In the packaging industry, where finishing is often labeled as the “bottleneck” of production, the Zagreb-based company Markek Ltd. has been proving the opposite for years. Their slogan “Everything is possible” is not a marketing phrase, but a very literal description of the way a company operates, one that has grown over two decades into one of the leading domestic manufacturers of luxury cardboard packaging.
Today, Markek specializes in the production of gift boxes, premium wine and cosmetics packaging, bottle packaging, rigid laminated and folding boxes, as well as complex dispenser box solutions. Their technological park, when it comes to finishing, is unique in this part of Europe and enables them to carry out all finishing processes “under one roof”: from structural development and technical drawings, through laminating, die-cutting, film lamination, milling, creasing, machine and manual finishing, all the way to final gluing and adaptation to specific materials. They now produce more than one million boxes annually, and their clients include many renowned brands such as Valamar, Bipa, Heineken, DM, Badel 1862, Jamnica, Rimac, Coca-Cola, Kutjevo, YSL, and many others.
Why Is Finishing Considered a Problem?
When asked the question from the title, Mr. Markek replied without hesitation:
“Because everything gets stretched out in the preparation phase. First the idea, then design, then printing, and when it reaches finishing, suddenly there’s panic. With us, that doesn’t happen because we do everything from the very beginning: construction, inserts, tool preparation, prototypes. When production starts, there are no surprises. Quality is our strongest reference. Mistakes? They only happen when the preparation is poor, not because of finishing,” Mr. Markek believes.
They do not handle printing themselves, but cooperate with numerous printing houses, while everything else is done internally. Box construction, insert development, mock-ups, parameter setup, preparation for lamination, mounting, and die-cutting, all are created in-house. Designers who take their work seriously, he says, come to them first. The structure is developed there and a template is provided. Whoever prints afterward is irrelevant to them, the key, he emphasizes, is perfect preparation. “Finishing is not a bottleneck; it has been unfairly labeled as such, but poor organization certainly is,” says Mr. Markek.
Investments That Make the Difference
Over the past 20 years, Markek has invested more than one million euros in technology. Their machinery park now includes five platen die-cutters, three cylinders, an automatic machine for large formats, three large gluers, two professional milling machines, and a range of manual workstations. Today, they invest up to 100,000 euros annually in tools alone.
