The agenda of both webinars considered the most possible dose of Mark Andy’s knowledge about technologies, presses from the company’s offer as well as market trends and job opportunities in label printing business area. On the other hand, the company presented its customer’s point of view. They talked about benefits from using Mark Andy solutions. Tadeusz Kozinski – Director of Etiko printing house from Szczecin (Poland) was a guest of the Polish session. Kirwan Waters – Director of Watershed Group (consisting of five European printing houses, incl. Etiko) presented his views during the international session.
Mark Andy and its Offer for the Label Market
The participants of both webinars were welcomed by
Lena Chmielewska-Bontron, European Marketing Manager Mark Andy. She underlined
that, even during the current pandemic, another webinars devoted for students
prove company’s commitment to keeping in touch with younger generations and
providing them with knowledge. The events were moderated by Lukasz Chruslinski,
Sales Manager Mark Andy Poland (the Polish session) and Phil Baldwin, European
Sales Manager Mark Andy UK (the English webinar). During the Polish session
they were supported by Lukasz Kaczynski – Warsaw Demo Room Manager, Grzegorz
Rostkowski and Michal Mokrzycki – print specialists. During the international
session James Mayenschein and Kevin Glatz – the representatives of St. Louis
showroom were involved, too.
Lukasz Chruslinski and Phil Baldwin presented Mark Andy, including its history. They underlined that the company, established in 1946, is one of the oldest and the biggest manufacturers of narrow-web flexo and digital presses devoted for label production. Mark Andy’s portfolio, including printing presses as well as finishing equipment and consumables, was presented shortly. Nowadays the company has approx. 8500 pressed installed worldwide, including finishing equipment this number exceeds dozen thousands. It hires approx. 400 people worldwide, incl. 80 engineers. As both speakers indicated, Mark Andy presses are built by the company from the basis, guaranteeing high quality and stability of printing production. They added that having highly skilled engineering team allows the company for realizing individual orders from customers and fitting them to their current needs.
Mark Andy operates from three main locations: in the US, the UK and Poland. It also has many divisions in other countries worldwide. Its printing presses are based on main printing technologies used in label production: flexo, hybrid (inkjet + flexo, toner + flexo) and rotary screen. Currently Mark Andy offers two series of flexo presses: Evolution Series E3/E5 and Performance Series, both devoted to manufacturing longer runs of labels (incl. food and hazardous products), wrap-ups, cups, shrink sleeve, self-adhesive ones and many more. As the speakers indicated, modern label printers expect quick press set-up and job changeover, press’ functionality enabling economic production in smaller runs (including versioning and VDP) as well as substrate savings. Press manufacturers try to meet these expectations by designing even better machines allowing for this kind of production on a wider spectrum of substrates, including renewable ones. Mark Andy’s response to the mentioned market needs are Digital Pro and Digital Series iQ hybrid presses, as well as Digital Series HD, its flagship hybrid/digital model. The company underlines that each of them is devoted to different type of production: toner-based model handle jobs up to 400 meters, inkjet UV presses are fit for 2500-3000 m runs.
Digital Pro model was also highlighted during presentations. It was designed by Mark Andy as the company’s response to changing demands and needs of printing services market, including label-related one. It concerns many current market trends: decreasing runs, higher expectations of customers in terms of shorter delivery times and production diversity. Digital Pro is devoted to companies just starting its printing-related activities.
