Investment brings rewards for Mark Andy in Poland

For many, the move from Basel, Switzerland, the long-time base for Mark Andy’s European operations, to Warsaw was seen at best as a speculative one, and at worst a gamble against the odds. Located close to Warsaw’s international airport, which offers excellent links throughout Europe and beyond, the company is today thriving in a 1,000sqm unit that employs 10 sales, service and admin staff, and provides showroom demo and training facilities for the company’s expanding range of narrow web flexo and digital presses, and Rotoflex finishing equipment.

Mark Andy UK still has full showroom and demo facilities at its base in Macclesfield, close to Manchester airport.

‘Warsaw is a superb location from which to serve the established markets of Western Europe and develop business with prospects that are opening up in the Eastern European countries,’ says Tom Cavalco, Mark Andy’s sales director in Europe, who spearheaded the move from Basel. ‘Our operational costs are a fraction of those in Switzerland, and we have a ready supply of skilled labor here – for us it’s a win, win situation.’

Quantifying this period of success are the sales made since the Warsaw facility opened. ‘We have sold 17 flexo presses and one of the new Digital series hybrid lines into Poland, as well as more than 30 other presses into mainland Europe. If our forecasts are correct, we see this increasing to 45 flexo and 12 hybrids over the next twelve months,’ he adds.

Mark Andy now supports a press rebuild program at the Warsaw location. With engineering and technical skills available and a ready supply of machine parts, the program of re-building is growing rapidly. According to Przemyslaw Polkowski, who manages the Warsaw facility: ‘Our Polish customers really appreciate the local support that we can provide in what is still a youthful market, and sales and service support is easy to organize from here.’

In fact, it was this local support that secured three regional press sales for Mark Andy’s Polish sales Manager Lukasz Chruslinski, as the customers explain.