The Vinsak Group has acquired Rotatek Spain, a Europe-based manufacturer of printing web presses for labels, flexible packaging, folding cartons, security printing, commercial printing and pharmaceutical inserts. Vinsak completed the acquisition in July 2023. Rotatek will now operate under the name Rotatek Printing & Packaging Technologies SL.
Vinsak Group was associated with Rotatek from 1996 to 2013 and then again from 2020 onwards. Vinsak has sold more than 100 Rotatek presses including very complicated configurations. For instance, Vinsak sold a machine with 17 units which included offset, flexo, digital, screen printing, die cutting and sheeting units all in one line to produce high-security products. The press was 120 feet long and improved productivity by five times and reduced production costs of the end product by 40%.
In 2023, Rotatek was owned by a PE firm from Spain which was able to run it commercially but not invest in R&D, new software, and state-of-the-art production methods.
In July 2023, the Vinsak Group acquired the productive unit, the patents, technical knowledge and the team of Rotatek. “We are proud that we absorbed all the employees and did not make even one person redundant. In fact, we are delighted that the core technical team of Rotatek is intact offering their experience and technical knowledge to the world. They are also successfully supporting more than 1800 machines around the world including some which are up to 30 years old,” said Ranesh Bajaj, director of Vinsak.
Since the acquisition, Vinsak has been diligently working on integrating the company into the group’s business policies, ethics, and ethos. Bajaj added, “We are upgrading its systems and processes both technical and commercial and improving infrastructure both hardware and software. We are strengthening our team and have added around 10 professionals to the company over the last 8 months. This new and young talent will be mentored by the old team to take the company to the next level. We have added another 15,000 sq ft of space to the existing 20,000 Sq ft to increase production capacity.”
This complete business transformation activity is being led by Dr Gita Bajaj, group director of HR and business transformation at Vinsak. With her deep knowledge of turning companies around on a global scale, the process is firmly on track.
Rotatek CEO Mario Gamez continues to lead the company very well by managing all the functions of the organization. He is also a shareholder in the new entity thus confirming his confidence in the company as well as the future. Vinsak’s Group CFO, who works out of the UK is working on the financial aspects of the turnaround including European compliances.
“On the sales front, the global sales structure has been revived. Our close association with Rotatek Brazil will ensure a new thrust in the Brazilian markets. Our existing distributors in Germany, Italy, Portugal, France and UK have been retrained on the portfolio and they are generating new leads every week. We have new distributors in Thailand, Vietnam and Japan to grow the market in the far east. With the Vinsak group active in the Middle East, India and Africa, we have the globe more or less covered. North America is the territory under development now and we are looking to appoint a distributor for the US and Canada,” said Ranesh Bajaj.
On the technical front, Vinsak has a host of new developments planned. In 2024, the company will launch the Universal 850 for pharma and carton markets. The other universal models continue to offer solutions for flexible packaging as well. In 2025 Vinsak plans on launching the new Brava semi-rotary press for labels which will be fully revamped. Vinsak plan to display this at the Label Expo 2025 in Barcelona
The group will continue to listen to feedback from convertors and label printers around the world and build bespoke solutions to enable converters to create the highest quality labels and packaging around the world.
Two important focus areas for Rotatek are sustainability and security. “We are developing machines that produce excellent print quality while leaving behind minimal carbon footprint. Our Security printing solutions provide governments and brand owners the ability to print sophisticated documents with security features. Rotatek R&D is thus geared to enhance these printing features to address concerns of counterfeiting, imitation and environmental degradation,” Bajaj concluded.