Interview with Oliver Jentschke, VP of Sales Europe of Baldwin Technology Company, Inc. at FEFCO 2023.
Can you tell us about what Baldwin bring here today? What is your product here for today?
For corrugated, we are showing now two unique solutions, which we have here on my side. On one side, we have the FlexoDry dryer, which is a mixed technology between hot air and IR drying. And on the other side, we have the Flexo Cleaner Brush FCB. Is a brush based flexo plate cleaning system to install into flexo corrugated printing presses. We use this to reduce the total cleaning and hickey picking times and the FlexoDry recuses the energy consumption by up to 30-40% in energy consumption in comparison to a normal drying process. So, these are the two products we are focusing on at the moment for the corrugated market.
What are your actual expectations after the seminar? What would you like to achieve?
Our main target is to talk to machine manufacturers, convince them that these are products that should be in their option list, especially the Flexo Cleaner Brush FCB. And then as well, we are looking for some OEMs who want to use our FlexoDry as a drying solution for water-based inks. And out of that, we are also talking to existing corrugated printers to retrofit their existing machines with our systems.
How did Baldwin perform in 2023? Like what were your expectations and what achievements did you accomplish?
So, 2023 was, for Baldwin, quite a very good year. We struggled a lot with all the issues that also the other machine builders and producers had. We had supply chain problems, but finally we ended up with one of the best years in Baldwin history in terms of sales, because people spent a lot of money on increasing the lifetime of their machines instead of buying a new one. And so we could sell a lot of different types of solutions to increase the lifetime and the energy efficiency of existing machines.
Maybe you want to tell your customers about what your advantage over your competitors on the market is. And maybe another message you have for your customers you want to tell also?
For our customers, I think it’s important to understand that Baldwin is a company built out of 17 different companies. We have a huge overview of the market, and we also have a big portfolio for every customer. This could be vision inspection solutions, machine control solutions, cleaning spray equipment, surface treatment like corona treaters, drying systems, based on air or IR, as well as UV and UV LED. And out of our experience and knowledge from the market, I think every customer can benefit from talking to us and getting some ideas on how we can improve their performance, their quality, and maybe get a better CO2 footprint.
Thank you for the interview. Thank you for your time.
Reporting by Adam Tkalenko – corruga.expert
