Education to Die For

Kocher+ Beck is the leading flexible rotary die manufacturer in the print industry offering cutter care seminars.

The Manufacture of Flexible Rotary Dies for the Print Industry

Janet Frearson has worked for Kocher+Beck in the UK for 11 years and is Senior Customer Liaison for IOC & Envelope dies based at its 1,500 sq.m purpose built factory in Coalville, Leicestershire where it manufactures flexible rotary dies for the print industry.

We visited her to find out more about the help and training available to customers with die-cutting needs.

Packaging International: Janet, are you the only person dealing with customer liaison within Kocher+Beck?

Janet Frearson: No, far from it. Apart from David Morris, our MD, and Steve Horne, our Sales Director, we also have two sales people on the road, Lisa Twigg our senior Customer Liaison for self adhesive label and web fed dies and an in-house team of 5people in constant customer contact. We’re always kept very busy.

PI: If I want to order a flexible die from Kocher+Beck, how do I go about it?

JF: A phone call often starts things off. Once we establish the type of machine it’s going to fit onto, we ask for a layout of the cutting and crease lines and preferably a sample of the stock you want to cut into. We can then prepare it for you. The sample is important because different materials have different cutting properties.

PI: Is ordering really that simple?

JF: We make thousands of dies for envelope and label rotary machines as well as offset litho presses and there’s a wide range of styles. Kocher+Beck prides itself on giving the finest customer support. We believe in assisting our customers from the start to ensure they get best performance from the dies we make for them.

PI: How do you educate customers?

JF: Kocher+ Beck is the leading flexible rotary die manufacturer in the print industry and we offer “cutter care seminars”. They’re aimed at printers to show them prepress, on-press and post press cutter care, as well as handling and running techniques. It’s an essential part of customer relationship.

PI: How much do these seminars cost?

JF: Nothing, it’s all part of the service. If a customer is new to us, or perhaps changes personnel in their prepress or press room, we will offer to train their staff so that they can maximise productivity and minimise downtime.

PI: Are Kocher+Beck unique in offering such a scheme?

JF: I guess not, but we are probably the most prolific. We also tailor each seminar to encompass all skill levels and offer 1:1 training for machine operators or press room supervisors – anyone with direct die involvement. We also encourage managers and order processors to attend.

PI: What’s the format of the seminars and how many people can attend each one?

JF: They’re generally interactive sessions with the support of video and Powerpoint and they take a couple of hours, so a morning or afternoon is sufficient. We like to make the seminars as hands-on as possible. We find the questions of “what to consider in design” and “how to get optimum performance from a die” the most common, but we do cover all aspects. The seminars are aimed at small groups or individuals, but we can cope with larger sessions if required.

PI: How often do these seminars take place?

JF: As required normally, but we proactively promote a session following changes in personnel at a customer or if a site is suffering die life problems perhaps because of bad handling or inexperience. After all, it’s in our interests as well as the customer.

PI:So where are the cutter care seminars are held?

JF:They are normally held at the customer’s site but can be held at our offices, here in Coalville. We like to encourage customers to visit us here because they get to see how dies are made with a tour of the factory as part of their visit. They see the involvement, the accuracy and the quality control aspects.

PI: Janet, thank you for your time.