XSYS SHARPENS PACKAGING FOCUS IN APAC

Prepress specialist XSYS, now a complete, standalone entity having separated from Flint Group, is bolstering its already large team in the APAC region to continue supporting customers in the packaging industry.

The company is proactively streamlining its offering in packaging print production for the tag & label, flexible packaging, and corrugated segments, and says it has a unique advantage in the market as supplier of solutions that cover the whole prepress process – from imaging and screening, through plates and platemaking, to adapters and sleeves.

Its "well-known" products include nyloflex flexographic solvent and thermal plates & equipment, nyloprint letterpress plates & equipment, nylosolv washout solvent, rotec sleeves & adapters, ThermoFlexX TFxX Imagers, ThermoFlexX Catena Plate Processing equipment, and Woodpecker surface screening solutions.

“The reaction from our customers to the formation of XSYS as a more agile solo operation has been great,” said Roy Schoettle, VP XSYS Asia Pacific. “They understand that we are now in a position to react much faster, because we are more focused and more flexible. But they also know that they are dealing with the same great team which means the continuity is there.”

The APAC region is comprehensively covered by 28 prepress experts and technical engineers, a large team, which is set to expand further with six more staff joining over the coming months.

“What is special about the XSYS team in APAC is that most of us have been with the company for decades; in fact, the average length of experience here is 19 years,” said Schoettle, who has been part of the story for 34 years, starting out at BASF and staying on as it became Flint Group and now XSYS. For the past 22 years, his focus has been on plates and plate processing, where he has helped to bring to market a whole host of XSYS innovations, such as nyloflex Xpress Thermal System and ThermoFlexX Catena.

Supporting Schoettle is a team of specialists, who are well-known throughout the region for their dedication and in-depth knowledge of the flexo print process. They include APAC’s technical director Supachai Theravithayangkura (known as Milo), who has been with the company for 20 years. He has a bachelor’s degree in printing technology and a master’s in imaging technology.

Magenta Zheng, is general manager in China, and has notched up 18 years after joining the company from Tetra Pak China, where he worked in various technical roles for a decade. Kaz Yamada is general manager in Japan and has 28 years of experience in the packaging industry.

Yee Ling Goh is the Narrow Web key account manager, is responsible for sales in the SEA region, who has worked with XSYS/Flint for over 20 years. Prepress technical manager Yves Vanryckeghem heads up the engineering team, and has 26 years of experience in print.

Finally, the team also includes applications specialist Gurunath Baji, who handles technical support and rotec sleeve sales for the Indian subcontinent, leveraging more than 20 years of experience in the industry.

“I’m very proud of the amount of talent that we have attracted over the years and of the fact that people stay for a long time, but that doesn’t mean we’re resting on our laurels. We are now actively recruiting to keep up with the growth of high quality flexo in APAC and to maintain our very high standard of service and local support to make sure that our customers can stay competitive,” said Schoettle.

Converters in the APAC region are experiencing many pressures and challenges that are forcing them to find new innovative technologies and working methods. XSYS says it is working closely with its customers in “a region that has witnessed a lot of change”, to ensure they optimise their business models by implementing ‘best-in-class solutions” across their prepress operations.

“As in the rest of the world, the conditions are tough in the Asia Pacific region at the moment with severe cost pressures, fast-rising energy costs, supply chain issues, and lack of highly skilled staff making life difficult for flexo converters,” said Schoettle. “Sustainability is also on everyone’s agenda, and while before it was mainly just a topic for debate, legislation is now being introduced to reduce the impact of packaging on the environment.”

“People and companies who still see the Asia Pacific region as a dumping ground for inferior products will have difficulties to find clients, as the converters in the region are supplying high-end quality packaging, and they are continuously improving conditions and the quality of their output,” he added, pointing out that innovation is central to tackling these difficult market conditions.

XSYS offers a wide range of solutions which the company says can improve efficiencies, deliver consistent quality, and cut waste in answer to these challenges, such as the nyloflex Xpress Thermal System, which helps increase sustainability and deliver exceptional plates in less time without the use of harmful solvents and at lower costs. Additionally, brand owners demand color consistency across multiple applications and multiple production sites, meaning plates must be of equal high quality, so a job can be reproduced easily no matter where it is being printed.

Proximity to customers is another of the main aspects of the XSYS business model, says the company. With local technical teams on standby, XSYS says it can guarantee that help is always on hand to minimise any unwanted downtime. The teams also educate and train operators in all aspects of machine operation on an on-going basis to help customers overcome the problems with staff shortages and low skill levels.

Automating the manual steps in flexo plate production is considered the main solution to demands for higher quality, lower costs, colour consistency and more sustainable operation. XSYS says its customers are experiencing this concept in action with the ThermoFlexX Catena+, an end-to-end fully automated platemaking line that removes operator intervention and greatly reduces waste to produce brilliant results.

One of the first in the world to install Catena+ is Sydney-headquartered Kirk Group, which is the largest supplier of artwork services and image carrier solutions across Australia and New Zealand, counting global brands and major printing companies as customers.

“With the Catena+ system, we can maintain a lower cost base by consolidating production and removing manual steps throughout the process. This reduces the human touch and opportunities for errors, so we end up with a superior product," said John Kapiniaris, GM at Kirk Group.

“As industry leaders and innovators, our continued investment in the latest technology and automation means that we can satisfy our customers’ requests for highest quality print outcomes, maximum consistency and fastest time to market, all while maintaining lowest costs and minimising waste.”