As the new year kicks off, the Flint Group made an important announcement for the flexographic printing industry. Over the years, both organically and through acquisitions, Flint Group has amassed a great deal of knowledge and expertise about flexographic pre-press, from using innovative materials and technologies to create flexographic plates, processors with a minimal environmental footprint and software solutions that help automate and control the entire flexographic prepress process.
All of these resources are now consolidated under one umbrella in a new Flint Group division called XSYS, combining Flint Group Flexographic with Xeikon Prepress. XSYS will consist of three subdivisions serving the flexographic and letterpress markets: Prepress, Plates and Sleeves. Each will have its own P&L and revenue targets, but all will work closely together. Headquartered Stuttgart, Germany, XSYS will continue operating from more than 37 locations around the world. Manufacturing facilities will remain at their current respective locations.
During the press conference launching the new division, Dagmar Schmidt, President, stated, “XSYS is an established brand associated with Flint Group and it perfectly fits with our strategy and our existing product brands – ThermoFlexX, nyloflex, Xpress and other brands – plus systems – leading to our new name: XSYS. It combines the knowledge of Xeikon in selling equipment and software with the expertise of Flint’s flexographic sales team and expertise in plates. Our values are what sets us apart from competitors as a proactive, future-oriented company. Our customers can count on us and on the quality of our products and services. At the same time, we are able to offer our customers flexibility and freedom in their decision-making – a key requirement in today’s world and even more so in the future. So it’s not so much ‘dusting off an old name’ as it is leveraging a known Flint Group brand and modernising it to fit the needs of today and tomorrow.”
XSYS senior leadership team will consist of Dagmar Schmidt as President of the division, supported by Eva Freudenthaler, Friedrich von Rechteren, Martin Cadek, Katja Stuhr and Uwe Stebani.
During the press conference, the senior leadership team also praised the work the groups did bringing Catena+ to market, a fully automated and fully integrated plate processing solution that can be sold bundled with Flint Group plates. It includes a wash-out unit, drying, light finishing and stacking for a complete process. Schmidt noted that not only has the company placed more than 19 Catena modules, but it also received a technology innovation award for Catena+, validating its belief that this is indeed a unique market position.
