Leading Australian printing organisation, Peacock Bros., have today announced that they have fully acquired AMR Hewitts PrintPackaging, 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.

“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,” said Ryan McGrath, Group Managing Director at Peacock Bros. 

“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.” 

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

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. 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 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,” said Matt Mimmo from AMR Hewitts.

AMR Hewitts is regarded as one of the pioneers and industry leaders in printed carton packaging in Australia – having 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. 

AMR Hewitts 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. 

“The Smart Packaging revolution is gaining momentum, and we are at the forefront. 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. 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”, said Ryan.  

“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.”