Newly-appointed Vice President and General Manager Asia Pacific for RotoMetrics, Molly Moroni, made a flying visit to Australia recently to familiarise herself with the large number of customers RotoMetrics services.
“Labels Plus” recently caught up with her and Australian General Manager Cain Harper, at the company’s Australian production facility and sales offices in Melbourne.
“I have been with the company for just over 6. years,” said Molly, “most recently as Vice President Sales for the US and Canada, responsible for the North American marketplace.
My role prior to that was Sales Director, North and Latin America, where we expanded into Brazil and acquired a similar Brazilian business – an acquisition which has really contributed to our business growth.”
Before joining RotoMetrics, Molly worked for Checkpoint Systems, a company now owned by CCL. “Checkpoint at the time was a manufacturer of RFID and apparel labelling solutions, and very-much Chinese production centred.” It meant frequent travel to China, as the company developed capabilities in both Hong Kong and Guangzhou. “RFID labelling has really expanded,” Molly added, “particularly for apparel, where you can actually insert the RFID into the tag on the garment, which enables you to collect SKU information, anywhere, all of the time. You have real-time inventory information available to you.”
In her new role, Molly will be leading both the Asia and Australian businesses. “We have a number of objectives with this reorganisation, and number one is to continue to provide the best quality products, service and support to the Australian and New Zealand markets which we serve. It’s also to continue our commitment to those markets and expand capabilities for this facility into the Asian market particularly for our solid rotary die solutions. So, we’ll continue to be committed to this market.
“Customers can know that we are actually manufacturing solid dies and magnetic cylinders in this country, and as well, we’ll be supplying the growing Asian market with our flexible die products, and so we’re expanding our capabilities and facilities to meet a growing demand for flexible dies in the region.”
RotoMetrics recently announced the establishment of a solid die repair facility in China which will come under the responsibility of the Bangkok office. “The original product will be manufactured here in Australia, but for customers in China who require re-sharpening – rather than having to re-ship them to Australia – customers will be able to send them to Suzhou. It’s quicker and makes the job a lot less expensive.
The pattern work will be done here in Australia and we will download that to our machines in China.”
When asked about competition in the market, Cain Harper said there had been an increase in competition over the past 10 years. “But the demand has also grown, and I would maintain that RotoMetrics has a significant quality, service and speed of delivery advantage over the competition. RotoMetrics has acquired several companies in the last couple of years and a number of those have resulted in changes in exclusive technology that is not available to other supplies, which only enhances what we can offer. In short, it’s the best product range and the best quality with local support.
And when it comes to Australia and New Zealand, we’ve got the fastest delivery as well.”
“The tip of the spear of our business is our customer support representatives around the world,” said Molly, “the people who talk to our customers every single day. They hear their issues and they become friends and partners with those businesses. We see it as a critical role and it backs up the RotoMetrics promise.
“This frequent engagement with our customers is one of the reasons for our continued success. Because we understand their business. We understand what they need to remain profitable and supply their customers, and the critical role our product plays in that process.”
“Labels Plus” asked Molly what changes were taking place in the market RotoMetrics services, both here and overseas? “In the tag and label area, we see the customers continuing to down-gauge their liners, because it is less expensive,” she said.
“And there are some environmental advantages as well. But if they down-gauge their liner, there are a couple of things that are going to happen: ( 1 ) is the levelness of the die needs to be pristine, because if you have an un-level die, you are going to cut through the material and we know what happens.
Number ( 2 ) is a growth in thermal expansion as they run on wider presses, at faster speeds and thinner liners. As a result, there will be growth in thermal expansion and heat building in die stack.
“So, we have come up with some products that allow us to reduce the thermal expansion growth; and give pristine levelness and unmatched cutting consistency across the die; and I would attest that RotoMetrics today, manufactures the best-in-class flexible dies – bar none.
“Not every customer will need that die, and so we have a wide range of products. It’s not our aim to oversell nor overcharge the customer. Depending on what the customer is doing, we will recommend the right solution, which comes at a price that is right. And that is why our customer service is so critical. We need to understand what the customer is trying to do, what is his material, and what type of press the material runs on.”
Molly explained that the magnetic cylinder plays a big role in the flexible die selection and RotoMetrics has the technical sales people to go out into the market and help customers ensure their magnetic cylinders and anvils are in good condition and ready to run their applications.
Molly said this visit was her first into the region and she will be here quite a lot over the next 6 months. And what is her message to Australian and New Zealand converters? Molly said: “First of all, thanks for the many years of loyalty to RotoMetrics. We want to confirm that we are here for the long haul. That we will continue to develop this business in support of their businesses, and we’ll continue to manufacture solid and flexible dies and magnetic cylinders to support this marketplace.”
She said the company’s release of RotoRepel was a great innovation, which won the Innovation Award from the #featureMe #feature #featurethis #austalia #featureUs @musical.ly and Label Institute in 2018. “We released RotoRepel as a non-stick solution but it has turned out to be far more than that. It really allows for excellent control of all adhesive issues on all types of materials and adhesives. Dies run longer in use and last longer for future production runs. Our customers love RotoRepel and it really provided a solution to a problem. Many of our customers now put RotoRepel treatment on all their dies because of the benefits. It pays for itself in one production run. To build on our success with adhesives, we are also looking at treatments to better manage temperatures in the die stack. As convertors run the press at faster speeds, heat in the die stack will occur. Our tests indicate our treatment actually decreases heat by about 10 degrees and maintains heat control longer, which allows for more consistent die strike. This means you are going to get a longer run. You are not going to have to stop the press and you are not going to have to increase the pressure to eliminate any kind of lift. So that has been a quite significant cost saving to our customers in the US, and as soon as we start to understand how to bring that to the market in Australia, we’ll do it.”
Vice President and General Manager Asia Pacific for RotoMetrics, Molly Moroni, with Australian General Manager, Cain Harper, who said that RotoMetrics had exclusive technology which enhances their product offer to local converters.
