More than 400 converting professionals were on hand Oct. 29 for the official dedication of Raflatac, Inc.'s new labelstock-manufacturing center in Fletcher, N.C. The state-of-the-art, 230,000-sq-ft facility is the result of the Finnish-based company's $50 million investment in the North American marketplace. Raflatac is part of UPM-Kymmene Corp., Helsinki.

"Raflatac is the market leader in Europe, and the opening of the new U.S. factory will enable us to be a significant pressure-sensitive material supplier in the United States, Canada and Mexico," says Juhani Strömberg, chief executive officer of the Raflatac Group.

Central to the new plant is a p-s coating/laminating line more than 300 ft long, which incorporates an 80-in.-wide in-line laminator tied to five Atlas (Valmet Converting) slitter systems. About 70 percent of the proprietary production equipment was reportedly designed and built in-house by Raflatac engineers.

The facility has room to grow with space for a second coating-laminating line opposite a center aisle with humidity-controlled, finished-goods storage. About 185 workers are now employed at Fletcher, and that figure is expected to eventually grow to 250.