offer substrates that substantially reduce packaging’s environmental impact.
‘Most importantly we are massively grateful to our customers for their unwavering trust and support over the past 30 years, it has enabled us to grow our business and the regional Bobst install base to well over 350 machines. Without our loyal customers none of this would have been possible, thank you,’ Bruce concludes.
Organisational milestones
1990: Bobst celebrates its 100th anniversary.
1992: Bobst awards Beswick Machinery the agency for southern Africa and opens Bobst Group Africa & Middle East in Tunis, Tunisia.
1993: Bobst takes over micro-flute litho laminator producer Asistrade and renames it Bobst Grechen.
2000: Bobst acquires Schiavi, marking its entry in the flexible packaging machinery market.
2004: Bobst buys Valmet Converting to further grow its flexible packaging machinery capabilities. It also purchases five companies from the Metso Group: Atlas, Titan, Midi, General Vacuum Equipment and Rotomec.
2006: Bobst merges Rotomec and Schiavi into Bobst Italia.
2008: Flexo printing specialist Fischer & Krecke joins the Bobst Group.
2009: Jean-Pascal Bobst becomes the fourth generation family member to lead the group as CEO. Bobst restructures each production site and turns it into a centre of technological excellence.
2010: Bobst creates three business units: BU Sheet-fed, BU Web-fed and BU Services.
2015: Bobst acquires Nuova Gidue and renames it Bobst Firenze.
2021: Bobst completes the acquisition of Cerrutti and acquires a 51% stake in component supplier Cito-System. It also invests heavily in upgrading its competence centres throughout Europe as well as in India, China and Brazil as alternatives to tradeshow demonstration venues (both online and in person).
Click here to read in the E-mag.
