Family and woman-owned packaging company Colbert Packaging Corporation has a long and colorful history of satisfying its customers. With the importance of color management ranking high in decisions made by brand owners today, Colbert’s association with hubergroup and GFI Innovations is having a significant impact.

For more than two decades, Colbert has partnered with hubergroup to be supplied with a series of vibrant inks and coatings. GFI has contributed for nearly as long, saving Colbert time and money at their facilities in Elkhart, Ind. and Kenosha, Wis. with its innovative and patented AccuBlend HV dispensers for conventional ink blends.

“Color management is a critical aspect for most of our customers. They value the benefit of having our color matching capabilities,” says Cory Holland. He has worked at Colbert for eight years and has served as the printing manager in Kenosha since 2023.

“The GFI dispensers were purchased for their efficiency and quality control. They save our spot ink formulas and automatically dispense the appropriate amounts for each of the mixing base inks. It is a significantly more efficient process than hand weighing each element of the spot color formula,” says Holland.

A rich Midwest history with North American impact

Colbert Packaging Corporation produces fiber-based secondary packaging solutions for a primarily North American customer base which include some of the biggest names in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and consumer good markets. They were founded in 1959 when the late Charles Colbert purchased the property and assets of Kroeck Paper Box, a Chicago company with roots dating back to 1892.

In 1986, the company moved its headquarters and folding carton operations about 30 miles north of Chicago to Lake Forest, Ill. They added a warehouse operation in South Bend, IN, in 2000, and four years later acquired the property and assets of Barger Packaging in nearby Elkhart, which included a 109,000 square-foot manufacturing facility.

As the business grew, Colbert added another regional location in Kenosha. The 173,000 square-foot building provided ample room for the flexographic division, offices, design and prepress, production floor, and a storage area with a capacity of 2,500 pallets. Five years ago, management decided to consolidate production resources between the locations in Elkhart and Kenosha, and closed all of its operations in Lake Forest.

Presently, Colbert employs about 300 people in Indiana and Wisconsin. The company offers a full range of services for offset and flexo printing, a variety of paperboard options including SBS, SUS, FBB, CRB, consumer recyclable and laminated e-Flute, and various ink choices including UV, water-based and agri-based. They also produce labels, inserts and formed paper trays. The majority of sales are generated by the pharmaceutical and over-the counter healthcare segments.

A precise and accurate system that checks all the boxes

The two patented GFI AccuBlend HV formulation dispensers have proven to be valuable commodities for Colbert. They were supplied and managed for a long time by Alden & Ott Printing Inks, who served as Colbert’s supplier until hubergroup acquired the company’s assets in 2017. hubergroup is recognized as one of the world’s leading printing ink specialists and raw materials manufacturers.

With one dispenser stationed at each of Colbert’s Elkhart and Kenosha facilities, the flexibility of these machines has improved color consistency performance while reducing labor, ink prep and press time. Holland indicated the dispensers have also helped eliminate ink waste and decreased disposal fees.

“Our print run lengths range from 250 to 250,000 sheets, and the GFI dispensers are good for projects of all sizes. They operate at a high speed so, from start to finish, we can have mixed spot color in approximately 10 minutes,” says Holland, who notes its manufacturing facilities house RMGT and Heidelberg offset printing presses, and CPS and Mark Andy flexographic presses.

Holland says the GFI dispensers have helped support Colbert’s sustainability commitment to environmentally-friendly paperboard packaging and corporate best practices. In 2022, the company introduced One Clean Carton, where paperboard is the foundation using Candesce CIS SBS to ensure only virgin fiber is present with no mechanical pulp in a middle ply. The composition provides superior performance on press, resulting in less waste and low consumption of raw materials, as well as water- and agri-based inks to support sustainability and recyclability.

“We mix ink batches as small as one pound up to 100 pounds. Having the ability to mix all of our inks in-house allows us to have full control of the quality of our spot colors, including those projects involving One Clean Carton,” remarks Holland. “When an adjustment to a color needs to be made, we can do it before production by using the swing color tool in the GFI software program. It makes the adjustment and saves it in the memory system for future formula mixes.

Holland adds, “These dispensers also give us the ability to mix inks on demand. This allows us a shorter turnaround time because we do not have to wait for the inks to be ordered, mixed, matched and delivered, which adds to the efficiency of our process.”

Holland mentiones the longevity of the dispensers is impressive and, when needed, he knows he can count on receiving timely help from GFI service technicians. He says, “These are the original machines that were installed. We have updated the software over the years, but we have not made any other upgrades,” he remarked. “These machines are very user friendly and all of our operators have learned how to use them. Once the formula number is entered, you just hit the start button.

“We probably talk to the GFI service department monthly. When we reach out, they will normally respond quickly. Our ink technician has a great relationship with our GFI service tech, so he will call or text and have a response usually within minutes.”