My latest marathon trip rounded off three weeks, 6 hotels, 4 countries and 9 flights. Lost track of my room number by the end of the trip, but added two more new South American countries to my list, first Argentina and then Uruguay.

Before you start looking for a map, Uruguay is a small country between the north of Argentina and south of Brazil, on the Atlantic coast, about the same size as Italy, with just 3.3 million people, but 30 million sheep and 15 million cattle.

The flexo market in Argentina is large, about the 3rd largest in Latin America, similar to Colombia, significantly smaller than Brazil and Mexico, but again with a relatively small percentage of traditional digital LAMS flexo plate making. Here few of the printers seem to have their own plate making operations The vast majority of Flexo plates are made by trade shops, but only half a dozen or so of the largest trade shops have traditional LAMS digital flexo plate making, meaning analog is still the most common plate making method used.

There are however clear signs that this will change in the next few years. Concerns about supply of silver-halide film, the push for higher print capabilities, and more printers indicating a desire to make their own plates, show that this is likely to be a significant transition.

Again, like in Chile, there are a great deal of Italian and southern European presses here, with new equipment in many facilities. When visiting Argentina I learned that there are many Italian descendents and speaking Italian is common in the southern cone of South America, explaining the strength of these manufacturers. There is also a good percentage of gravure here, indicating high print quality again.


 
The visit to Uruguay focused on a new Flexcel NX System installation in Cromograf, who were the first to order a system in Latin America, and a significant trade shop for some of the biggest international brand names, currently exporting plates to as far away as Peru and Chile. The new purchase represents a huge step up for Cromograf with all new plate processing as well as the Flexcel NX System. The team from Cromograf, the dealers, Lumila and Kodak personnel are shown here.

Miguel Angel Acosta Stabile, Director of Cromograf, third from the left, with 35 years experience in Flexo, and achieving amazing things with his team, demonstrated to us an incredible amount of flexo knowledge, know how, and experience. Part of the joy for me of doing these types of trips, is the people I meet and what I learn along the way. Between the Kodak team of Tom, Walter and I we have over 60 years of Flexo experience, and even though Miguel out ranks us all, he is happy and amazed to see what he can now do using Flexo, and still learns more every day.

The team was joined in Uruguay by Paul Lancelle, Kodak flexo specialist and former FFTA chairman, who had come to work with Cromograf and Lumila on the setup of the new Flexcel NX System. Paul can be seen here demonstrating the system to Cromograf customers who were so curious after press trials that they just had to see for themselves.


 
Uruguay is an interesting country. It supposedly has great beaches for the summer - not that I got to see them, as it is winter there now (pretty mild compared to US winters though!) and Montevideo has great places to eat. I am sure I will upset my colleagues from Argentina when I tell you that to date the best beef I have eaten was in Uruguay, along with some of the best meals overall. I guess I'll reserve my final verdict on the best beef in Latin America until I've ticked Brazil off the list.

I know that the team all enjoy working with the flexo industry in Latin America, in many ways an industry on the edge of transformation. The customers and team members are excited, looking to learn, with the full knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of all of their options available. The people are really what make the flexo industry such fun, even in the current economy, and Latin America is no exception.

I'll next blog from Latin America at the start of another 3 week trip that kicks off with the Brazilian FTA event in Sao Paulo, where I am presenting and looking to learn more. I look forward to sharing those learnings with you all.

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