Follmann is a family-run chemical company, whose headquarters are in Germany but with offices all over the world, with a turnover of approximately €250 million per year, a production of over 60 thousand tons of chemical products for printing and converting industry, and employs around 900 people
Follmann has been committed to the development of water-based inks for over 40 years, so much so that today it does not have any solvent-based ink in its product portfolio. A story that began in the then-thriving wallpaper market, a sector that has actually come back into vogue in recent years, with the customization of interior environments, although certainly with smaller volumes compared to the 1980s. Follmann’s interest and focus in the packaging market began in the 2000s and in all these years research and development have led to presenting an absolute level of quality and excellence to the market.
Sustainability is therefore a very important driver for Follmann, which is focused on flexible packaging and tissue sector.
“Thanks to the partnership with AGS (Holding of SMG spa which absorbed SMG Italia srl in 2019)”, Gianluca Bassanese tells us, responsible for the Italian market of Follman, and a highly specialized professional, with many years of technical-commercial experience in the flexo sector (inks, plates and equipment), “Follmann intends to develop its presence in the Italian market, with its range of water-based inks dedicated to the internal and external printing of flexible packaging, both for flexographic and gravure printing technology. A very important aspect to underline is that we are talking about 100% VOC free products, that respect the guidelines of the norms that regulate this type of product”.
To be able to follow closely Italian customers, AGS is planning to build warehouses in our territory, also because Follmann is a company that follows customer needs with great attention and one of the main strengths is the ease of use of its inks, as well as obviously the qualitative aspect.
“The packaging market today is increasingly asking for sustainability and green products, certainly due to market demand and therefore end consumers, but there is also growing sensitivity on the part of workers in the sector, think for example about printing machine operators who work 8 hours a day in contact with ethyl acetate, and this working environment is certainly not pleasant. This situation certainly pushes towards the adoption of water-based products. As regards kind of jobs, today the need is for short runs, in multiple colours, with very frequent and quick job changes”, adds Gianluca Bassanese.
Follmann has recently introduced a new series of inks on the market for high productivity needs, dedicated to flexible packaging; this new range of inks can support printing speeds of up to 800 meters per minute with excellent final quality. This high productivity series was developed in collaboration with BOBST.
Furthermore, a new series of water-based coatings are also being studied, which have been tested and developed with a number of customers, for applications in the food sector, for example disposable dishes, as well as monofilm applications.
“Follmann was be present at drupa with its own stand where it presented a series of printed samples, in collaboration with one of our customers, with water-based inks. Products which, among other things, contributed to let win one of our customers the latest edition of the Best In Flexo 2023 in the wide web printing category”, adds Bassanese.
