Finnish construction and packaging film manufacturer Walki (Espoo; www.walki.com) said it has installed a new 10-colour flexo press in Jatne / Poland. “This investment will significantly increase our capacity, and we will be able to respond to the fast-growing demand for flexible packaging,” said Andreas Rothschink, sales director for consumer end uses at Walki. However, a company spokesperson declined to provide Plasteurope.com with information regarding the investment sum for the line, which was made by Czech manufacturer Soma (Lanškroun; www.soma-eng.com).

The new press can process both plastic film and paper, and complements an existing 10-colour flexo press in Jatne. Besides flexible packaging materials, the Polish facility also produces so-called ream wrappers for packaging paper and currently employs about 90 people.

The Walki group employs a staff of about 1,000 at a total of 13 production sites, and reported turnover of around EUR 400m in 2019. For 2020, the figure is expected to be around the previous year’s level, the spokesperson said.

In 2019, Walki first acquired Finnish packaging manufacturer Plastiroll (Ylöjärvi; www.plastiroll.fi) and a few weeks later announced the purchase of a business unit of packaging group Mondi (Johannesburg / South Africa; www.mondigroup.com) that specialises in extrusion coatings (see Plasteurope.com of 23.08.2019).