Sharon Harrison visits one of Australia’s most awarded print and packaging companies, Finewrap Australia, to interview inspirational managing director Greg Rosshandler. Walk down the corridors of Finewrap Australia’s head office in Oakleigh, Vic and you will notice the walls lined with framed Print Awards’ Gold Medals. At the top of the stairs is a display case full of local and international trophies (such as this year’s AFTA ‘Best in Show’ award). The accolades attest to the focus on excellence instilled in the organisation by managing director, Greg Rosshandler. He is the driving force behind the company’s philosophy that they can always do better.
“The challenge is to run a superb operation – to aim for continual improvement,” says Rosshandler. “You never reach the end!”
It is this same focus that has built Finewrap from a one-person bag-converting operation in Prahran, Victoria, to a multi-million-dollar, flexographic extrusion, printing and converting company employing 400-odd staff across manufacturing plants and facilities in Australia (in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland) and the United States (in Georgia). It is still privately-owned.
Rosshandler started the company in 1967 with one bag-making machine. He bought plastic film from ICI and converted it into oven bags – a new concept in the late 1960’s.
“It was difficult selling them because people wouldn’t believe you could put plastic in ovens,” he explains. To counter this Rosshandler took to running in-store demonstrations himself, and spruiking for new business. He also found other helpers so that he could run a number of demonstrations at the same time.
The new company also made bags for hosiery packaging and, to increase sales, he visited the hosiery companies in Melbourne, such as Prestige, Genevieve, Beau Monde, Kortex and others making the bags - invoicing the customer and delivering the product to the Clifton Hill and Fitzroy suburbs where many of these manufactures operated at that time.
After six months Rosshandler had enough work to take on an extra worker. “I stood on the street and asked each person as they went by – ‘do you want a job?’. One person, Nick Halkias, said yes and we worked 12 hour shifts, seven days a week for three years.”
More work meant more bag-making machines, more staff, and new premises. By the fourth move in 1978 to Oakleigh, Finewrap was ready to install its own printing press. “When the quantity of film was significant enough we got our own extrusion equipment,” says Rosshandler. “That was about 20 years ago.” Now, Finewrap’s business includes extrusion, printing, converting, laminating, slitting as well as prepress and platemaking. “We do everything!”
70 per cent of Finewrap’s customers are in the food business – companies like Nestle, Cadbury’s and Mars. A further 20 per cent is in feminine hygiene and toilet paper over-wrapping, and the remainder in other packaging such as fertiliser bags.
Having been in the business for so long, Rosshandler has seen the industry develop over that time.
“The competition is tougher every year and there is a lot of pressure to perform.” Customers, he says, demand very high standards from manufacturers, and not just in the quality of output.
“You have to run these businesses with superb efficiencies and, because we are dealing with food packaging, clean sites – like a hospital.” They are constantly audited for cleanliness by their customers and, he says, a stray cigarette butt on the floor can be very damaging to the business. Local manufacturers also face competition from South East Asia, where economies are still maturing and, unlike Australia, Rosshandler says “environment and cleanliness don’t come in to play”.
Other demands come from pricing (‘an enormous pressure’) and customers wanting to hold less and less inventory. These pressures impact on the company’s need for efficiencies and fast turnarounds.
“You have to get your product to the customer on time,” he says. “It’s the old motto – ‘you’re only as good as your last delivery’.”
It is not surprising then that there is shortage of manufacturers like Finewrap. “In these businesses, there are one or two big companies, and some small niche operators. There is nothing in the middle.” Rosshandler also acknowledges that flexible packaging is a very capital intensive business. As customers demand ‘manufacturing excellence’, he says, there is also the pressure to be at the forefront of technology in the industry.
Finewrap has invested heavily in plant and equipment upgrades, particularly over the last five years, to retain its leading-edge in the flexible packaging market. The company installed Australia’s first ten-colour wide-web flexo printing press in March this year. The Fisher & Krecke gearless press, which features an inline gravure printing station capable of applying coldseal coatings, follows the 2001 installation of an eight-colour F&K press.
“The ten-colour press opened up opportunities in a market looking for improved quality and colourful packaging,” explains Rosshandler. “Food people like the output from the new press.” Combined with another technological innovation, the Scanapak ‘in-the-round’ photopolymer sleeves, they can provide continuous print with no apparent seam – a feature particularly sought in high-end packaging like biscuit wrappings.
Rosshandler spends at least two days a week visiting customers but sees his main role in the business in strategy, policy and funding - and ‘correcting the rudder’ when it is needed. Most people, he says, build their business to a certain level and either let it plateau or leave it. He is not about to leave. Instead, he wants to see his company ‘growing and changing’ – as it has for over three decades.
“We will continue to pursue more market share and take on some selective acquisitions,” he says. “We are always looking for opportunities.”
This growth strategy has seen Finewrap acquire several businesses over the years. Since 2001, acquisitions have included Beaver Packaging and Australian Challenge, which have since been consolidated under the Multiflex Packaging brand name, and Flexible Packaging (Australia) Pty Ltd in October this year. The takeovers have helped nationalise the company as it has gained additional facilities in Sydney and Brisbane.
Finewrap had already become an international company when it purchased an American manufacturer in Dalton, Georgia, about ten years ago. It is a printing and converting facility which services the textiles industry (mainly packaging for socks).
Being the largest consumer-driven society, Rosshandler admits setting up in America was an ‘interesting challenge’ that took nearly six years to get right. The biggest issue was not competition, as it is in Australia, but ensuring they got the right people to do the job. “Good people don’t join you, they sit back and watch for a while,” he says. “We are on our feet now but it has taken an enormous commitment to get there.”
Rosshandler has no plans to retire yet. “As I get older, I get more engaged in the business. I wish I was twenty again!” His secret to success is “a little luck, good health, enormous discipline and relentless hard work”.
After all this hard work you may ask what he does to relax?
“Talk business!”
Since 1989 Finewrap have won…
• Ten Gold, 27 Silver or Bronze, and nine Highly Commended medals at the Australian National Print Awards.
• Ten Gold, 30 Silver or Bronze, and eight Highly Commended medals at the Australian Flexographic Technical Association (AFTA) Awards.
• Winners of the AFTA ‘Best of Show’ award in 1993, 1999, 2003 & 2004.
… and, over, the last five years they have had particular success internationally …
• Three Gold and four Silver or Bronze medals at the US Flexographic Technical Association Awards; and winners of the ‘Best of Show’ honours in 1999 and 2000.
• Two Highly Commended awards at the UK Flexo Tech International Awards; and winners of the ‘Best Print’ Trophy in 2001 and 2002.
