Kodak, one of the world’s leaders in commercial print solutions, hosted customers and community leaders at an April 20th groundbreaking ceremony in Weatherford, Oklahoma to celebrate the expansion of its manufacturing facility in the region to accommodate a new flexo plate line for the production of KODAK FLEXCEL NX Plates. The ceremony and associated celebrations featured a ribbon cutting by Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke and Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, and remarks by Flexographic Packaging Division President Chris Payne and Kodak customers.
The theme of the event centered on regeneration and the revitalization and investment of the Weatherford plant in its 50th anniversary
year, which was chosen for its strong technical capabilities and existing skilled tenured workforce.
The new flexo plate manufacturing line, a sister operation to Kodak’s existing plate manufacturing facility in Yamanashi, Japan, is designed to meet increasing industry demand for higher quality flexographic printed packaging with more cost effective and efficient production processes. The $15 million investment represents one of the company’s largest capital investments since 2000.
The new flexo plate line is expected to be in full production by early 2019 and will initially focus on supply of FLEXCEL NX Plates to customers in the United States, Canada and Latin America.
