When Belarus converter LeanGroup looked to expand its production capability and extend its sales of laminate tubes into the lucrative export markets of the West, it chose Mark Andy as its press partner.

Founded in 1999 in Minsk, Belarus, and for many years the leading supplier of laminate tube packaging to the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States, also known as the Russian Commonwealth) market, LeanGroup has developed specialist skills and technology that today sees it produce and supply more than 30 million tubes per month to the toothpaste, cosmetic and food industries. The early years of the company saw tube production on a variety of KMK and SAESA lines, and it was not until 2005 that the first printing press was installed in the plant at Minsk. To meet the quality standards required, rotary letterpress technology was preferred, and a second printing press was added in 2009, by which point the company had already installed its sixth SAESA tube production line.

“We focus on quality here, both in terms of product and customer service, because we are supplying packaging that has to meet the hygiene and sanitary requirements stipulated by Government, and the consistently high quality standards demanded by our international brand owning customers,” explains LeanGroup Managing Director Yigal Koifman. The quality management standards referred to are ISO 9001-2009, and in the case of laminate tube packaging for food and cosmetic products, the regulations of the Customs Union of Technical Data (Safety Packaging) TR TC005/2011. The company has a three-stage QC system so that each batch of finished goods is checked for compliance with technical characteristics, packaging, and labeling.

There are two types of laminate tubing – one has an aluminium foil barrier layer of 12-40-micron, and is known as ABL, while the other has a plastic EVOH barrier layer of 5-25-micron, and is known as PBL. In both cases, the barrier layer prevents inward and outward migration of aroma, oxygen, water, bacteria and light. This prevents processes such as fermentation and retains the physical and chemical integrity of the content. ABL provides the best protection, and the aluminium layer is sandwiched between an outer PE film for decoration, and an inner PE film that prevents contact with the foil barrier. Thickness of the laminated substrate can be up to 275-micron for ABL and 400-micron for PBL, with the bulk of LeanGroup’s supply of material coming from leading manufacturers in Germany and Asia.

Elena Ivashchuk, Marketing and R&D Director, takes up the story: “One of the principal advantages of laminate tube for packaging is its competitive cost level. As a material, it’s economical and versatile, and can be decorated to give the product a high shelf-appeal. It is the most popular method of packaging toothpaste, because its unique barrier properties offer a longer product life, but it’s also used extensively for skin and personal care, food, medicines and household products.”

LeanGroup offers a range of sizes and styles of tubes, from 16mm to 50mm in diameter, and works with a carefully selected group of Belarusian and overseas suppliers of caps and shoulders, all of which are required to meet the stringent quality standards.

With such criteria for quality, the choice of a new printing press was never going to be straightforward, and the company embarked on an extensive round of testing different manufacturers’ flexo technology with each of its substrates to build up a level of comparative data.  Explains Koifman, “We were new to narrow web inline flexo, but from an early stage, it became evident that some technology was better suited than others – in fact some presses failed the test completely.  In the end, there was only one manufacturer that was able to meet our requirements of consistent print quality and speed across all materials,” he says, adding that Mark Andy’s extensive experience with flexo printing and its strong global presence proved as convincing as the Performance Series press had under test conditions.

Following detailed negotiations, because the first press is part of a planned growth plan that extends over the next five years, LeanGroup eventually specified a 430mm wide Mark Andy Performance Series P7 press with up to nine-color flexo capacity including a screen cassette, as well as hot and cold foil and varnishing units. The new press, which has Mark Andy’s “film package” that includes special idler rolls, anti-static equipment and chilled impression rolls, was delivered and commissioned in 2013, and has since significantly increased the company’s capacity for printed laminate tubes.

Running reel to reel, the Mark Andy is fitted with a Martin Automatic MBS unwind/splicer and LRD rewinder.  The MBS, which can handle rolls up to 1016mm diameter, is fitted with the tube laminate package to facilitate the handling of special substrates, while the LRD has a lay-on roller for films, and a back-up bar.  Both Martin units have a maximum splicing/transfer speed of 150m/min.  An important feature for tube laminate printing is the capability of synchronizing transfers from roll to roll – so the MBS splicer sends a signal to the rewinder when the web is spliced, and the LRD counts down the metres of web in the press before it transfers to the empty core, placing the splice either on the core or on the outside wrap of the full roll, according to operator preference.

“We needed the extra production volume that the Mark Andy offers because our free capacity had slipped as low as 15% in 2013, and this was proving to be a limit to our growth ambitions,” says Koifman. “It immediately took this figure up to 47% and has given us the scope to increase our business going forward.”

With a quality portfolio of customers that already includes many of the major Eastern European brands, LeanGroup is keen to add to names like Henkel, Beiersdorf (Nivea), Unilever and Procter & Gamble in the EU region. “We operate ‘Clean Room’ production and have an A+ rating from the BRC, so believe that these conditions and the added capacity offered by the Mark Andy put us in a prime position within the pharmaceutical market, in particular,” he adds.

Innovation is one of the key areas in which the Minsk plant excels, according to Ivashchuk. she says, “In addition to offering new diameters for the tubes we supply, we can now offer different styles of screw caps, no cap (butterfly) shoulder, and shrink-band over flip-top techniques.  In addition, the Mark Andy offers more color options and finishing combinations, and a wide variety of substrate capability that we intend to diversify our product line into non-tube work, which will be a first.” 

To assist LeanGroup in achieving its objectives and following the success of its first Mark Andy, the company placed an order for a second P7 press. Similar in specification to the first, the new press, which is due for installation in July 2016, is an eight-color UV-flexo line with a 430mm web width and film and cold foil capability.  Fitted with the overhead rail system, the print stations are adaptable with cassettes for hot foil and screen printing, and to allow non-stop operation, the Mark Andy will be installed with identical Martin Automatic MBS and LRD units for unwind/splicing and rewinding. As with the first Mark Andy, this new tranche of investment includes a 430mm Rotoflex VLI inspection rewinder, equipped with the URC 2.0 proprietary control system. Designed for ease of operation, with simple menus, automatic set-up, and an intuitive interface, all functions on the VLI can be monitored from a single screen. Job set-up is quick and with the job save/load capability, data is stored and can be recalled for repeat runs.

At the end of 2015, LeanGroup completed the merger with its extrusion partner Mirupack, which began production in 2008, and now has an annual capacity of 500 million tubes. In all, the joint venture occupies almost 14,000 square meters of production and administrative space, and employs around 375 people. With further investment planned for both plastic and laminate tube divisions of the company, LeanGroup would appear well set to hit its declared target of an additional 20% in sales by 2018, with extrusion and converting services offered as a “one-stop-shop.” Priding itself on the specialist skills it offers, which include volume production, stock keeping, and bulk delivery of high quality tubes, a flexible pricing policy, and the option of contract filling, its business plan is both well-planned and firmly established.