Labels and Packaging Innovation Asia • 2 2020 -
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Tullis Russell specifies Vetaphone for new Kroenert line One of the UK’s longest serving manufacturers of security and label stock coated products, Tullis Russell, has chosen to install Vetaphone corona treatment technology on its state-of-the-art production line in Bollington, Lancashire. The commissioning has allowed the company to expand its portfolio of coatings on paper and film for complex specialist applications.
chromo white and tinted enamels, tin foil and gold foil.
But to appreciate the importance of this project, one needs to look back at the company’s unique history and current structure of ownership. It started life in Manchester in 1865 under the ownership of Leigh Slater, whose brother Henry soon joined from running cotton mills in Italy.
Fast forward to 1949, when an 84” (2.13m) wide air knife coater was installed to give the company six coating lines all running at around 60m/min. The Tullis Russell connection was made in 1989 when the Scottish paper maker acquired Henry & Leigh Slaters’ business and merged its other existing paper making plant in Stoke-on-Trent into the Bollington site.
Lancashire was the UK hub of the cotton industry at that time, and by 1899 the company was manufacturing
Tullis Russell has an unusual background too. Managed by brothers David and Patrick Russell during the
Second World War, David was so affected by his brother’s death in action that the Russell family took the decision post-war to share ownership with the community and established the Russell Trust. Today, the Trust holds a 28% equity share in the business and the remainder is in the hands of the 105 company employees. By 2016, the company had become closely involved with Kroenert, the leading German manufacturer of coating machine technology, with a plan to integrate advanced coating capabilities at the Bollington site. A key element of the project was to
