Flint's New Printing Plate Plant Opens

After a two-year construction period, Flint Group Printing Plates put its new production plant for flexo plates in to operation in Willstatt (Germany).

After a two-year construction period, Flint Group Printing Plates put its new production plant for flexo plates in to operation in Willstatt (Germany).

For the inauguration of the new plant, Flint Group Printing Plates invited all employees who made the project a success, as well as representatives of the Willstatt area.

As regional representatives, the district chief executive of the Ortenau district, Klaus Brodbeck and Willstatt's mayor and vice-mayor, Artur Kleinhans and Tobias Fahrner, followed Flint Group's invitation.

Dr Thomas Telser, president of Flint Group Printing Plates said: "A good business development made us foresee reaching our production capacity within a short time and lead to the decision to invest in a new production plant two years ago.

I am pleased to be able to say today that the development has proven us right.

The new capacity enables us to further develop our worldwide business and also ensures delivery to our existing customers.

We also show the market our long-term commitment to the printing plates business with the new production plant." About 300 employees work for Flint Group Printing Plates at the Willstatt site.

Besides printing plates, printing inks for packaging applications are also produced there.

Starting with letterpress plates, Flint Group Printing Plates has produced photopolymer printing plates in Willstatt since 1969 - the first production plant for flexo plates followed in 1978.

Dr Thomas Zwez, head of operations for printing plates in Willstatt, commented: "With the latest production plant we have increased our capacity by more than 30 per cent and created 30 new jobs.

Naturally, before the start of construction we also checked alternative locations for the new production plant, including sites abroad.

In the end, the advantages of the integration in to the existing production network, the existing infrastructure and especially the presence of skilled personnel with long standing experience clearly turned the balance in favour of the Willstatt site." The start-up of the new production plant is only one step in turning the Willstatt site in to a technology centre for printing plates, said Flint.

It is additionally planned to transfer the research and development department for printing plates from Ludwigshafen to Willstatt by the end of the year.

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