Plastex:

For more than 30 years, Plastex has gained valuable experience and developed a company built on a solid understanding of prepress, platemaking and print. The company was founded in 1993 and since then our focus has been on plate production of the highest quality.

Plastex work to achieve the goal of producing the highest quality products and offer customers a variety of services to meet their needs. They are different from their competitors because they pride themselves on listening to their customers and finding solutions in all situations to their problems and needs. This ethos has delivered success in Slovakia and ensured their expansion into other European markets.

Owner and CEO of Plastex Ltd., Igor Karlubík talks about the current situation:

“It isn´t possible anymore to do just standard work, that can be done by anybody... There is much competition in the market, you need to do your best, to the highest quality, cost effectively and in the most efficient way. Our customers, the printing houses, must fight in the market for every single job. Our challenge is to give them continuous support, the best plates and offer them daily solutions for production efficiencies, sustainability, and quality.”

The relationship between Codex Zrt. and Plastex was established in 2019. Since that time, we have improved our processes and technology, because the main focus is on the highest quality in flexography rivalling offset, gravure or digital, and this is why Codex chose Plastex as their Trade Shop.

Codex Zrt.:

Codex was established in 1988, when the company started publishing books and manufacturing conventional printed products.1989 was the year, when everything changed. Having recognized the market possibilities, Codex added the manufacturing of securities to their printing business. This strategic decision was a milestone in the history of Codex, and they became the first company in Hungary to receive a state license to produce other securities. The main goal of security printing is to prevent forgery, tampering, or counterfeiting and in 2006 Codex implemented a significant capital project to launch the production of self-adhesive ECL® labels (i.e. extendable content labels or “Smart” labels). Codex became the first printer in Hungary to develop unique technical solutions and label structures for booklet labels, securities, anticounterfeiting products and specialist printing solutions.

Plastex:

Production manager of Plastex, Klaudia Manurova said: “There are many challenges in our business, particularly for prepress services and plate-making. The plates must be competitively priced, because very small margins can influence the customer’s decision, so an efficient way of production is so very important. Standard plates can be produced by anybody because the processes are becoming more and more automated. As a Trade Shop we need to have solutions for all types of jobs and meeting our customers’ needs for every job is at the centre of what we do. We must solve the simplest jobs and the most difficult jobs, and the latter can be a much bigger challenge!”

Codex:
Orbán Károly, Chairman of the Board at Codex, commented and said: The biggest printing issues in flexography are still the highlights, the color consistency, multi-color positive and negative texts, and lines, sometimes the color angles and of course, the image fidelity. For a long time, we were searching for a solution to these issues, and to produce a perfect product, the whole supply chain must work well… the reliable printing machine, ink supply, raw materials and plates are essential, and the things that give us a market advantage. As a security printer, and the supplier of the Hungarian Post, we need the highest possible image fidelity. We must print very small elements, we often need to fight with positive and negative design parts in multiple colors, and guilloche elements are also a daily routine.

Plastex:

Plastex conducted a customer survey to get more precise information about their customers’ needs, and this is what they said about their findings. “We found our customers have high expectations. They want the best price, with the quickest time to market, and the very best quality – all at the same time! That´s the reason why we invest in high-technology equipment for platemaking and 4 big raw plate suppliers – to have a wide portfolio of plates. We have 3 dedicated production managers to take care of the customers and a prepress room with 10 prepress operators to be quick and flexible, and just a very few years ago, we discovered the advantages of Bellissima DMS...

Codex:

Codex talks about how their philosophy has enabled them to overcome challenges and find solutions… “The future belongs to people who see possibilities before they become obvious.” (Theodore Levitt). We live this business philosophy and Codex has always been a pioneer, always searching for something new and something better! To supply the Hungarian Post with self-adhesive stamps is not just a job, but of great pride and prestige for us. To be able to do this we needed a plate supplier who was similarly committed to the quality and challenge as we were. Plastex was ready and willing to try with us the highest screen ruling in classic flexo screening, and they offered us Bellissima DMS 2 years ago. With Bellissima’s digitally modulated screening we can achieve an image fidelity up to 450 lpi, inconceivable previously on flexo. If there is a small misregister on negative elements, no problem, it´s not noticeable. We can print ECG, there are no screen angles, therefore no moiré. We are happy with our position, that for every customer product we have one first class solution.”

Both Plastex and Codex are convinced the key to their companies' successes thus far is their unwavering commitment to quality, security and safety, reliability, advanced technology, expertise, unique skills, exceptional solutions, innovation, cooperation with each other and their partners, as well as care and attention to environmental sustainability.

Production manager of Plastex Ltd., Klaudia Manurova talked about Bellissima: “After seeing the first samples of Bellissima I thought, surely that couldn´t be done by flexography! After the first trials our technical team were speechless. But the most memorable proof of excellence happened to me at a Hungarian printing house. We were printing a Bellissima fingerprint test when simultaneously, the customer underwent an audit. The auditor had a look at the sample and said: “I didn´t know, that you also print in gravure…”

Klaudia went on to say: “In 2023 we thought, finally we have a product worthy enough to try the challenge of the FlexoTech Awards. This was the Hungarian Christmas Stamp. Our international mini team consisting of József Tóth, the Production Director of Codex, Jane Petrucci, the Head of Marketing at Hamillroad and Klaudia Manurova, Production Manager from Plastex, finalized the application for the awards. We never thought in our wildest dreams that we could win all three categories, where we were nominated. People from the industry were congratulating us on the beautiful Hungarian stamps and we all felt a sense of achievement. Since then, our businesses are growing, there is more interest in Bellissima DMS, and it´s an unbelievable market advantage for us. The satisfying memories of the awards are staying with us, and we continue to focus on meeting and exceeding our customer needs.