Australian label print company Peacock Bros. has fully acquired AMR Hewitts, a 146-year-old family-owned company specialising in printed carton packaging.

AMR Hewitts operates with over 35 staff members based out of Victoria, primarily servicing packaging customers in the pharmaceutical, food and beverage industries.

Major companies that work with AMR Hewitts include Aspen Pharmacare Australia, Ferrndale Foods and BIC Australia.

The acquisition includes AMR Hewitts’ offices and production facilities, located in Tullamarine, expanding the Peacock Bros. coverage to include Melbourne’s West.

Peacock Bros. group managing director Ryan McGrath said, “We are delighted to announce the coming together of two of the great family-run printing businesses in Australia, with over 280 years of combined printing history, to create the most experienced local printing group in the country.

“The acquisition of AMR Hewitts will further strengthen Peacocks Bros. offerings in the printed packing marketplace, complementing our current range of colour labels and flexible packaging products.”

Hewitts was established in Melbourne in 1876 by Thomas Hewitt starting as a printing shop on La Trobe Street. In 1985, Dandenong based printers AMR took over Hewitts’ operations leading to the creation of AMR Hewitts PrintPackaging at Tullamarine.

About 12 years after Hewitts was originally established, Peacock Bros. founded and began its operations through brothers Ernest and Charles Peacock in 1888; starting a small general printing business in Sydney, before moving to Collins Street in Melbourne shortly after.

AMR Hewitts senior managing director Matt Mimmo said, “AMR Hewitts is a proud family run business with long-standing customers who have come to know and trust the quality of our work.

“We are so pleased to be joining the Peacocks Group given their shared values and operating culture and knowing that our staff and customers will be looked after and that the long history of the business and our brand will continue to grow into the future.”

AMR Hewitts has also led the adoption and specialisation of cold foil printing, pearlescent inks, holograms and tamper-evident packaging in the country; along with successfully securing several patents for their own carton printing innovations.

It also previously won the Heidelberg Australia Award for Excellence in Craft and has also been inducted into the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame for Sustained Manufacturing Excellence, acknowledging their pioneering achievements as innovators for packaging research and development.

McGrath added that as the Smart Packaging revolution is gaining momentum, the acquisition of AMR Hewitts puts the business at the forefront of change.

“Our in-house manufacturing capabilities integrated with this new technology offer our customers a single supplier who can digitise their products and take them to market,” he said.

“Digitised product solutions such as anti-counterfeit, supply chain visibility, consumer brand engagement and recycling initiatives are just some of the solutions we specialise in, and the ability to now offer these solutions to the printed carton marketplace is very exciting for our customers.

“The shift back to quality, locally manufactured, sustainable packaging post the COVID pandemic presents strong growth opportunities for printed packaging businesses, and Peacock Bros. looks forward to supporting AMR Hewitts’ highly regarded operations.”