Flint Group accelerates investment in Russia

With a presence in the Russian market spanning more than 25 years, the company has confirmed investment in a new packaging inks manufacturing site, located southwest of Moscow in the Kaluga region.

The site will become the base for the entire Russian Flint Group Packaging Inks team, including laboratory facilities alongside technical and customer service functions. It will also be supported by the Flint Group Global Colour Centre (GCC) and Flint Group Global Innovation Centre (GIC), located in Poland and Sweden respectively, which provide color and technical support to the company’s customers in Russia and the Eastern European region.

‘Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, we can confirm that the new Kaluga region site will be operational early in 2022. Operating within such a vast country, the strategic location of the site offers us tremendous advantages in supply flexibility and lead times, which are especially important in today’s packaging market where fast response is critical for our, and our customers’, competitiveness,’ said Andrei Popov, commercial director for Packaging Inks Russia/CIS at Flint Group.

‘We are wholly focused on being the partner of choice for those operating in the paper and board and flexible packaging markets. This strategic investment boosts our commitment to supply chain excellence and reliability for our customers within the region,’ added Popov.

The new site will manufacture the latest water and solvent-based ink ranges for the paper and board and flexible packaging sectors and will deliver several sustainable ink ranges. The new facility will provide laboratory testing, quality control, customer and technical service expertise, in addition to a larger, manufacturing footprint. This facility will replace the existing site in Moscow with satellite facility in St. Petersburg, remaining operational.

Popov added: ‘We have a team with a wealth of industry experience here in Moscow and to complement the operations of the new site, we are further investing in our people across the region to enhance our technical and commercial customer support. With a series of new product innovations coming to market during 2020 and 2021, we are tremendously excited to see the opportunities that lie ahead for our customers.’

‘As one of the largest packaging markets in the world, Russia holds significant growth opportunities for our business. We’re delighted to announce a series of strategic commitments to the region to ensure our current and future customers are receiving best in class product and service solutions,’ concluded Doug Aldred, president of Flint Group Packaging Inks.