Esmark Finch, a Dublin-based print and packaging business, aims to improve its export growth through diversifying what it offers to the market.
The business was founded by Noel Candon and Declan Halton in 2010. It currently has 42 staff, split across two divisions, and has raised €2 million in funding.
Esmark Finch is split between a print and packaging unit, and one focused on vehicle engineering. It’s an interesting combination that means there’s a good chance you’ve seen or interacted with Esmark Finch’s work without even realising it.
“When you get up in the morning you might have rashers and sausages for breakfast. There’s a good chance we produced the packaging for that. Then you get into your car and pass a Garda car or an ambulance on the road, we would have converted them as well,” Stephen Morley, sales and business development manager at Esmark Finch, told the Business Post.
“You could be working on your laptop, we could have done the packaging for that. Then you get home and play your Xbox, we would have done the packaging for that also.”
The packaging side is built with an on-demand model. This enables the company to turn around small orders at speed.
“We do it quicker, better and more efficiently than anybody else. We were the first company in Europe to put in a completely automated packaging line. Sheets of board go in one end and packages come out the other,” Morley said.
“We’re very flexible and can produce packaging on demand. The idea came from our clients, particularly technology clients, who wanted that model. Working with Xerox, we were able to develop it.”
Morley has been with the business for nine years and sales have grown by over 60 per cent in that period. Export sales alone have grown 60 per cent in the last year. Its primary export markets are Benelux and Germany, mostly with packaging for tech products.
“We’ve been good at bringing on customers, retaining them and bringing innovation to the market,” he said.
It was the vehicle engineering side of the business, where Esmark Finch converts vehicles for specific purposes like Garda cars, that led to the business working with Enterprise Ireland.
“We’ve been working with Enterprise Ireland since 2016 when the vehicle engineering part of the company started. That began with the livery and expanded into the whole conversions of vehicles. Enterprise Ireland helped us with job expansion, training, market discovery and international sales,” Morley said.
“The assistance and support they give us, particularly in market, sales and development has been really good.”
Having made breakthroughs internationally with packaging in the tech sector, the next target for the business is enjoying the same success with pharmaceutical packaging.
“We want to keep growing sales and develop more export sales. We want to particularly develop on the pharmaceutical side. With the packaging being so small and diverse, it is the most conducive to digital packaging.”
This Making it Work article is produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland