Andrew and Trevor go back a long way, he recalls. 鈥淭revor started in the industry as a hand film planner and trained me during my four-year apprenticeship as a scanner operator. Then we both worked as Scitex system operators.鈥� The men set up Reproflex 3 in 1996, concentrating on packaging from the start and corporate packaging accounts in particular. Today the overwhelming focus is on flexo packaging for blue-chip FMCG brands.
Reproflex 3 founder and joint managing director Andrew Hewitson explains his concept of 'headroom' the power of adding value through innovation and taking technology and putting the Reproflex stamp on it, all for the benefit of his customers.
鈥淗eadroom鈥� is a concept that Andrew Hewitson returns to frequently as he talks about the flexo prepress and platemaking business and how Reproflex 3, the company he founded with joint managing director Trevor Lowes, stays ahead of the game.
He defines headroom as the space in which a business can innovate and add value, avoiding the downward trajectory 鈥� in pride and profits 鈥� that producing commodity print brings. For Reproflex 3, that space exists in between brand owners鈥� design agencies and printers 鈥� hence its corporate tagline 鈥淲e manage the translation from design into print鈥�. 鈥淥ur business model is straightforward,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e take technology and put our own stamp on it.鈥�
鈥淚 strongly believe that the UK market is one of the most innovative in the world, with a thirst for knowledge and a drive for innovation you don鈥檛 find everywhere.”
Intensely competitive
Hewitson says that Reproflex 3鈥檚 quest for new headroom is unending, because the packaging prepress sector in the company鈥檚 home UK market is intensely competitive. 鈥淭o be blunt, there鈥檚 no easy ride in flexo here, and there hasn鈥檛 been as long as we鈥檝e been in business.鈥� Understanding why this is has taken the best part of 20 years, he says, but a big reason is the UK鈥檚 business-friendly environment. 鈥淏ecause it鈥檚 easy to set up a business here, large international players have a presence from which to supply into the European market. They also have access to the skilled labour they need to succeed.
鈥淚 strongly believe that the UK market is one of the most innovative in the world, with a thirst for knowledge and a drive for innovation you don鈥檛 find everywhere. Speaking for ourselves, we鈥檙e constantly turning over stones, looking for new opportunities that we can go to customers with.鈥�
Competing with Europe-facing non-UK businesses also lends a distinctly international dimension to UK packaging prepress, Hewitson explains: 鈥淚f you only focus on the local market, opportunities are limited.鈥� That鈥檚 why, seeking headroom (that word again) for expansion, Reproflex 3 has looked beyond Europe, establishing successful presences first in Dubai, and most recently in India with the appointment of Sethunath Padmanabhan the ASIAPAC Managing Director. Reproflex3 is also establishing itself alongside strategic partners with likeminded businesses:聽 Pacificolor in the US market is one example. 聽鈥淥ur strategy is to take our skills and knowledge into markets where there鈥檚 scope to add value. We started cultivating India almost ten years ago, toing and froing as needed to build the business, and the hard work is paying off now. In particular, there鈥檚 a lot of interest in flexo as an alternative to gravure.鈥�
Plastic (not so) fantastic
Much as Reproflex 3鈥檚 management team prides itself on identifying emerging trends early, he admits that the current backlash against plastic packaging has come as a surprise. 鈥淚 really don鈥檛 think anyone saw that coming or, if they did, expected things to escalate so quickly. If you walk the supermarket aisles, the evidence is there in plain view 鈥� it鈥檚 remarkable, the number of products being presented in sustainable guises. For example, a year or so ago, pouches were everywhere, but now some brands have virtually abandoned the format in favour of glass or metal.鈥�
He adds that while there鈥檚 a case to be made that this is an overreaction, and that consumers need to be educated in the benefits plastic packaging delivers, the focus on sustainability is good news for flexo. 鈥淎s new recyclable, monopolymer materials replace multipolymer substrates, each posing new challenges to printers, so flexo鈥檚 ability to print on the widest variety of substrates is going to really come into its own.鈥�
Flexo鈥檚 formidable combination
While Hewitson acknowledges that the launch of Kodak Flexcel NX over a decade ago was a game-changer 鈥� 鈥淚magine, 5-micron imaging on a flexographic plate!鈥� 鈥� he鈥檚 equally impressed by the raft of developments that followed. 鈥淥f course the imaging is important, but to me what鈥檚 also remarkable is how the rest of the flexo supply chain has got on board 鈥� the inks, aniloxes, plate mounting systems, and so on. That鈥檚 a formidable combination, and it鈥檚 the reason flexo is winning work from gravure.鈥�
鈥淭he major brands have done a great job in standardizing workflows around flexo, and once the big players do that the rest of the market follows.鈥�
Reproflex 3鈥檚 winning entry in the Kodak Global Flexo Innovation Awards was just such a gravure-to-flexo job, and so impressed was the client 鈥� a global confectionery brand 鈥� that they promptly switched an entire product range to flexo. That鈥檚 happening globally, says Hewitson. 鈥淭he major brands have done a great job in standardizing workflows around flexo, and once the big players do that the rest of the market follows.鈥� He adds a note of caution, however, noting that while the supply chain is 鈥減rimed and active, it isn鈥檛 firing yet on all cylinders.鈥� He argues persuasively that there is 鈥渁n education job still to be done on some brands, particularly those that have never ventured outside the gravure workflow. Many of them still don鈥檛 realise what鈥檚 possible with flexo, or how the process has come on leaps and bounds recently.鈥�
To demonstrate the quality and consistency flexo is capable of Reproflex 3 developed its FTA award-winning 鈥淧roject Blue鈥� initiative, explains Hewitson. 鈥淥ur thinking was that a lot of the time prepress and platemaking are second thoughts for the printer 鈥� after they鈥檝e loaded the press with inks and aniloxes. This means that the plate has to operate in a condition predetermined by the printer, which isn鈥檛 always good for plate optimisation.
鈥淧roject Blue redresses the balance. We started with a plate, Flexcel NX, that we know is robust, optimised and holds the finest screens 鈥� all the good things you want 鈥� and built a process around it. We had an anilox specially designed for it, and developed our own, patented cell surface technology to transfer the optimum amount of ink. Printers can then implement the process inside their businesses to extract value from consistent high quality.鈥�
He adds that Project Blue serves a further important purpose: 鈥業t enables us to brand our expertise.鈥� This is a subject that matters a lot to Hewitson and Lowes. 鈥淭his business is about more than the technology alone: it鈥檚 about the tone of voice in which you speak to the brands, the agencies and the printers, about the service you deliver, the value you add. Companies like us need to affirm the value of traditional prepress skills and how they translate designs into print.鈥�