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appointments  Graph-pak  Omet  Autobond  Rima System 
Experienced printing industry identity, Bruce Hughes, has signed on in a sales role at Graph-Pak in New South Wales. Hughes has vast experience in sales and service having worked for over 22 years on the supply side with notables such as Edwards Dunlop, IPP and Currie Group and more recently on the other side of the fence, selling print for Halkeas Printing in Sydney.

Over the years, Hughes has sold and supported offset including sheetfed and web (both newspaper and narrow web) technology, finishing and peripheral printing equipment, to the commercial, publishing and packaging print segments.

He says one of several attractions which lured him to Graph-Pak was the opportunity to sell and support a wide variety of technologies, applications and brands, including Autobond lamination equipment, Omet narrow web presses and Rima post press handling equipment.

Over 20 years (first with Edwards Dunlop, the then agents for MAN Roland presses and then with their successors, IPP), Hughes was involved with a large number of MAN Roland press sales and subsequent support of those installations across Australia and came to be very well known in the process.

Also during his tenure with IPP, Hughes led the transition from letterpress to narrow-web offset and flexo production of labels, and was responsible for the establishment of Nilpeter as a major brand in Australian label printing.

He says he relishes the opportunity to offer the best advice to printers considering capital equipment investment, and is more interested in long term relationships with the likelihood of repeat business. "I am always thinking about the next sale to a customer as I carefully conclude the first sale," says Hughes. "The best deal is a win-win situation for both supplier and end-user."

Looking forward to catching up with printers he knows as well as those he has yet to meet in his new sales role, Hughes says, "I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and strength of agencies in the Graph-Pak portfolio. It is apparent that, in a relatively short time, Graph-Pak has forged strong relationships with its customers, many of whom are major players in sheetfed and web offset commercial, newspaper, label and package printing."

Tom Ralph, managing director of Graph-Pak, says, "Bruce brings a world of knowledge to Graph-Pak. His background compliments our current portfolio and offers further opportunity for our expansion. The Graph-Pak product platform is now cemented for continual growth and our mission of offering premium service and quality products to the printing, packaging and converting marketplaces has been further enhanced."