A UK-reviewed value model points to more than £710,000 in potential annual cost reduction and nearly 4,000 staff hours for a representative £25 million sheet plant. At stand 47 in Telford, Amtech will let visitors put their own operating figures into the model — and see where time, margin and capacity may be leaking away.
A corrugated sheet plant can invest millions in converting equipment and still lose money in the gaps between estimating, scheduling, inventory, production and despatch.
Not because the machines are slow.
Because information is.
At the UK Corrugated Industry Trade Show 2026, Amtech Software wants to make that “hidden tax” visible. Rather than leading with a conventional ERP demonstration, the company will use its Hidden Tax Calculator to help UK independent sheet plants test their own numbers, identify where avoidable costs accumulate and decide which operational changes could have the biggest financial effect.
The point is not that every plant has exactly £710,000 waiting to be recovered. Amtech presents the figure as a modelled opportunity, not a guaranteed saving. The more useful question is: how much capacity and margin is already inside the plant, but hidden by the way information moves through it?
Key numbers
- £710,000+ — potential annual cost reduction indicated by the UK-reviewed model
- Nearly 4,000 — staff hours that could potentially be reclaimed
- £25 million — representative sheet-plant turnover used in the model
- Stand 47 — Amtech at UKCITS26
- 6–7 October 2026 — Telford International Centre, Hall 3
What the £710,000 figure does — and does not — mean
Amtech describes the Hidden Tax Calculator as a UK-reviewed value model designed to quantify operational friction. The supplied press material does not disclose the size of the plant sample behind the model or a percentage weighting for each loss category, so £710,000 should be read as a diagnostic benchmark rather than a forecast for every plant.
That caveat makes the exercise more credible, not less useful. A good diagnostic should lead to three questions: where is the plant already strong, where are the biggest avoidable losses, and which two or three changes are worth investigating first?
Where the “hidden tax” builds up
The costs Amtech is targeting are not usually one dramatic failure. They are small, repeated losses that accumulate across a normal working day:
- manual scheduling and constant schedule changes;
- repeated data entry between systems;
- spreadsheet workarounds and duplicated files;
- avoidable material waste;
- overtime caused by poor visibility or late decisions;
- inefficient despatch and coordination;
- staff time spent collecting information instead of using it.
These costs are difficult to see because they rarely appear as one separate line in the P&L. Ewan Thomas, Director of EMEA Sales at Amtech Software, makes the point that plants pay every day for re-keying data, chasing the latest schedule and keeping spreadsheets current — even when those activities are not labelled as a specific cost.
Two familiar scenarios show how this happens. A customer changes an order after the schedule is built, so the planner reshuffles jobs manually, the material plan changes and several people spend time checking which version is current. Or the same order data is entered into a quotation, copied into a spreadsheet, re-keyed into another system and then checked again before production. Nothing looks catastrophic — but the plant pays for every handoff.
Thomas sums up the approach in one line: “The starting point is their plant and their figures — not a generic software demo.”
Five questions to ask before visiting UKCITS
A plant does not need a new ERP to start looking for hidden cost. Before going to Telford, managers can ask five simple questions:
- How many times a day does the production schedule have to be changed manually?
- How many staff hours each week are spent moving the same data between systems or spreadsheets?
- Where do late changes most often create material waste, overtime or rework?
- How long does it take from “order confirmed” to “order reliably visible in the live production schedule”?
- Where is the biggest information gap between production, inventory and despatch?
Even rough answers turn “digitalisation” into a discussion about hours, margin and capacity.
What visitors can do at stand 47
Visitors will be able to enter their own operating figures into Amtech’s Hidden Tax Calculator and receive a modelled headline range showing where potential cost and capacity opportunities may sit.
For plants that want to go deeper, Amtech will offer a 45-minute Operational Cost Review. The review is designed as a diagnostic rather than a standard product demo. Its goal is to identify the two or three areas with the greatest financial impact and discuss what a realistic implementation would involve — including phasing, dual running of old and new systems, data preparation, training and support after go-live.
A software demo asks: “What can the system do?”
A plant-level diagnostic asks: “Where are we losing money today, and which change is worth making first?”
What can be improved before buying new software?
Three useful steps do not require a software purchase:
- Track schedule interventions for one week: how often jobs are moved, why they are moved and who has to react.
- Count duplicate data entry: note every point where the same order information is typed, copied or reconciled again.
- Record operational exceptions: material shortages, late despatches, overtime, rework and manual workarounds — then identify which ones repeat.
That baseline gives a plant something concrete to compare with any proposed technology investment.
Where EnCore ERP fits
Amtech’s EnCore ERP is purpose-built for corrugated sheet plants, box plants and folding-carton operations. It connects estimating, order management, scheduling, shop-floor execution, inventory, shipping and financials in one operational system.
The practical target is straightforward: reduce repeated data entry, remove spreadsheet workarounds, improve real-time visibility and make decisions with current information rather than reconstructed information.
Amtech says EnCore is used in more than 350 packaging plants worldwide. The company has served the packaging industry for more than 40 years and says its broader portfolio of ERP, MES and CRM software supports more than 1,250 plants across North America, Latin America and Europe, including corrugated packaging, folding-carton, flexible-packaging and label manufacturers. Amtech is backed by Vista Equity Partners and is expanding its UK and EMEA presence and delivery capacity while continuing to develop cloud, analytics and practical AI capabilities.
Why the UK market matters now
Amtech is also building a stronger local reference base. In July 2026, Cumberland Packaging selected EnCore ERP after evaluating several alternatives. Cumberland is one of the UK’s top five independent corrugated sheet plants and has more than four decades of manufacturing experience.
That gives UK converters something more useful than a remote global case study: a current independent sheet-plant reference inside the country.
UKCITS26: what to expect in Telford
The UK Corrugated Industry Trade Show returns to the Telford International Centre on 6–7 October 2026. This will be the eighth edition of the event, which has brought together manufacturers, suppliers and decision-makers from the corrugated and fibre-based packaging sector since 2013.
The organisers say more than 10 machines will be operating live during the show, alongside demonstrations covering automation, print, software, materials and manufacturing technology. The event also includes conference sessions and a strong focus on skills, careers and future industry talent.
Alongside Amtech, the current exhibitor list includes companies such as Advantive with Abaca and Kiwiplan, Absolute, BAHMÜLLER, Baumer hhs, SUN Automation Group and Swanline Group. Visitors are expected from paper and board manufacturing and converting, packaging production, recycling, retail and brand-owner packaging teams, as well as students and apprentices entering the industry.
UKCITS26 at a glance
- Event: UK Corrugated Industry Trade Show 2026
- Dates: Tuesday 6 October and Wednesday 7 October 2026
- Venue: Hall 3, Telford International Centre, International Way, Telford, Shropshire, TF3 4JH, UK
- Tuesday opening hours: 09:00–16:30
- Wednesday opening hours: 09:00–15:30
- Amtech: Stand 47
- Visitor entry: free of charge
The bigger question for sheet plants
The most interesting part of Amtech’s UKCITS26 message is not the £710,000 number by itself. It is the attempt to measure the cost of operational friction before discussing software.
For many sheet plants, the next productivity gain may not begin with another machine. It may begin with a clearer picture of what is really running, what is really late, where labour is being consumed, where margin is being lost and how much time is being spent simply trying to find the answer.
At Telford, Amtech wants plants to bring their own numbers.
That should make the conversation more useful than a standard demo.
More information: Amtech at UKCITS26
Sources
- Amtech / Keeton PR — UKCITS26 press release, 2 September 2026
- Amtech — UKCITS26 event page
- UK Corrugated Industry Trade Show — event & exhibitors
- Amtech — Cumberland Packaging / EnCore ERP
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