Interket bolsters output with Mark Andy press

Interket, one of Europe's leading label printing groups with production facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK, has installed another Mark Andy Evolution Series E5 flexo press, this time at its production plant in Helsingborg. The new Evolution Series E5 is a six-color machine with a 330mm web width and increases capacity from the two label presses that it replaces, according to managing director Stefan Gustafsson.

Starting as a family business named Alkett in the 1980s, the company joined the Interket Group in 2016 under which it has continued to develop a strong customer-focused approach to business that combines production flexibility with high-quality work for a range of customers in the food, industrial and medical sectors. The company prides itself on offering a full service to its portfolio of customers with a range of labels from essential to identification, trace and security, and branding.

Speaking for Convertec, Mark Andy's agent in Scandinavia, sales manager Joakim Marcusson said, 'The new Evolution Series E5 at Helsingborg is a mirror image of the Mark Andy press installed at Interket's plant in the Netherlands with a specification that includes turn bars, delam/relam, cold foil, two die cutting stations and a sheeter.' Interket's latest press also has an LED/UV system supplied by GEW, which while incurring a higher initial investment offers superior efficiency over the traditional arc lamp UV systems, with better operating costs based on lower power requirements and longer lamp life.

Responding, Stefan Gustafsson commented, 'It's our first Mark Andy here and we chose it after hearing good reports on its sister machine and Mark Andy's support service from our Dutch colleagues. It's a very good all-round performer that is well-built, reliable, easy to operate, and a real money-maker. It has also allowed us to bring some outwork back in-house.'

Although Interket has wider web presses in its Germany, Netherlands and UK plants, 330mm was considered ideal for Sweden, a clear indication that while part of an international group, each company has a degree of independence and is encouraged to use its own entrepreneurial skills to grow the business. With toner-based digital print capability in-house, Interket Sweden has the facility to organize its production schedule according to run length, degree of versioning and various finishing and converting requirements, claiming that it will, and has, produced as little as just one label for a customer.