For a company that was slated to be shut down, Flexstar Packaging, Inc., in Richmond, BC, Canada, has done well to bounce back and carve itself a good piece of the flexible-packaging market.

“I actually recommended to close the plant back in '99/2000,” says Marc Bray, president and chief executive officer of Flexstar, who then worked for Sonoco. The packaging giant thought differently, however, and moved Bray to Richmond in 2003 to handle the operations.

But, just 18 months later, Sonoco decided to go with the initial recommendation and shuttered the plant. Although having been in Richmond only a short time, it was enough time for Bray to see that there was a lot of current business in the Western part of North America and a lot of business opportunity.

“Between (plant closing) and April 2005, myself along with a group of investors worked together to create Flexstar,” Bray explains. “It was an asset purchase, not a business purchase, and we were able to retain 98 percent of the Richmond customer base. The customers stayed based on past service performance and our word.”

Not a bad starting point. From those customers, Flexstar was able to pick up even more business and, due to its proximity, take advantage of opportunities with Asian customers. “We had the opportunity to be a high-service supplier here and increase our raw material supply chain with the Far East, which is often easier to do (transporting-wise) than with the Eastern part of North America,” Bray says.

In the past two and a half years, Bray and his team have been busy installing new machinery to go after new markets. Today, Flexstar is that full-service converter for the coffee, fruit and nut, and frozen-foods markets. It offers coex roll stock, industrial (unprinted and printed) films and films specially formulated for various converting processes.

Other services include an in-house graphics team and an enterprise management system that lets the company ensure raw-material availability and take advantage of customers' ERP vendor partnership programs including SAP, IFS and other common platforms.

One of the first pieces of machinery Bray purchased for the newly-formed Flexstar was a Nordmeccanica Super Combi 2000 solventless laminator, which was installed in February 2006. (Read more about this system. Turn to our Coater/Laminator Technology section on page 52.)

Along with lamination, Flexstar extrudes its own film—three-layer coex film with gravimetric blending, layer control and in-line print, as well as mono-layer films—via BC Egan and Battenfeld Gloucester extruders. It performs slitting and finishing with three slitter/rewinders, and zippered SUPs and three-side-seal pouches with a PPI Global Technologies pouch machine.

Because the company has transitioned from basic PE-based products to high-quality printing and laminations, it needed top-notch presses. Flexstar currently has four CI-flexo presses: a mid-width Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. with in-line lamination, two FMC presses, and most recently installed, a new Uteco ONYX 876.

“We purchased the ONYX to support our growth in printed laminations and increase our overall flexibility,” Bray explains. “Our product lines have expanded dramatically, and we have a combination of short- and long-run jobs. Our overall capital strategy addresses the needs created by the changing market conditions, and the Uteco purchase certainly fits our strategy.”

The gearless-flexo press was installed in October 2007 and went commercial the first week of November last year. It has a web width of 57 in. and a print width of 55 in. While it has a maximum speed of 1,197 fpm, Flexstar normally runs it in excess of 900 fpm, depending on job size. Also aiding in speed and quality is the press' supervisory system, which stores job parameters to minimize changeover time on repeat jobs, the InkSpec viscosity controls and the BST ProMark Premius 3-chip camera system.

“At high speeds, you have to rely on a very good camera system to accurately inspect the web,” Bray says. “You can see everything occurring across the web through the BST and proper setup.”

According to Bray, by continuing to follow its capital plan, Flexstar is striving to be the number one flex-pack converter in Western North America.