Flint Group Consolidation of Flexographic Prepress Adds Value for Flexo and Letterpress Customers

As the new year kicked off, The Flint Group made an interesting announcement for the flexographic industry. Over the years, both organically and through acquisitions, Flint Group, both in the parent company and in its digital subsidiary, Xeikon, has amassed a great deal of knowledge and expertise about flexographic prepress. From using innovative materials and technologies to create flexographic plates, to plate processors with a minimal environmental footprint, to software solutions that help automate and control the entire flexographic prepress process.

Now all of these resources are consolidated under one umbrella in a new Flint Group division called XSYS that combines Flint Group Flexographic with Xeikon Prepress. Some of you may remember the name from the past -- Back in 2005, Flint Group was created by the union of XSYS Print Solutions and Flint Ink Corporation. XSYS has about 600 employees and revenues of about €300 million. Just over 70 of those employees came from the Xeikon prepress group. The division’s headquarters will be in Stuttgart, and its existing production sites will remain as is, with no change at least at this time. 

New logo for the XSYS division of Flint Group.

During the press conference launching the new division, its President, Dagmar Schmidt, stated, “XSYS is an established brand associated with Flint Group that fits with our strategy and our existing product brands—ThermoFlexX, nyloflex, Xpress and other brands—plus Systems—leading to our new name: XSYS.” The new division combines the knowledge of Xeikon prepress in selling equipment and software with the expertise of Flint’s flexographic sales team and expertise in plates. This provides XSYS with a complete portfolio of prepress equipment, support, and consumables for the flexo market. While there are many companies that manufacture flexo plates, and others that develop flexo plate processing equipment and software, bringing these together under one company makes long term financial sense for XSYS and a more secure partner for flexo prepress providers. Bringing together the annuity of consumables with the dependent hardware and software is a business model that has proven itself in commercial prepress with companies like Kodak and Fujifilm. In addition, this successful model is what drives the growth of the digital press manufacturers. 

As a “new” company with a long heritage and significant expertise in flexo, Schmidt reiterated, “Flexibility and Consistency are our core values and also our promise to customers and partners. 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.”

In addition to the XSYS name, two taglines were implemented. The first is “Print Solid. Stay Flexible.” It is designed to convey the company’s dedication to bringing vibrant and innovative solutions to the market. The second is “Be Brilliant.” Schmidt explains, “This reflects our belief that the world needs brilliance. Brilliant ideas and developments to meet the challenges of the future. Brilliant people who have the courage and will to do the right thing. Our story started with a brilliant idea, and brilliant ideas are what keep us going.”

It’s a lot to live up to! To be honest, many of us have wondered why these groups were separate, since it was a bit confusing to the market. Schmidt noted that the two groups have been working closely together for some time, but formalizing the organization in this way breathes new life into the effort and streamlines the organization to deliver even more innovation more quickly. An example of the collaboration that has already been going on in the background is the development of Catena+, which was a Xeikon Prepress product and now migrates to XSYS. The new organization is also likely to free up and make more efficient other corporate resources and messaging for Flint Group Digital Printing Solutions, which formerly housed Xeikon Prepress. 

At the inception of XSYS, the senior leadership team will consist of Dagmar Schmidt as the president of the division supported by Eva Freudenthaler, Friedrich von Rechteren, Martin Cadek, Katja Stuhr, and Uwe Stebani, names that are familiar to many of us. Von Rechteren noted that the formation of this division “brings together what belongs together,” and Schmidt added, “It is more than a change in name, but we also have a new vision and mission, and a slogan of what we want to be day to day.”

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. Although XSYS provides all the components—equipment, software, consumables (plates, sleeves, etc.)—the leadership team did stress it was an open system that could use at least some components from other players in the market.

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.

Normally an announcement like this would be made in conjunction with a major trade show or at least an in-person press event. But due to the special circumstances surrounding the pandemic, the company chose to use a virtual platform for the announcement. It went off without a hitch, and the senior leadership team was quite open in answering questions. 

The group has also launched a new website, www.XSYSglobal.com, which will offer more details about the organization and its products and will also be a virtual platform for access to things like webinars, one-on-one customer consultations, videos (both live demonstrations and pre-recorded), and animations of the various aspects of the portfolio. Von Rechteren also commented, “Another distinct component is remote access and support for Catena for preventative maintenance and resolution of any other issues.”

Of course, the leadership team was asked whether any acquisitions of hardware or software companies were in the offing. As expected, the response was, “Flint Group does not comment on these questions. But I will say that nothing is currently planned If something interesting came along, we would look into it, but nothing is on the horizon right now.”

Our perspective is this integration is long overdue, but it does put them in a more competitive position to focus on the growing flexographic market. The primary competitor would likely be Miraclon (formerly Kodak), who also offers equipment, software and consumables. Other potential competitors, such as Esko, who has no consumables offering at this time, may find their competitive path to be a bit more challenging moving forward without the annuity revenue the consumables business offers. 

Clearly, this was a good move for Flint Group, who has an impressive position in the packaging market. With all resources combined and, hopefully, working seamlessly together with common goals – sales, service and R&D – their customers will be better served, now and into the future. And moving Xeikon Prepress to the new division will enable Xeikon to increase its focus on the digital business. With this reframing and consolidation, as we recently saw with Kodak and Miraclon, we expect to see other partnerships and consolidations in this space in the future to support the increased growth of flexo.