The Watershed Group, an Irish-owned label converting group, has tightened color accuracy and improved operating efficiencies at its Dublin plant after automating its spot-color matching processes with Flint Group’s Vivo Color Solutions software. The new software allows Watershed to reproduce special brand colors in UV flexo with repeatable precision while achieving material savings and productivity gains.

Vivo Color Solutions is an intelligent database of colors and mixing recipes for any combination of ink set, printing method and anilox roll setting. Available instantly and securely via the Cloud, each recipe matches color targets with the color printed on the press, using digital data that can be L*a*b* values, CxF files, Pantone Color references or samples scanned with a spectrophotometer. 

Liz Waters, CEO, Watershed Group, comments, “Flint Group’s Vivo Color Solutions makes color matching measurable, predictable and fast, enabling us to meet the brand owners’ exacting demands of colour fidelity at the first attempt – every time. The elimination of manual mixing and streamlining of processes thanks to Vivo means we save 5,000 linear meters of paper and increase press uptime by up to 18 hours per month.”

With factories in Ireland, the UK, Poland and Germany, Watershed supplies labels to international brands, including Nestlé, Reckitt Benckiser, Tesco, Lidl and Asda Walmart. It has a strong presence in the spirits, luxury beverages, food, pharmaceuticals and chemicals sectors, as well.

For all clients, consistent, accurate presentation of color schemes and logos is vital for strong brand recognition and retail sales success. However, before the software’s installation, color matching at Watershed involved time-consuming trial-and-error mixing, relying on eyesight to judge accuracy. 

Adoption of Vivo complements Watershed’s HD-flexo workflow, which includes a combined total of 11 Mark Andy PS Performance series presses at its five locations. To customize recipes specially for Watershed, Flint Group audited the aniloxes used on the Mark Andy presses at the Dublin site. Cell-count characteristics were factored into calculations to provide a database of recipes for each label job, uniquely accessible to the company via a secure portal.

Users of Vivo Color Solutions also gain access to a web portal service for support and new color inquiries, with assurance of a 24-hour response from Flint Group’s Global Color Center in Lodz, Poland, responsible for the database.  Watershed has also managed to reduce ink waste by 30kg each month since adopting the database.

Niklas Olsson, global brand manager of narrow web, Flint Group, states, “The innovation we do is focused enabling customers to eliminate ink-related waste, improve process efficiency and meet brand-owner quality requirements competitively. Vivo Color Solutions is one example, and as Watershed Group’s experience shows, it is a tool with the potential to generate significant value for the label converter’s business.”

Currently, the Vivo Color Solutions database contains approximately 350,000 UV flexo formulas, all tested at the Flint’s Global Color Center. There are approximately 2,000 color shades, tested with seven of Flint Group’s ink series, seven anilox film weights and four substrate types.  Plans are under way to expand Vivo Color Solutions' offering, as well.