SWITZERLAND, Regensdorf – X-Rite Incorporated, a global leader in color science and technology, and its subsidiary Pantone LLC, today announced that it has formed a partnership with Flexolahti Oy, a leading packaging production services company based in Finland, to bring the PANTONE® Certified Printer program to the Nordic region. Flexolahti Oy will provide commercial printers and packaging converters with the training, tools and technology printers needed to become a PANTONE Certified Printer. Together, X-Rite and Flexolahti Oy bring a new level of color management and control to the way packaging is produced in the Nordic countries.

The Importance of Color

Today, brands are using a variety of ways to communicate their message, including packaging. As a result, brand owners have become increasingly demanding about the way their colors get produced. A brand’s color must be accurate and consistent each time, regardless of the delivery mechanism, the substrate, the printing process, or the location. 

The partnership between X-Rite and Flexolahti Oy was created to give printers and packaging converters in the Nordic region a way to meet that challenge and better service their brand owner clients. The partnership brings together the expertise of Flexolahti Oy and the standards, software, hardware, and process controls developed by X-Rite Pantone to enable more printers to become a PANTONE Certified Printer and achieve consistent brand colors through a standardized color managed workflow. 

”We developed the PANTONE Certified Printer Program to give the packaging industry better results and consistent colors from design all the way through to production,” says Sandor Tatrai, Sales Manager for Nordic Countries, X-Rite Pantone. “Our collaboration with a market innovator like Flexolahti Oy helps us to extend the value of that program into the growing Nordic region. We look forward to seeing the positive impact this partnership will have for printers and the brands they serve.”

The Value of Pantone Certification

The PANTONE Certified Printer Program is a rigorous certification process that examines every aspect of the printer’s operations - from design and prepress to the ink kitchen and the pressroom. This is the only certification program that takes ink recipes and ink formulation into consideration, ensuring that each step of the production process is accurate and standardized from start to finish. X-Rite Pantone experts, like Flexolahti Oy evaluate, establish and document standard operating procedures (SOPs) for more effective operating processes. They work with the printer implement and train staff on using instrumentation based on operating procedure recommendations. Color experts such as Flexolahti Oy also work with PANTONE Certified Printers to leverage CxF color exchange workflow and PantoneLIVE™, a cloud-based ecosystem for digital color communications, to provide customers with added confidence that color will be right the first time and every time. 

“Training and support are the first - and critical - steps required to help converters move into the standardized, digital world of color management,” says Kai Tornikoski, CEO of Flexolahti Oy. “With X-Rite, we have the best possible partner who can support us in that effort. X-Rite provides us the tools and unique methodology for helping converters, and the whole value chain, achieve accurate color results. Together, we can really improve the way color is managed in the packaging industry.”

Learn more at upcoming events

Flexolahti Oy and X-Rite Inc. will be discussing their partnership and the benefits of color management at drupa 2016, May 31 through June 10 at the Düsseldorf Fairgrounds in Hall 8b A23. The companies will also be exhibiting at the PacTec 2016 exhibition, taking place from September 20^th to 22^nd in Helsinki, Finland.