A powerhouse in the labelling industry
With business operations in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, Bidvest Labels is the result of a coming together of three leading companies: S&N, Rotolabel, and Spec Systems. The three united in 2024 to form a powerhouse of the labelling industry in Southern Africa.
Tim Grisdale, Managing Executive at Bidvest S&N, is based at the Johannesburg facility. Having joined S&N Labels in 2017, he is well placed to outline the business and its activities: “S&N has built a strong reputation and is known for delivering quality and reliability to a diverse range of clients. Being part of the Bidvest Group gives us a strong name, it’s a very trusted name in the industry in South Africa. We service the motor industry and pharmaceuticals, also a lot in transport and logistics.”
Why GEW, and why UV LED?
As the business is a result of multiple acquisitions, there is a broad range of machinery and presses of all ages at the expansive Johannesburg site, several of which have been running conventional GEW UV curing systems for many years. When the time came to update the curing equipment on the company’s Bobst MX 370 machine, Grisdale was already familiar with GEW systems: “We’ve got multiple presses. And from a point of view of curing systems, we’ve got quite a number of GEWs. When we installed the Bobst 370 it was time to refresh the curing system, the machine’s about nine and a half years old.”
As he had positive experience of working with many GEW E2C mercury Arc systems, Grisdale’s initial plan was to update the Bobst with more of the same. However, GEW’s distributor for the region, SArepco, advised him to consider installing UV LED technology on the majority of the print stations, to run alongside existing E2C lamps for the coating stations. Grisdale expands on this: “GEW and SArepco were instrumental in getting us to change to the newer technology, they walked us through every step of the way. They really did make us feel that this change of technology would be seamless, and I think it’s proven to be that way. It ticked all the boxes from a sustainability point of view and a power saving point of view. And really, it made financial sense.”
Running Arc and LED side by side
Grisdale and his team were keen to trial the newer LED technology and to reap the reported benefits of power saving and process reliability. However, they also wanted the reassurance of being able to fall back on conventional curing if necessary, and to continue to use mercury Arc lamps for special colours and coatings, until such a time as LED-curable formulas become more commercially viable. GEW’s ‘ArcLED’ capability has allowed them to do exactly this, as Grisdale says: “The interchangeability was a key factor in our decision making. To be able to change between Arc and LED technology just means that we can use the right technology for the application in hand.”
Ntshavheni Mudau, Production Manager at Bidvest S&N, adds detail: “We still do run the traditional UV systems on some of our presses. On the current press that we have, we are on six colour, which is LED – and the two stations are mercury. We can fit the LED or the mercury in any order. The system is interchangeable.
“It is also beneficial to us that we can upgrade at any time, meaning that we can upgrade from six to seven and one… what do I mean by seven and one? It means we can have seven LED and one mercury, and so forth. So the technology itself it has been done in a way that to interchange between the two is very easy.”
Saving power
The power savings that the team were seeking have been achieved emphatically through their choice of GEW’s most energy-efficient model, as Grisdale comments: “One of the reasons for us choosing the AeroLED2 was the fact that it’s air-cooled and therefore more efficient to run, and uses a lot less power without the need for a chiller.”
Mudau supports this by pointing to a further benefit of LED, referring to its warm-up and cool-down cycle: “We have seen so much advantage in terms of energy savings and the downtime, because the switch on and off is much faster.”
Grisdale adds comment on a further advantage of LED that was not anticipated at the research stage, but has been welcomed: “We are finding that the AeroLED2 is giving us a far better print quality, which is pleasing because it will be showing in the results that our customers are getting as well.”
Sustainability is key to success
In addition to seeking the competitive edge that LED delivers through significant cost savings, Grisdale and the team saw its introduction as a means to promote the group’s increasing drive for sustainability. He outlines the value this has in the sales process: “As a responsible business it’s important that we move to technologies that have a lower carbon footprint and are more sustainable. When it comes to the environment, I think all customers now are conscious of that. And they do take into consideration where a responsible supplier engages with technology to reduce environmental footprint, and the move to LED technology means that we can achieve this.”
The future is LED
With the first UV LED system installed and passing all tests with ease, Grisdale looks to the future: “As this is our first experience in LED, we really do think that we will embrace this more and more, as machinery is either purchased new, or as technology in the older presses is upgraded. Going forward, LED technology will be at the forefront of our minds and will be the technology embraced. It’s what our customers deserve.”
Mudau agrees, with a similar sentiment: “Where we did the upgrade, we do find more consistency… and there’s no need for us to go backwards and choose any other system beside LED.”
Grisdale goes on to highlight the simplicity of the press integration: “Once we decided to move to the LED technology, the process was seamless as well. It was almost like hand-holding. Which meant that when it came to the installation, everything had been prepared.”
He concludes by summarising the outcome: “Bidvest Labels is confident that the investment is going to move our business forward. We chose GEW really because we already had GEW. We were comfortable with what GEW does for us. So to move to their latest technology was a no-brainer.”
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For further information on GEW’s next generation, higher power, air-cooled UV LED curing system, AeroLED2, visit gewuv.com/aeroled2
To read about AeroLED winning the FTA Sustainability Excellence Award (May 2025), go to https://www.gewuv.com/gews-aeroled2-scoops-fta-sustainability-excellence-award/
For more about Bidvest S&N, visit https://www.bidlabels.co.za/
GEW is represented for all Label & Narrow Web business in South Africa by SArepco. For more information, visit https://www.sarepco.co.za/
