(L to R) Paul Macdonald of Mark Andy with Liz Waters and Patrick Murphy at Watershed’s HQ in Ireland
If you were looking for an example of how entrepreneurial spirit can be translated into commercial success, you need look no further than the Watershed Label Centre. Nick Coombes visited the Dublin based group to find out what lies behind its sustained success.
When former Chairman, Tom Waters, established the Watershed Label Centre back in 1992, he did so from an IDA Ireland background, and with no previous experience of the printing industry. The thinking was: if the plan is good enough and actioned correctly, it will work. And, so it has, brilliantly! Today, the group has grown to include overseas subsidiaries LPS in the UK, Etiko in Poland, which was acquired in 2003, and more recently Römer Etikett, based in Marburg, north of Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany, which was added to the group in 2011. Across all production plants, Watershed employs over 90 staff, and in 2013 will extend its annual sales beyond €15 million.
Heading up the company today is CEO Liz Waters, with Patrick Murphy as group general manager. She explained the company’s founding philosophy, ‘Tom always planned for the group to be multi-national because he saw the potential strength it offered. The mix of Irish, English, Polish, and German staff around the table makes for interesting and constructive meetings, and there is a real sense of cooperation as well as competition among the companies.’ It also assists with negotiations for new technology, and in a quest to establish a true two-way working partnership with a manufacturer, Watershed selected Mark Andy as its press supplier.
The partnership has already brought great benefits to both companies, with the group now using eight of the American manufacturer’s flexo lines, and two more are in the pipeline. These include two of Mark Andy’s award-winning Performance Series, a P5 installed in Etiko’s plant in Stettin last year, and more recently a P5 at headquarters in Dublin, with numbers three and four schedule for installation at Römer Etikett in early 2014, and the other in Poland later in the year.
Inter-company activity within the group is high. By moving to standardise technology across the production plants, Watershed feels it provides a meaningful opportunity for each to compete to be ‘top dog’, while sharing a diverse knowledge base of markets, products, techniques and solutions. The Watershed ethos is to be a label solution provider, and this encourages all employees to engage in a degree of lateral thinking to improve production efficiency and offer innovative ideas to its range of customers.
‘Our larger customers, the PLCs, appreciate our working practices because they feel it offers them a degree of security and the prospect of being one step ahead of their competitors. Our recent installation of HD Flexo pre-press technology in Poland will enable us to raise the quality benchmark even higher – brand owners love this!’ said Ms Waters, adding that it also gives employees a good feeling about their company and its future plans. By focussing on innovation and new technology, Watershed is highly price competitive, but can also set itself apart from its competitors with the quality of customer service it offers.
By the time the two Mark Andy presses are installed next year, Watershed will have bought six new presses in five years. Already the largest privately owned label converter in Ireland, it puts the company into a unique position with its diverse production facilities and range of markets served. The latest P5 in Dublin is a 430 mm (17′) wide line, fitted with eight UV Flexo stations and, crucially, chill rolls. This marks a new development for Watershed with it production potential for flexible packaging products, and is a market the company is keen to pursue.
The new P5 in Dublin is the company’s eighth Mark Andy press, and two more are on order
Currently running market research with the assistance of IDA Ireland, Watershed is exploring the substrate capability of inline flexo production of the type of work more normally associated with CI flex presses. With run lengths shortening, and a more diverse substrate range being used for innovative packaging, the company is keen to find out how far they can stretch the Mark Andy’s capability.
On current work, it is already showing a marked improvement in output over existing plant. According to Mr Murphy, ‘We estimate the P5 is capable of producing three times as much work as our other presses, and its short web path means that waste levels have dropped significantly – certainly by 50%. In fact, downtime is very little, as the press is quick and easy to changeover between jobs, and with the automatic register system, we are back up to commercial production speed in no time. I’d say we’re already running labels twice as fast, and filmics even faster. It’s a very hungry machine!’
Currently, work at the Dublin factory is split 60:40 film to labels, with Mr Murphy claiming that the P5 is even economical to run on narrower web widths than its 430 mm maximum. Stating that with a quality portfolio of customers, quality of print is ‘a given’ and that consistency is paramount, he added,’ So far, everything we have asked of the P5, it has achieved and more!’
One of the founding mantras of Tom Waters was ‘plan ahead’. According to Ms Waters, ‘As we were acquiring the facility in Poland, his mind was already in Germany.’ The plan is to continue with controlled expansion and always to focus on the next step. The whole group strives for excellence in all it does, and has an all-encompassing attitude to staff, suppliers and customers. ‘We like to empower people to find the best solution to whatever they are doing. We are a very egalitarian group – and it’s what sets us apart,’ she added.
If Watershed’s track record is truly indicative of what entrepreneurial spirit can achieve, then other label converters need to take note and learn quickly. It’s not the only route to success, but planned and managed well, as here, it’s hard to argue against it. Business has generally been tough since 2007, but it’s at times like these that investment pays off – if you need proof, go check out Watershed!
