Boris Sterin, Owner, Flex-n-Roll PRO with Digital Series HD

Belarus based Flex-n-Roll PRO has installed two state-of-the-art presses at its production facility in Minsk – the new Mark Andy Digital Series HD and Mark Andy Evolution Series E5

St. Louis, Missouri – Well-known as one of the largest label converters in Eastern Europe and the market leader in Belarus. Flex-n-Roll PRO had previously relied on a mix of UV and solvent-based flexo technology and a digital press to serve its portfolio of brand-leading customers in a market, that is now demanding longer runs with more variations (SKUs) to reduce the need for expensive stockholding and warehousing.

Explaining the decision to invest in new printing presses, Flex-n-Roll PRO’s CEO Galina Zinevich notes, “We knew we were not meeting our customers’ quality requirements with our existing digital press and that we needed to improve our shrink sleeve capability. In conversation with Paritet System, the local agent, we discovered that we could solve both problems with Mark Andy technology and began negotiations.”

Key to the new investments was the ability to handle short and long-run work, both labels and shrink sleeves, with a print quality that met the standards of Flex-n-Roll PRO’s growing list of customers, which since 2019, included a select group of leading German companies. What the company needed was an efficient digital solution that would cater for high-quality short and medium-run work, with maximum flexibility for variations and personalization, and a modern flexo press that would bring quality and production efficiency to longer runs.

“The Mark Andy Digital Series HD press was the perfect choice for us,” according to Zinevich, who added, “it’s solved our problems and attracted more work because of its efficiency and flexibility.” The hybrid design of the Digital Series HD offers a wide color gamut with the inkjet engine, supplemented by additional flexo colors and the full finishing and converting options of Mark Andy’s Performance Series P7 servo platform. It really is a complete performance tool.

“The E5 has modernized our flexo department and increased both capacity and quality. It’s a full hot air drier press with a 430mm web width capable of 230m/min on substrates from 12- to 305-micron. This makes it ideal for the variety of work we do from bottle wraps to IML and shrink sleeves,” she added.

Although both machines and much of their technology are new to Flex-n-Roll PRO, Galina Zinevich is quick to praise the support her company has received from both Paritet System and Mark Andy’s European technical team, based in Poland. “The pandemic has made things difficult, but we have always had great support by email and video call, and more recently with travel restrictions easing, they have been able to arrange site visits at short notice, which we really appreciate.”

Speaking for Paritet System, Director Kiryl Zubrytski stated: “Flex-n-Roll PRO is a great example of a fast-growing label converter that has seen the benefits of switching to Mark Andy technology – it has improved their quality and production efficiency and opened new markets for them. This gives them a competitive edge over other narrow web converters.”

One of the surprising factors with the Digital Series HD press is its production speed, which according to Flex-n-Roll PRO is very close to the flexo speeds they were achieving with their previous equipment. This makes the press suitable for medium to longer runs too. The Digital Series also now means the company can cost-effectively undertake short-run shrink sleeve work and add cold foil stamping, with each sleeve personalized, if required.

Summing up for Mark Andy, Sales Manager Phil Baldwin commented: “When negotiating the contract, Flex-n-Roll PRO paid special attention to our overall package that included full technical and service support in addition to cutting-edge technology. Modern machines are complex, and it is vital that manufacturers support their customers at every stage before and after the installation. We are delighted to be playing a leading part in the development and success of this ambitious company.”

For more information, visit www.markandy.com.