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THE MAGAZINE FOR FORWARD THINKING PRINTING
MAY 2011
SEVEN MINDS REFLECT ON WHY
SHORT IS SWEET
in our short run round table forum 22

Think print.
Revolutions are duty bound to happen
again and again. Time for a new one.
ricoh.co.uk
Discover digital innovation that’ll change how you think about print.
Visit Ricoh on stand number A200 at Northprint 10 - 12 May 2011.
Moving Ideas Forward.
Of�ce Solutions Production Printing Managed Document Services

From the editor
How many printers challenge themselves to justify what they
are doing? Not in the ‘I wish I could sell up and retire’ sort
of way, nor in thinking ‘I should buy a cab firm’, but really
examine what it is they are doing for their customers and
what it is that makes them stand out. An answer that
involves quality and/or service cannot be allowed, for these are givens
even if we think we know what service is. It’s like sitting in the
psychiatrist’s chair and beginning a course of self examination to work
out where things are going wrong. In short any proper self questioning
will uncover something painful.
The reason to ask these sorts of questions is that only by doing so can
we start to reconstruct a business that is better suited to the challenges of
modern world. The chances are that the core values of the business are
those that worked 30 years ago when young enthusiastic entrepreneurs
borrowed money and mortgaged the house in the belief that they knew
what customers wanted. What customers want now has changed. What
customers cause now is aggravation to a business that wants to do things
its established way. The only
trouble is there are businesses that
are starting today that know what
customers want and are well
placed to provide it.
The printers that want to
survive therefore have not only to
ask the awkward questions, but
then have to act upon the answers.
It could be that whole new ways of
working are discovered (look at
our plastics feature for ideas), it
could be that it is time to let youth
have its head, it could be time to
change cherished habits. Or it
could be time to act on that first
wish, sell up and enjoy retirement.
GARETH WARD
Editor
CONTACT
EDITORIAL
Gareth Ward 01462 416403 • 07866 470124
gareth.ward@printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
SALES
Jacqui Gray 07976 720265 jacqueline@legatomedia.co.uk
Fax 01727 841036
ADMIN 01580 236456 pritnbusiness@me.com
PRODUCTION 01580 236456 • 07711 696190 • printbusiness@me.com
Published by Print Business Media Ltd
3 Zion Cottages, Ranters Lane, Goudhurst, Kent TN17 1HR
MAY
NEWS 4
Ink Shop returns to
short run basics.
Heidelberg details
Ricoh relationship.
INVESTMENTS &
INNOVATIONS 8
Kolorcraft gets first
Inca.
Kolbus shows digital
binder at Digimedia.
COVER STORY 22
Short run round table
finds rules to win.
PROFILE 26
FM Print goes B1 to
succeed.
PAPER 28
Mondi echoes the Two
Sides message.
PAPER 30
Arctic Paper books
place in UK market.
CAMPAIGN
BOOKS 16
How publishing is
fighting the digital
battle.
PLASTICS 38
How to get started in
a growing and
profitable sector.
May 2011 3

NEWS
Ink Shop reverts to short run
foundations with new web strategy
THE INK SHOP is going back to
its roots in a move that will see
the Scottish business launch a
new ecommerce engine in the
next few weeks and which has
seen it invest to cope with fast
turnaround high quality short
run print.
The company has found
foot traffic to its main street
locations fall off as managing
director Stuart Mason explains:
“Small businesses do not have
the time to get in the car, drive
to the town, park and then walk
to our shops. Consequently
very few people now visit the
shops, though they are busy
with web orders.”
All production was carried
out in Cumbernauld and this
will continue as the emphasis
switches to online ordering.
The company has bought a
Xerox Colour 1000 supplied by
Danwood, the first Presstek
52DI UV in the UK, Duplo
DPB-500 perfect binder and a
range of Morgana finishing
equipment including the
CardXtra Plus, UV coater and
guillotines.
“We are changing our
business model quite
substantially. When we started
19 years ago we were
Managing director Stuart Mason explains: “Small businesses do not have the
time to visit our shops. But the shops are busy with web orders.”
predominantly a supplier to
small businesses for short run
work. As the business has
grown we expanded and
adapted to support all kinds of
business, including public
sector and trade work. We have
realised that we need to focus
on the more profitable areas of
work. In longer runs there is
still a downward trend on
pricing so at the end of last year
we decided to get out of this
feeding frenzy.”
The company has combined
a Xerox web to print
application with an MIS to
handle orders over the web and
to process them ready for print
on one of the conventional or
digital presses. “We will have
an entirely new online brand
with a new customer friendly
interface for ordering print. It is
a significant investment,” says
Mason.
The aim is to handle micro
print runs, 50-200 copies, on
the Xerox, runs up to 500 or so
on the Presstek and longer runs
on the ten-unit Speedmaster 74
that was installed in 2007. At
the end of this year the plan is
to replace this with an XL75
with coater, says Mason.
The Presstek DI press will
allow the company to offer
printing on plastics, for
example self adhesive labels,
window stickers and other
specialist items.
“We are aiming at 12 hour
turnaround for next day
delivery,” says Mason. “We will
offer a next day service with
high quality. This is a sector
that demands 100% guarantees
on service and quality, but
where price is not alwaysthe
most important consideration.
“There are some strong
companies that are in the web
to print market. We will be
differentiating ourselves
through very very fast
turnarounds.”
The Xerox will replace a
KM digital press, offering both
a more consistent result and a
fifth toner option which the
company will use to add a spot
varnish effect using the Xerox
clear toner.
“By the end of this we will
have spent £1 million on the
Xerox, Presstek, finishing and
the software, which is what we
spent on the ten-colour
Speedmaster, but we know we
have to be fully committed. We
are definitely going in the right
direction.”
Double win in Queen’s Awards for Enterprise
PRINT HAS COLLECTED two
awards in the 2011 Queen’s
Awards for Enterprise, both
commendations going to
previous winners.
Seacourt has won its second
award for Sustainable
Development inside four years,
earning the award for its policy
for reducing the environmental
impact of a printing company.
The Oxford printer has long
been one of the most
environmentally aware print
businesses in the UK and after
achieving zero-waste status it
collected a waste reduction
4 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
award and a further sustainable
business award last year.
Jim Dinnage, Seacourt
chairman, says: “This was
unimaginable 15 years ago on
the start of our sustainable
journey, when we were your
average dirty printer. The
greatest thanks must go to our
team of staff, clients and
suppliers, who have all
wholeheartedly believed in and
supported this strategy all these
years, and who are still with us
to celebrate this greatest of
achievements.”
The industry’s winner in the
Innovation category went to
FFEI, achieving recognisition
for the low cost composite resin
imaging drum used in its Alinte
platesetters. Over 150 have
been installed at Indian clients
in the last 18 months.
The drum is made from a
Zanite polymer composite
which is mixed with ceramic
additives to result in a very
strong, very accurate casting
that matches machined metal
components for strength and
precision.
“Our company culture is
built on innovation,” says FFEI
managing director Andy Cook.
“But our innovation is directed
just as much at our internal
processes as delivering gamechanging
technologies. This
philosophy has definitely
contributed to our ten percent
growth record year on year,
even against the backdrop of a
world recession.”
Awards for International
Trade went to book publisher
Igloo Books, to reports
publisher and conference
organiser Media Analytics and
to Speciality Paperboard
Containers, Rotherham.

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STRAPLINE NEWS
Heidelberg begins long term
partnership with Ricoh
THE FIRST COMPANY to
install a Ricoh PRO C901 from
Heidelberg is a company in
Krefeld, Germany, not one in
Bristol, Bury or Birmingham.
This omission apart,
everything is set for Heidelberg
UK to start selling this Ricoh
digital press to its UK
customers. In return Ricoh is
able to sell its customers a
Heidelberg litho press, but this
is considered unlikely in the
extreme. The search is now on
for suitable finishing equipment
to partner the press offering and
discussions to this effect are
already underway.
The deal goes deeper than
merely reselling a Ricoh
machine. In the early days
Heidelberg will sell this with
either a Creo or an Efi front end.
By next year, it will also be
providing its own digital front
end, under an Oem agreement
with Heidelberg Digital Prepress
Manager built in to create a
Prinect DFE. Other seeds from
the partnership should also start
bearing fruit. There is a joint
innovations council which will
decide what sorts of features
and products are needed by
Heidelberg customers. “Perhaps
by Drupa we will have some
new ideas about how the
6 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
combination between
Heidelberg and Ricoh will
work,” says Heidelberg CEO
Bernhard Schreier.
Similar joint research
initiatives point the way to a
deepening relationship over
time, even though the existing
partnership is non exclusive on
both sides. At present in parts of
Europe where Heidelberg is sold
through distributors, the
Benelux countries and Italy in
particular, the distributors have
agreements in place to sell
Canon presses. This deal does
not affect those arrangements,
though the strength of the bonds
between Heidelberg and Ricoh
and seamless connectivity
between the technologies
should provide greater appeal to
customers than trying to work
with another digital press
provider. “When we get to
Drupa, many of the questions
about distribution will be
clarified,” says Schreier.
Equally Ricoh will sell
presses to offset printers using
other German or Japanese litho
presses.
In the first phase Ricoh
engineers will service the
machines that Heidelberg sells,
but as the population grows the
plan is for Heidelberg to take
over. Like the sales roll out, this
will take place market by
market.
“Reselling is just a small
portion of the total scope of the
agreement,” says Ricoh Europe’s
Peter Williams. “The first visible
sign is reselling the C901, but
we have the ability to sell
Heidelberg product. It’s going to
be about defining the digital
transformation and providing
incremental products to the
Heidelberg range, but it’s also
about developing more
peripheral activities.”
Heidelberg will be charging
through click rates, though this
is a negotiable element should
users be unhappy. “We may not
like this, but everyone else is
Ricoh to present Northprint solutions
RICOH UK HAS THE largest
stand at Northprint this week,
showing off the press that it will
be selling through its own
network of distributors and
through the Heidelberg
agreement. It is already a best
seller, Ricoh selling more than
250 C901s worldwide during
March. The stand is also going
to include representation from
the Infoprint high speed digital
web business and has finishing
systems from Duplo and
Morgana. Software from Objectif
Lune and NowPrint will
demonstrate web to print and
Simon Sasaki, corporate VP and
general manager production
printing ricoh, seals deal with
Bernhard Schreier.
variable data printing. The idea
is to show that Ricoh can offer a
full systems approach matching
all the equipment with service,
with software and with
consultancy. The latter includes
the growing Business Driver
programme of online training
advice. “It’s about ways that
customers can improve their
business,” says Chas Maloney,
Ricoh UK marketing director.
“For example, looking at new
ways of selling to customers.”
Ricoh’s outreach efforts at
Northprint will have its
executives and customers active
in a number of the seminar
theatres, driving home the point
that production printing is a
crucial sector for the Japanese
company that only announced
its plans for production print
less than three years ago.
“Two years ago Northprint
was a small show that was
interesting for us, and although
the show was much smaller
than it has previously been, it
was very good for us,” says
Karen Lawrence, professional
print marketing manager. “Over
the last two years we have been
working with customers to
doing it so we will have click
charges,” says Christian
Compera, Heidelberg’s head of
digital press. “We can be flexible
based on demands from
customers to have a different
approach.”
Compera harks back to the
first time Heidelberg offered a
digital press, co-developing the
Nexpress with Kodak. “In those
days we tried to build the
ultimate digital press. We over
estimated the growth in demand
for variable data printing and
reached the point where the
market needed a different type
of machine which was
something that we could not
deliver in a short time frame.”
Now digital printing’s role is
better understood and the
market definition more precise.
For Heidelberg it is about
providing what customers want
to deliver solutions to their
customers. The business models
that Heidelberg has identified
are much more realistic.
Compera continues: “We see
that our customers are becoming
solutions providers and within
that we see also that large format
digital is something that they
also have to offer. It is an
interesting area that we are
looking at.”
develop solutions that help their
business develop. There are
opportunities around colour
management and transactional
printing. What we are stressing
is how to do the simple things
that add value to your clients.”
At the heart of this is Ricoh’s
role as a key environmental
performer. Its own business is
very much linked to the
reduction of environmental
impact. “Customers can use that
background to draw upon, “
says Maloney. “It’s sustainable
business for sustainable
business.”

Heidelberg Graphic Equipment Ltd • 69–76 High Street • Brentford • Middx TW8 OAA
Tel: 020 8490 3500 • Fax: 020 8490 3589 • www.uk.heidelberg.com
Anicolor:
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Save time, save money with Anicolor. The new efficient inking unit technology from
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For more information visit www.heidelberg.com/anicolor

INNOVATIONS & INVESTMENTS
Apex sells ECRM DPP 1200
table top digital press
APEX DIGITAL Systems is to
sell ECRM’s DPP 1200, a table
top digital press based on an
OKI print engine.
ECRM has taken the core
print engine, added the same
Harlequin Rip as used on its
platesetters, colour management
and a new toner set, resulting in
a machine which shares the
same outward appearance as a
standard OKI, but which offers
a different value proposition.
The most important is that
the ECRM unit is more
expensive, £8,000 against £6,500,
but with toner coming in 40%
cheaper than the OKI version.
It will print a maximum A3
sheet at 31 A4 pages a minute
in 1200dpi resolution on stock
up to 300gsm. This covers
business card materials offering
an instant print solution to
printing these, if not for
finishing them.
The idea, says international
sales manager Ken Tucker, is to
keep the toner costs down “so
that the press is used more and
8 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
ECRM’s DPP 1200 table top digital press is to be sold by Apex Digital Systems.
Although outwardly similar to the OKI version, the toner is 40% cheaper.
more”. This is clearly
successful with some sites
running up to 100,000 A4 pages
a month, both as a short run
press and as a proofing device.
Using a test sheet and an
X-Rite i1 spectrophotometer, it
is possible to calibrate the
printer and produce profiles for
different sheets and to
manipulate tone curves to
obtain a good match for a litho
press or a more productive
digital press. The DP1200 then
becomes a good quality hard
copy proofer.
It offers some high end
capability. Because the imaging
head writes to a belt, micro
adjustment to the speed of this
belt ensures precise front to
back register of pages.
ECRM is planning to add an
‘instant quote’ software package
to generate the costs of
producing each job.
Morgana CardXtra Plus adds value
THE MORGANA CardXtra Plus
finishing unit, first shown at
Ipex, is now fully available.
It advances on the CardXtra
unit for processing business
cards by including Morgana’s
creasing system, providing a
huge boost to the the range of
products possible. These can
start from enhanced business
cards, using flaps up to
greetings cards and more.
Morgana has compiled a
casebook to show what is
possible from a printed SRA3
sheet. Each sheet can carry up
to 16 creases. It will cope with
material to 400gsm,using
suction feed to move the paper.
The CardXtra Plus goes well
beyond production of standard
business card products. A sheet
can be trimmed and creased to
Morgana’s CardXtra Plus finishing
unit includes a creasing system and
increases the range it can produce.
create a 4pp A4 brochure or A5
leaflets. Promotional round
cornered playing cards are
equally possible, provided they
fall within the 55mm width of
the device. This may not
stretch to cards used by
professional poker players, but
matches all other requirements,
including those for bridge
clubs. Likewise postcards can
be cut without the need to use a
guillotine for fiddly small
format work. Registration
accuracy is ±0.1mm, with
positioning through a mark
printed on the head of the sheet
which is used to position the
sheet precisely.
Set up is through a touch
panel on the top of the device
with memory recall of previous
job settings. However there is
also a range of templates to
allow the job to be printed in a
fashion to suit the finishing
unit with single button set up.
Further enhancements are
planned. A perforating module
will be available later this year
for example.
Price starts from around
£14,000.
Ryobi adds
inline die
cutting as
an option
IN ORDER TO OFFER more
flexibility to its Ryobi presses,
Apex Digital Solutions is
offering Kocher + Beck IOC
inline die cutting as an
additional option.
The highly accurate dies
(produced using a CTP system)
can be fitted to the last unit of a
press together with the
appropriate reverse die to offer
kiss cutting of pressure
sensitive labels or cut outs of
flyers. The reverse die replaces
the blanket using the same lock
up system, while the die itself
replaces the printing plate.
Discussions began at Ipex
Apex sales director Neil
Handforth explains, leading to
trials and testing before the first
official demonstrations at last
month’s Apex open house.
“We liked the cost
effectiveness and simplicity of
the Kocher + Beck approach,”
Handforth says. “It’s very easy
to set the press up and then to
run it. Makeready can be just a
handful of sheets to get the
pressure applied by the disc
exactly right to produce kiss-cut
labels.”
Given the cost of self
adhesive materials this wastesaving
measure is very useful.
The appeal is in saving time
and waste by eliminating a
production step.
Apex says that fitting the
system to the fifth printing unit
opens up the potential to print
four colour then coat, four
colour and die cut or five
colours. Conversion from one to
the other is relatively
straightforward.
The system has already
proved itself in Heidelberg and
other presses. “We are seeing
good interest levels in the IOC
system,” Handforth continues.
“It’s a relatively inexpensive
system compared to others,
while its simplicity of operation
is also a huge benefit.”

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INNOVATIONS & INVESTMENTS
Duplo increases productivity with
the next generation of DC-745
DUPLO IS PUSHING further
upmarket with the introduction
of the DC-745 SCC, topping out
the range of slitter/creaser/cutters
which began with the DC-545
model 12 years ago. The new
machine is the most productive
in the three model series which
continues to include the DC-
615 and the DC-645.
Robin Greenhalgh, chairman
of Duplo International, explains
that the new machine was
needed because of the continued
growth in high speed cutsheet
digital presses. “The number of
90ppm plus machines is
expected to double by 2015,” he
says. “This means there will be a
lot more digitally printed pages
creating a requirement for faster
and more capable finishing.”
The core functionality of
slitting, cutting and creasing a
sheet in a single pass remains.
The addition of a folder,
present on the existing devices,
is not yet an option for the DC-
745, but can be expected.
However, a single module
offers perforating, micro
perforating, rotary scoring and
slot scoring, rather than
needing different modules for
the different tasks.
Perforations can be
positioned across the width of
the sheet or across parts of it to
create tear off coupons. Up to
15 positions can be
accommodated on a sheet. The
unit will also provide 15 cuts,
15 creases and 10 slits on a
sheet in the standard
configuration.
Because the position of the
cutting knife has been moved,
there is now no need for an
additional module to handle
business cards. Trim waste is
chewed into smaller particles
to increase the capacity of the
bin. An overflowing waste bin
is a common reason for the
machine stopping.
Throughout is increased to
up to 90ppm, a huge leap over
the DC-645. The older machine
reads register marks on every
sheet and will make
adjustments to correct image
placement. When this machine
was introduced four years ago,
image positioning was an issue.
Now with a new generation of
presses, image placement is
consistent. The DC-745 will
read the first sheet of any job
and make adjustments from
this, with the expectation that
image position remains
constant. This gives it a
running speed of 70ppm.
Relying on mechanical
registration only takes this to
90ppm. It will also accept the
longer sheet possible from new
versions of the Xerox iGen4 or
Kodak Nexpress.
Settings can be input through
a touch panel or accepted as a
JDF file. Once set, the machine
will run unattended, freeing staff
for further jobs. While the DC-
745 will carry an €80,000 price
tag, Duplo says that the
flexibility of the unit and its
speed will save significant time.
In some instances the unit can be
placed alongside a press rather
than in the finishing area with
more sophisticated machines.
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INNOVATIONS & INVESTMENTS
First Inca Onset S40 goes
to Kolorcraft after beta
KOLORCRAFT, OSSETT, has
become the first customer for
Inca’s latest Onset flatbed inkjet
press.
Following several months of
beta testing the company is
now the first user of the Onset
S40, a 400sq metres/hr version
of the six-colour UV press. The
£1 million investment was
funded through an asset
package put together by
Lombard, part of RBS. The Inca
press was supplied by Fuji
Sericol.
The flatbed inkjet boosts
capacity at the £25 million
turnover business. It will run
alongside a six-colour KBA
Rapida 162a installed little
more than two years ago.
“When compared to raising
£2 million for our large format
litho investment, this asset
funding exercise offered many
more challenges. It takes
courage and confidence to
invest in new technology,
especially in the current
marketplace, but Lombard was
fully supportive and receptive
to our needs and the needs of
our customers,” says finance
director Steve Stothart.
Kolorcraft specialises in
retail display work offering
screen and B1 litho printing as
well as large format digital and
10 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
Martin Hampshaw says success
means working smarter.
litho. It is a highly competitive
sector says sales and marketing
director Martin Hampshaw. “To
be successful we have to work
smarter, use the latest
technology to improve quality,
make efficiencies and reduce
costs.
“The flexibility and quality
of the Onset S40 is already
helping us deliver new
products to our customers and
enabled us to open new
markets. We recently produced
large format fashion graphics
for one client which featured
30 different image changes.
Using conventional technology,
this would have involved
producing 120 large format
plates and considerable
makeready times. The Onset’s
direct to print ability enabled
us to bring forward the in-store
date and deliver cost savings
back to our client.”
The company runs round
the clock and employs 250 in a
180,000 sq ft facility in West
Yorkshire.
“Our strategy is to do more
of what we do well to grow the
business,” says Kolorcraft
managing director Phil Findley.
Ahead of the purchase, the
company carried out a
thorough investigation into
what else was available on the
market, deciding that the
combination of Inca technology
and Fuji ink and support
offered the best combination.
“This plus the quality,
productivity and flexibility of
the machine were all decision
factors behind the investment,”
he continues. “Not only has the
Onset significantly increased
our production capacity, but it
has also enabled us to offer
competitive new products and
compete in new sectors.”
The Onset prints at 600dpi
at 400sq metres and hour. This
equates to 94 full bed sheets,
aided by automated handling
systems for loading and
removing sheets.
Kensett installs MBO folder from
Freidheim ordered at Ipex
SUSSEX TRADE BINDER
Kensett has commissioned an
MBO K800.2/4 S-KTL folder
from Friedheim International,
which it ordered at Ipex last
year.
The latest folder marks a
return to MBO and comes with
a Palamides stacking delivery
system. “It’s going to help
prevent bottlenecks in the
production process,” says
managing director James
Wheeler. “Already we have
found that we are in a position
to handle up to twice the
amount of work as previously –
depending of course on the
nature of the jobs involved.”
The family owned business
operates from Hove and in
tandem with K+L Laminators
located a few hundred metres
away.
Combined, says Wheeler,
this adds up to a one-stop shop,
with minimal transportation
between the processes that may
be needed to complete a job.
“It’s all about trying to
diversify, installing the right
equipment to do jobs quicker
and better and offer that little
bit extra service and support to
help customers as much as
possible,” he adds.
The investment in the
highly automated folder fits
this strategy as did the Muller
Martini Acora perfect binder
that the company had installed
two years ago.
l BENSON GATESHEAD has taken
delivery of the first of two Bobst
Masterfolds that the company
bought at Ipex last year. The
installations follow investment in
press and die cutting areas,
creating a bottleneck at the
folder-gluer stage. Andrew Pybus,
operations manager at Benson
Gateshead, says: “The folder-gluers
at the plant were some of the
oldest in the group and the
strategy behind ordering the new
Bobst Masterfold lines was to
balance capacity at Gateshead.”
Bobst provided an audit of the
plant’s requirements which
underpinned the decision to
replace four ageing Bobst Alpina
lines with the two new
Masterfolds. The model specified is
the 75 A1. This is the highest
speed folder-gluer in the range,
running up to 700 metres/minute.
l IPSWICH PRINTER HEALEYS has
taken delivery of a Horizon HT30
three sided trimmer in order to
reduce pressure on its guillotine
operators. Philip Dodd, managing
director, says: “We had three
guillotines but only had two
guillotine operators. So we
calculated that it would be more
economical to sell one of the
guillotines if we could find an
efficient way of trimming the
books coming off our Horizon
BQ470 perfect binder that
wouldn’t impact the other
guillotining work.” The company
was one of the first in the UK to
install the BQ470 four clamp
perfect binder. The trimmer can be
wheeled into place on the binder
when required, saving the process
step of loading bound books into
the guillotine. There is a 20
settings memory and it can handle
500 books an hour from a deep
pile feeder. The HT30 was supplied
by Intelligent Finishing Systems.
l PROOF THAT NOT EVERY printer
has converted to direct imaged
plates comes with recent
platesetter installations. At The
Practical Printer in Leicester a
Highwater CTP Cron TP36
platsetter has replaced an
imagesetter and printing down
frame arrangement. The thermal
platesetter is loaded with Kodak
Thermal Direct plates and
controlled through a Studio Rip
workflow edition. Neil Womersley,
managing director, has already
noticed the benefit. “We recently
had to produce 50 plates for a
booklet that we were printing. It
took us just two hours. Using our
previous equipment that would
have taken at least two days,” he
says.

Visit us
at Northprint
Hall M,
, Stand M216
www.northprin
www.northprintexpo.com/presstek
ntexpo.com/pressteek
INNOVATIONS & INVESTMENTS
Kolbus launches KM200 perfect
binder at DigiMedia exhibition
KOLBUS USED the DigiMedia
exhibition to launch the
KM200, a perfect binder for
digital print applications.
This is a fully automated
perfect binder using the
technology that Kolbus uses for
its high volume machines, but
including automated set up
systems to cope with varying
thicknesses of product.
“Provided the format is not
changed, every product can be
different,” says Kolbus UK
managing director Robert
Flather. “The machine offers
zero makeready, adjusting
automatically to the different
product sizes.”
As configured at the
exhibition, a gathered book
block is measured for width
before feeding into binder. The
Thinking of moving to processless plates?
Aurora plates deliver high reliability and performance
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The Kolbus KM200 is a perfect
binder for digital print applications.
Kolbus swinging arm clamps
are designed to approach the
block on a parallel path to lock
the book into position and
coping with thicknesses from 5-
60mm. Once clamped a more
precise measurement of book
thickness is taken, details of
which are used to set the cover
feeder and side glue nozzle
position. There is no need to
adjust spine preparation or the
spine glueing section because
this uses an open tank system
rather than nozzle applicators.
All adjustable elements are
based around movements
outwards from a centre line
position, calculated from
measuring the clamped book.
Thus the scoring wheels for the
cover are moved away from the
centre line into a precise
position to suit that book. Each
subsequent book can have a
different thickness. Cameras
can be used to ensure that
covers match the body of the
book before feeding.
After the cover is in place,
the pressing unit will also selfadjust
around the centre line of
the book. The speed of the
binder will be dependent on
the number of different sizes
handled. Without adjustments,
the line will run at some
5,000cph.
“Until now people have had
to live with four clamp binders
which becomes a struggle with
higher volumes,” says Flather.
“This is book binding that
delivers a quality product.”
By Drupa next year Kolbus
will have linked the binding
unit to upstream systems,
either directly to gathering
lines, to digital presses or via
technology to create book
blocks from webfed digital
print.

INNOVATIONS & INVESTMENTS
Magnet Harlequin sets itself up as
‘colour guardian’ for its customers
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL and
domestic brands may
manufacture almost anywhere
in the world these days. It is as
important to keep product
packaging quality consistent,
irrespective of where it is
manufactured, as it is for the
products themselves. For this
reason, Magnet Harlequin, a
concept-to-delivery creative
production and packaging
management specialist based in
West London and Edinburgh,
positions itself as the ‘colour
guardian’ for its blue-chip
clients.
Magnet Harlequin’s client
list includes major UK and
international retail and luxury
brands such as Marks &
Spencer, John Lewis, Tesco,
Heinz, Hasbro, BHS, Costa,
Estée Lauder and Smythson of
Bond Street. The 110-strong
company offers a full range of
services, from studio
photography and digital postproduction
through graphic
design to artwork and print, all
on a 24/7 basis, backed by ISO
9001 and ISO 14001 certficates.
“Brand leaders come to us
because of our expertise, client
support and ability to provide
an end-to-end service, whatever
the processes or media,” says
managing director Alan Wright.
“We have to deliver the best on
all fronts. Our strategy is to
invest in leading-edge
technology and processes to
enable us to do that, and our
ability to streamline processes
has both saved hundreds of
thousands of pounds and
minimised time to market for
our clients.”
For Magnet Harlequin’s
print related activities, this
means working flexibly with
clients to optimise the quality
of their printed production
whether it’s digital, litho, web
or flexo, and involves working
with the client’s choice of
printers in a consultative role to
ensure that the printers can
achieve the client’s objectives.
12 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
An Epson Stylus Pro 9900 is at the heart of Magnet Harlequin’s proofing,
which adheres to the Fogra 39L standard and conforms with ISO 12647-2.
Reliable and accurate
proofing and colour
management are key to this,
and the company has carried
out extensive work with the
ISO 12647 group of colour
standards to ensure that proofs
and print match across a range
of print providers and print
technologies.
“We play the role of brand
colour guardian for all our
clients so it’s critical that we
deliver reliable and consistent
results. We put considerable
effort into achieving and
maintaining these standards,”
comments Wright.
To provide this level of
quality and consistency in
hardcopy proofing, Magnet
Harlequin has worked with
several generations of inkjet
technology, from the original
Scitex Iris models of the 1990s
to today’s installation which
relies on three Epson Stylus Pro
9900 printers. The 44-inch
Stylus Pro 9900 uses Epson’s
10-colour UltraChrome HDR
inks to provide a very wide
colour gamut suitable for
matching corporate and brand
colours, while also producing
the smooth skin tones essential
for cosmetics, lifestyle and
clothing applications.
Colour and tonal accuracy
are maintained by the use of
built-in spectrophotometers for
regular closed-loop calibration
and custom profiling on all
three Stylus Pro 9900s.
“Colour is a vital part of
branding and commercial
packaging demands high
quality and uniformity,” says
Wright, adding: “The Epson
printers have helped us achieve
significant improvements in
colour consistency.”
Magnet Harlequin works
directly with its clients’ print
companies, which are many
and varied. For clothing
retailers such as Marks &
Spencer, the packaging is
printed close to the
manufacturing location, which
may be in the Far East,
Bangladesh, India or Turkey as
well as closer to home.
Although pre-media studio
manager Tony Knight
acknowledges that soft-proofing
may one day be a viable option,
given the spread of print
companies and variety of
equipment and expertise at
each, hardcopy proofing
remains the only sure option
for Magnet Harlequin to
guarantee the level of quality
that’s required.
Once proofs for client
approval have been signed-off,
the studio produces GMGcertified
proofs for each printer
and print technology as
necessary and couriers them for
press-side matching.
Magnet Halequin’s premedia
studio works to ISO
international print standards
where possible. For offset litho
work all proofs are output to
Fogra 39L proofing standard
which falls within the ISO
12647-2 space. For flexo work
where currently no ISO
proofing standard exists, the
studio works hand in glove
with printers who supply either
ICC profiles or test sheets that
profiles are then built from.
The high-resolution Epson
Micro Piezo TFP print head in
the Stylus Pro 9900 makes it
possible to output either
continuous-tone or screened
output and Magnet Harlequin
uses GMG’s ColorProof and
Flexo Proof Rips to produce
both, according to application
and client preference.
Productivity is also a key
concern. With a production
workload averaging 510 proofs
– around 60 square metres –
per 24 hour shift, speed and
reliability are paramount.
“Proofing and printing
reliability is absolutely key,”
confirms Wright. “The Epsons
are extremely reliable and can
be left to run unattended with
confidence. As Magnet
Harlequin continues its yearon-year
growth, this
productivity advantage will
only become more important.”

Wire Binding
Plastic Comb Binding
Spiral Binding
Laminating
Personalised Covers
INNOVATIONS & INVESTMENTS
Perfect Bindery Solutions has a
stand filled for short run finishing
PERFECT BINDERY Solutions
is demonstrating a variety of
short run book finishing
solutions at Northprint, using
its own catalogue as a
demonstration of perfect
binding, casing in and
trimming systems for standard
books and photobooks.
Managing director Steve
Giddins explains that a Xerox
700 on the stand is printing
personalised children’s books
which can finished in a variety
of ways reflecting interest in
photobook and micro short
runs. “Customers that used to
To get started log onto www.RENZ.co.uk
or email sales@renz.co.uk
need to cope with print runs of
200 copies are now asking for
the print run of one,” says
Giddins.
Being shown in Harrogate
is Unibind’s Foil Express
device for digitally printing
foil to the cover of a book,
whether smooth or textured.
“We are allowing customers to
type their own name on to the
cover of one of the children’s
books,” he says.
There is a system for layflat
open books using a two shot
glue to hold together pages,
perhaps with stiffeners, for
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photobooks or children’s titles
again. “We showed this at Ipex
and received a lot of interest,”
he adds.
PBS will also have the
Wilstead three knife trimmer, a
UK designed unit for handling
variable format books. The
system takes data from a
barcode and will alter the knife
settings in six seconds. In this
way the unit can produce 600
all different books in an hour.
Again a key market is
photobooks where an A5 title
may be followed by an A4 title
that has been printed on the
UEL boosts inplant capacity in Docklands
THE UNIVERSITY OF East
London has completed an
update of its inplant print
department which has seen
Xerox provide a Colour 1000,
two Nuvera 144 EA production
systems, a 700 colour press and
DS 5000 ProSCC bookletmaker
from Duplo.
This comprises an intelligent
sheet feeder using barcode
reader to manage variable
pagination bookletmaking; a top
and tail slitter and creaser, the
bookletmaking unit and foreedge
trimmer and finally a
squareback device to improve
the appearance and feel of the
finished booklets.
The operation had decided it
Having made good use of Duplo’s
DS 500 ProSCC bookletmaker, UEL
is looking into QR codes.
needed to improve print quality,
increase throughput and wanted
also to introduce variable data
print over the five years that the
investment is intended to last.
UEL has won prizes for its
personally tailored
prospectuses, and anticipates
developing vdp for internal
consumption.
“At Ipex we were actively
seeking a bookletmaker that
suited our new print production
model,” says Steve Marlow,
head of print services. “We were
particularly impressed with the
squareback finish, traditionally
higher education printed
prospectuses and booklets can
be quite thick, so the inline
spine square along with the SCC
crease has made a massive
different to the quality of our
books.”
Print output is used on a
same machine and is part of
the same production process.
“The beauty of the system is
that it is fully automatic, there
is no need to change cables or
other components. It may not
be the faster device on the
market. but this is not
necessary for short run
printing,” Giddins continues.
“And the unit is designed and
made in Stockport.”
The ODM pressing unit for
short run books is also a
feature along with Unibind
and James Burn Wire-O
equipment.
wide range of the university’s
courses, requiring an equally
diverse range of products. Push
button set up on the Duplo
became a highly appreciated
feature, previously such changes
required spanners and socket
sets to make.
The inplant at the Docklands
campus was formed in 2006
from separate print centres at
Barking, Stratford and
Docklands. Next up is looking at
how QR codes may be added to
print as a form of marketing.
“These kinds of projects are
now the future for this print
facility and we believe we can
drive the university forward ,”
says Marlow.
www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk May 2011 13
Binding Made Simple

ANALYSIS
Agfa enters a new
era with a new focus
“IT’S A BIT LIKE BEING asked to follow
Sir Alex Ferguson.” Dave Spencer is
talking about succeeding Laurence
Roberts as managing director of Agfa
Graphics’ UK print business.
Spencer has seen Roberts close up
having worked alongside him for 19 years,
but he is his own man and will not be
pulling on his predecessor’s clothes, let
alone adopting any ‘hairdryer moments’.
Spencer is altogether more of a consensus
builder than ‘they-don’t-make’em-likethat-any-more’
man he followed – though
is no less determined to succeed.
IN ANY CASE AGFA is in transition. The
age of plates is slowly passing just as the
age of film and Copyproof faded before it.
The future, for Agfa at least, lies with wide
format inkjet. “It’s a different age we are
moving into,” says Spencer. It is one that
demands a different approach, but one
that will increasingly involve the same
spread of customers. “If your customer is
buying commercial work from you, the
chances are that he has large format work
as well.” In short Agfa is convinced that
commercial printers need to be engaged
with wide format inkjet printing.
However, the transition is not going to
take place overnight. Agfa currently
derives 80% of its sales from the prepress
area: plates, production software and
hardware. But in Europe and the
developed world in general, this is a
mature market in which Agfa has built a
strong position. To grow it has to change.
DEVELOPMENTS continue: the Azura TS
chemistry-free plate is continually being
improved at each step; new software
features are being added, Apogee 7.0 was
released this year for example. But the major
technology changes in CTP have taken
place, barring a product emerging
completely unexpected from left field. “Two
of the UK sales team previously selling CTP
were reassigned last year, trained up and
from the start of the year have been 100%
on wide format sales,” Spencer continues.
“Our goal is to retrain our prepress people
into wide format people.”
Instead Agfa’s major investments are
going to be in inkjet. It reckons it is
14 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
already a top three supplier thanks to a
product range that has 21 models from the
Anapurna 1600 at its entry point through
to the MPress Tiger, a high speed flatbed
machine that is taking work from screen
print. In between come the Jeti printers,
added to the line up when Agfa acquired
Gandi from financial ruin last year. “It was
the right product but in the wrong hands,”
Frederik Dehing, head of Agfa Graphics
Europe, explains. “The products are
proving very reliable and we are
extremely happy with them and we have
also acquired some good people with that
acquisition.”
While Agfa builds most of the engines,
(Anapurnas are assembled in the Far East)
it does not have its own inkjet head
development, preferring instead to select
the most suitable head for each device and
application. But the company does
produce its own inks, this being a key
revenue stream as inkjet printing grows
and the key to the success of inkjet.
THE FIRST SECTOR TO FEEL the impact
has been screen printing because the
productivity and quality of the MPress
Tiger is rapidly eroding the traditional
large format display print base for the
process. The MPress design, based around
Thieme sheet handling technology allows
screen to be included inline to offer white
printing, high impact fluorescents and
metallics, spot colours and varnishes.
Before taking over in Europe, Dehing
was head of Agfa Graphics in Australia
where he says the concept of having a job
‘Tiger-printed’ is catching on. “There are
three MPress Tigers within 50km of each
other. When we sold the first, it had such
an impact that the rival printers needed to
have one to compete,” he says.
THIS SUCCESS IS BEING repeated
elsewhere. In this country there are now
five MPress Tigers from a European
population of 15 machines. After screen
printers, the target will be existing wide
format printers looking for the extra
productivity that the press provides.
At the other end of the scale the
Anapurnas provide the entry point to
Agfa’s inkjet printers. These are sold
Dave Spencer (above), who has taken over from Laurence Roberts as
managing director of Agfa Graphics’ UK print business, sees the
focus shifting to large format inkjet. “If your customer is buying
commercial work from you, the chances are that he has large format
work as well,” he says. The MPress Tiger (below) is rapidly eroding
the traditional large format display print base for the process.

through distributors where the entry level
Anapurna may be the top of the range
model for that dealer. It sits above the
Mimaki, Roland DG and other low cost
machines as a highly effective device for
both reel and flatbed printing on a wide
spread of substrates. “The dealers are
working with smaller companies that are
expanding and the appeal of the Anapurna
to these companies is the extra
productivity they can offer as a
replacement for their existing machines. A
lot of today’s most successful litho printers
started with a GTO,” says Spencer.
“Indeed one customer with an
Anapurna is exactly like this: an
enthusiastic three-man start up business
that is working extremely hard. It shows
that you cannot make assumptions about
the size of customer that will suit the
Anapurna.” The larger machines are a
direct sell with Anapurnas also available
directly from Agfa.
FOR A LITHO PRINTER the appeal is in
being able to offer something different,
away from the run of the mill section and
brochure print and into an area where
margins are a little less restricting.
Consequently when a customer comes
to Agfa, a demonstration at facilities in
Leeds is likely to include some off the
wall jobs. “We encourage our
demonstrator to show work that the
customer would not be expecting to see,
perhaps printing doors and mirrors, CDs
and plastics as well as a banner material.
The hope is that one of these will spark
something for the customer,” says
Spencer. “Commercial printers need to
offer this breadth of product to their
customers. Many are handling wide
format work which gets subcontracted
when it makes sense to do it themselves.”
As with prepress, Agfa’s offer is a total
package combining the equipment, the
service and the consumables to suit the
application. The funding is different to
conventional prepress however. With a
CTP installation, the value of the plates is
such that the amount spent on the
consumable will outweigh the cost of the
capital equipment in two or three years,
allowing the finance to be spread across
the consumables.
This is not the case in inkjet where the
cost of the ink is only a fraction of the
equipment price and so cannot be used to
fund the investment.
Increasingly Agfa is also coming to
own the distribution channel. The key
expansion last year was the purchase of
Pitman, its US distributor. Sales in North
America doubled as a result, thanks to the
spread of other products sold by Pitman.
Many of these are in the wide format
sector, an injection of knowledge about
what the sector wants into Agfa.
“A BIG CHUNK OF their business is wide
format which was an important reason for
acquiring them,” says Dehing. “They also
sell a lot of substrates under their own
brand label which is a model that we are
now looking at and might be something
that we can do in Europe, perhaps to focus
on niche substrates.”
In the UK Agfa has purchased Litho
Supplies, its most important distributor
amid allegations that the organisation was
“There are three
MPress Tigers within
50km of each other
in Australia,” says
head of Agfa
Graphics Europe
Frederik Dehing.
“When we sold the
first, it had such an
impact that the rival
printers had to have
one to compete.”
in poor shape. This was not the case states
Spencer. “The VC owners decided that
they wanted to sell Litho Supplies. It
makes sense from a financial point of
view – we are not going to take on
something that will not make money for
us.” Dehing points out that half of the
Litho Supplies revenue came through
Agfa “and they also bring in some inkjet
sales” he adds. “It will stand on its own
feet and it has to make money. There are
financial targets to hit.”
TO DATE THERE HAS BEEN no move to
force through cost saving measures, an
indication that there is no need for radical
surgery. Litho Supplies will report
through Agfa Graphics UK. “It’s an
exciting opportunity from our point of
view,” says Spencer. “We had to make the
business case to the board in Belgium and
we know we have to turn a profit from the
company.” It provides Agfa with closer
contacts to smaller customers, the kinds
of businesses that can expand into the
next generation of large customers as wide
format becomes more and more
important.
For Agfa, for Dehing, for Spencer the
challenge is to ensure that when
customers think wide format, they
automatically think Agfa. “At the moment
whenever a commercial printer wants to
choose CTP we will always be on the
short list, we need to be on the short list
for wide format as well,” says Dehing.
When Agfa is in this position in the UK,
Spencer will know that the transition
from one era to the next will have been
completed. n
www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk May 2011 15

BOOKS
The CASE for books
As with many printed products, books are not at risk of dying out but
their manufacture, distribution and are changing. Examining these
changes not only will bring answers, but commercial success.
Publishers and bookshops are in trouble. Books are not.
Printers have adapted to digital printing and print on
demand. Some have closed, but many have invested
in order to survive. Others have come into the market.
But the world of book publishing is in turmoil thanks
to the impact of digital, the internet and the ebook reader.
Channels for distributing and buying books are being shaken,
consolidated and broken apart as the framework which has
served the industry for several hundred years is coming apart.
At the London Book Fair, consultant David Kohn told a
seminar that the UK’s leading bookshop chain Waterstones was
effectively surviving on a 1% margin. “Inevitably there will be
fewer book stores in future and fewer books on display,” he said.
There were still too many large warehouses holding books in this
country. “There is a high fixed cost to any central warehouse and
the trade has to cut this cost or make better use of the asset. There
are too many warehouses, so they will have to consolidate or
partner.”
IN THE OLD WORLD, AUTHORS have needed publishers,
spawning a need for agents, for internal systems to manage a
book on its year-long journey from submission to shop.
Publishers have needed bookshops to distribute books to the
buying public. Along the way publishers have fostered
relationships with some book printers to ensure that books can
be manufactured close to the point of demand, although in many
cases publishers have tended to buy as keenly as possible, and
in many cases from overseas printers.
The weaker pound and higher costs of transportation are
reducing the attractiveness of printing outside the UK for
shipping back, while printers putting together partnership
arrangements with printers on different continents are promoting
the shift to a distribute and print way of working.
The status quo that has existed for many years is now being
16 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
shaken up as never before. The blockbuster titles remain. The
Stig Larsson Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series has, for example,
sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. But the third title
in the series has notched more than 1 million sales in the Kindle
format in the US alone.
The arrival of ebooks like the Kindle is causing huge concern
for publishers, partly because there is huge uncertainty about
how to price books for digital reading. Amazon says it is selling
millions of Kindles and that sales of paperback titles in electronic
format are outweighing sales in printed form. But this includes
heavily discounted titles and some free of charge books.
AMAZON FURTHER ENCOURAGES UNAFFILIATED authors
to publish purely for the electronic device. One, John Locke, is a
former marketing executive who realised that by selling at 99
cents he would still receive 35 cents of each sale. He is hugely
successful. Fellow e-author Amanda Hocking has been the
subject of a bidding war among traditional publishers on the back
of the success of her books on the Kindle. Neither had needed
traditional publishers to achieve this success.
Other high profile authors are also beginning to question the
need for publishers, having achieved ‘brand’ status and the
ability to set up marketing deals and tie ins without the structure
of a publishing business including being able to sell via web sites.
This is the biggest threat to the traditional publishing
structure. Amazon sells vast quantities of books and the shift to
online sales has already led to the bankruptcy of Borders in the
US and is putting Waterstones at risk here. The chain has 297
stores, of which pundits reckon that as many as 200 might go.
“Retail loves digital because the stock turn is fantastic, but
with the loss of book shops there will be less space for academic
books for example,” Kohn told his London audience. “A lot of
book categories will no longer be held. There may have to be a
switch to shops having books on consignment as the only way

that stores will be able to afford to fill shelves.”
Kohn was followed on stage at the same event by Theresa
Horner, VP Publisher Service at Barnes & Noble. This US book
store had taken the decision to join the digital revolution,
creating its own reader, the Nook and retaining its 700 stores and
650 educational locations. “Our sites are a key asset to keep
customers engaged with what we do. We sell both physical and
digital books through them.”
The one aids business through the other. Barnes & Noble says
that Nook users spend 120% more than non users and 60% more
on books. “We took the view that an opportunity to lose a
customer is an opportunity to gain a customer,” she said.
The Barnes & Noble store will now feature tables with the
Nook readers on display so that customers can get to grips with
them; all the staff are trained to explain the devices and how to
use them and all stores have free of charge WiFi connections. The
idea has been to retain the experience of browsing in the book
store as something of a break from shopping for other items and
expand the experience. “For us a store is more than a shop. It’s
a haven and we wanted to continue that,” she said.
It is also offering PubIt as a self publishing platform for
aspiring authors to offer their works through the Nook.
THE SHEER NUMBER OF DIGITAL READING platforms,
increasing with every new tablet computer that is announced, is
creating its own problems as the industry has not settled on the
perfect format. There is a core choice between Onix and EPub,
but both come in different flavours that need to be supported. It
remains an immature market that needs to settle before it can
become the norm as PDF has become for printed matter.
The advent of digital readers is awakening the spectre of
piracy for publishers who fear the sort of impact that digital
music has had on the traditional record industry. Debates about
locking books, limiting pass on readership and other means of
CAMPAIGN
Publishers and bookshops
are in trouble. Books are not.
preventing illegal downloads will continue, almost certainly
without effective agreement.
Print is not going to escape unscathed. In the educational
sector digital publishing can provide a richer learning experience
than a text book through online verification. Projects are showing
that online books and learning can help weaker students catch
up with those that excel in the text book world, and of course
digital publication can speed the process so making educational
books more up to date and less of a one-off purchase and more
of a subscription buy.
FOR ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS this has meant moving closer to
academics and lecturers to help shape the courses they lead and
into understanding more about how learning tools are used.
These sorts of changes suit certain courses more than others,
science and engineering more than arts or humanities for
example, and at present seem better suited to conditions in North
America than in Europe.
However, the Kindle has crossed the Atlantic and while it is
not as enthusiastically adopted as in the US, it is having an impact.
More than 700,000 Kindle titles are available through Amazon in
the UK and many sell more than the printed equivalent.
The future will bring a further shift towards digital reading
Mike Shatzkin believes. He has been one of the evangelists for
the digital transformation of book publishing for more than a
decade. He believes that in the coming year publishers will have
to get used to the idea of publishing without boundaries as digital
editions become global and put the traditional territorial rights
system in danger; publishers will need to connect directly with
readers and customers rather than having books stores carry out
the customer facing tasks and they must come to terms with a
world where more and more books are published first on the
ebook and then only later may be printed and published in a
conventional way.
www.printbusinessmagzine.co.uk May 2011 17

BOOKS
Who publishes and who prints?
PRINTONDEMAND-WORLDWIDE is one of
the new breed of book printers that is
blurring the lines between what a
printersdoes and what a publisher does.
As a printer it is entirely digital,
earning an award from Océ for innovation
in Digital Book Printing. Last year the
Peterborough company installed its first
VarioPrint 6250. It has added a second
and a VP 6350 as part of a drive to
automate production as much as possible.
Touch points have been cut from 16 to
four in the last 18 months.
The company actively seeks to print for
self published authors, offering a series of
modules to help get words in to print and
sponsoring the Authors’ Lounge at the
London Book Fair.
But it is not all about printing. The
company arranges conversion of text to
THE SWITCH TO PRINT ON DEMAND and towards digital
printing has caught many of the traditional finishing equipment
suppliers off balance. These are now scrambling to adapt to the
new conditions in book production, but in the meantime a new
flush of companies has been behind highly innovative
technology that is starting to meet the requirements of mirco
print production.
AT THE LARGE END, MAGNUM is typical of this new breed. It
developed a gathering and book block line for high speed web
printing. Its initial design will cope with web widths well beyond
presses that exist on the market. It has been highly successful
where inkjet webs have been installed around the world.
Muller Martini is the leader among the traditional equipment
suppliers, having been early to market with Sigmaline. This is
18 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
Andy Cook of Printondemand-Worldwide says:
“A few years ago most printers were print on
demand. Now customers want multiple
formats and distribution and retail services.”
ebook formats, it has partners across the
world, it handles distribution and
fulfillment and naturally offers a print on
demand service through its BookVault.
Andy Cork, managing director, says: “A
few years ago most printers were print on
demand. Now what customers want is
multiple formats and the distribution and
the retail services.
“At the Book Fair we decided to
support new authors because the big
publishers are not interested in them and
will not talk to them. It has been a
roaring success for us. For most
publishers the Book Fair is a showcase
event, for printers it’s about new business
and for us it’s about lead generation. It’s
possible that one or two of the authors
that have come here may go on to have
huge success and will remember us.”
The end of the line
Muller Martini Sigmaline takes control of the digital press.
now a complete production system able to produce book blocks,
perfect bound books and magazines and to control the digital
press it operates in line with. This is essential as any mistakes
during binding will require a reprint that the finishing section
can trigger.
KOLBUS HAS NOW ANNOUNCED its KM200 as its first
response to finishing digitally printed books, coping with
different pagination titles in sequence provided all retain the
same format. It is intended for printers producing higher total
volumes of books, though made up of short individual runs.
At the bottom end come the hand operated units from
fastbind or Unibind aimed at the photobook creator and then the
single or four clamp binders from Horizon, CP Bourg, Duplo,
Watkiss and others that offer short run operation but with a
relatively manual operation.
THE SCRAMBLE LIES BETWEEN these two poles. German, British
and Italian companies in particular are devising automatically
adjustable three knife trimmers, case making and casing line
machines, end paper gluers and all the other components needed
for a fully automatic adjustable digital book production line.
Elements are in operation but as yet the industry has not settled on
a favourite. Steve Giddins, managing director of Perfect Bindery
Solutions in Oxford, sells a wide range of such devices, no less than
three three-knife trimmers for example. Digital on demand book
printing is where his company specialises. “I don’t want to compete
with Kolbus or Muller Martini,” he says. “There is a big growth in
digital book production and we are being pushed more and more
into being able to cope with one-off book production, below ten
copies now rather than short runs below 200 copies which was
standard only a few years ago.”

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BOOKS
Berforts: an exception to the rule
An ambitious printer has taken a struggling digital print business and
used it to step boldly into the world of books.
Book printing is proving attractive to an increasing
number of printers to judge by those installing small
single and four-clamp perfect binders. The attraction
is in handling short run titles to a plethora of micropublishers,
organisations and self published authors
at the bottom of an eco system that has global publishing brands
at its top. Easy to use software has made page creation and design
straightforward; the internet and a growing inclination towards
localism helps on the marketing side; while for print, these short
run publications provide fodder for digital presses.
It has also spurred development of automatic book creation
machines, the best known of which is the Expresso. It is
supposed to be the ultimate expression of this, a means of
pressing a button and having a vending machine disgorge a
printed and bound book a few minutes later. It has never caught
on in the way that its inventor Jacob Epstein still hopes that it
will. The number of titles available is limited, the problem of
locating them remains, and the quality is no match for
professional printing and binding. Printers are still needed.
At the industrial end of the scale, just as there are megapublishers,
there are international printers that are highly
invested in presses and bindery to meet the needs of printing
books by the thousands, tens of thousands or more. The CPI
group is the leader in production of mono books in Europe and
has been one of the most avid
supporters of HP’s inkjet web
press, installing a T300 at
Firmin Didot in France and
now with plans to install a
T400 and another T series
machine at Anthony Rowe in
the UK. However, while these
machines are catching the
attention, CPI has also bought
a KBA Commander to print
books in the sort of volumes
that are beyond the sweet
spot for the inkjet press.
In the UK, MPG Books has
confirmed it will install
Kodak’s Prosper 1000 mono
press for book printing while
St Ives Clays already has a
Versamark for book printing
alongside its Timsons in
Bungay and is considering
expansion of digital
production.
Elsewhere Océ has
achieved an almost clean
sweep of electrophotographic
book webs with presses at TJ
International, CPI Anthony
Rowe and Printondemand in
Peterborough.
An exception is Berforts, a
20 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
relative newcomer to book printing following its acquisition of a
digital print operation in Stevenage. Prior to this deal Berforts
was a commercial printer in Hastings. This remains its litho plant
while investment in digital production has improved capacity to
print and bind books. The company took space at the London
Book Fair alongside Kodak which had supplied Berforts with a
Nexpress. The company is also a recent customer for Kolbus
buying a casemaker and casing in line.
“We are aiming at print runs from one to 1,000 books, below
the Mackays, Cox & Wyman or Clays, but alongside MPG, TJ
International and Anthony Rowe,” says managing director
Gerald White. He has faith that this sector of the market will be
resilient to the growth of ereaders and tablet computers. “The big
problems are coming for the printers of trade books because their
market is going to be decimated by ebooks easily,” he says. “And
there will be problems with high speed inkjet because one
machine has the potential to take out the production of three
companies.”
Berforts has also spread its work load. On the one hand are
highly specialised volumes of legal reference books, each coming
in at 2,500pp or so. On the other it uses the Nexpress to print
children’s books and variable data technology to print guides for
VW Campervan owners, for example. At the LBF the company
was launching BookSelect, a means for publishers to order short
volumes of titles at agreed
rates dependent on overall
volume. It is not a new
concept, MPG’s precursor in
Kings Lynn had tried a similar
approach and
Printondemand’s Book Vault
has a pricing system based on
volume and on a menu of
other services that can be
offered to new publishers and
authors.
For Berforts the decision is
very much about catching the
wave that is cutting average
production runs from 1,500
books currently, to around
400-500 inside ten years
according to White.
The company’s binding is
located in Stevenage where it
has Xerox and Nipson as well
as Kodak digital presses. Litho
press work is folded and
shipped to Stevenage for
binding. One of the
specialities is printing on
lightweight papers, needed
for the high pagination
reference books. It is now
looking at the potential for
personalised children’s books.

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SHORT RUN
The SHORT
The development of short run ordering is
challenging printers from all parts of the
spectrum, from the very smallest to the
largest, from the general commercial printer
to the niche specialist. It is a challenge that
overturns business thinking that has built up
over the centuries centering on the idea that
successive products become cheaper because
the cost of makeready is shared among many
thousands of sheets. Run ons are the
cheapest of all as the only costs are paper, a
little ink and machine time on a press that
can operate at 18,000cph. The model
encourages over production, waste and stasis
– and is dead in the water.
Instead printers must cope with a tidal
wave of small jobs, each taking time and cost
to administer. Margins come not from
keeping a job on press, but from getting it
off press and the next job on as quickly as
possible. The argument of whether print
management, the advent of digital printing,
the internet or the recession has sparked
this change, will rumble on. The fact is that
for all printers it is a reality. However, where
printers can get below a makeready barrier at
every stage in the process, profits can be
made. Where waste is measured in fewer
sheets lost, in minutes saved, there is a
margin. The means to achieve this lie in
standardisation, measurement, and
automation. The problem now comes with
persuading customers that a standardised
approach is in their best interests. Print
Business invited three printers representing
different sizes of business and four suppliers
representing different production approaches
to share their views around a boardroom
table in central London.
22 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
GAME
Even though short run is happening, there is still a
hankering for the old days when a job might fill a press
for hours or more. Fraser Godfrey says that for
PrintFast 5,000 is now a big job. “We do do 50,000
runs of 100,000 letterheads, but 90% is small runs, say
200 letterheads printed on the DI, together with envelopes and
so on. Short run is where we are at – it’s a trend that is definitely
going on. We can have a customer call us at 9.30am to say a file
will be with us at 10.30am and we can tell him to pick up the
leaflet job at 1pm,” he explains.
For Precision Printing the short run job has become the micro
run job thanks to the photobook. It has a little longer to turn the
job, a agreed SLA of three days is in place, but no control over
the quantity of orders it may receive. In the autumn last year the
company was handling 6,000 orders a day, growing to 26,000
during the peak in December. Photobooks must have been a
popular Christmas present in many households. This has to be
completed on the Indigos, but requires more. Precision has
written its own software to cope with an order level which is on
average 3,000 orders a day.
“The order goes directly to the press. There is no manual
intervention until the job gets to the guillotine,” says Alistair
FRASER GODFREY, managing director of PrintFast, a small print
shop occupying a retail unit close to Oxford Street dealing with small
businesses, agencies and walk in customers. The key press is a
Presstek 34DI which runs alongside an HP Indigo.

Nash. “It’s like the arrivals and departures hall of an airport. Even
on the litho machines we are ganging jobs to achieve efficiencies.
We have secured a contract with one of the biggest card
publishers on the back of the software because we are extremely
cost effective at providing a minimal run length.”
Jon Lancaster at Falkland Press may lack the sophistication
of the automated production workflow, but is no less effective at
handling short runs, thanks to the effectiveness of its
Speedmaster XL75. This took a huge step forward when in
January it was fitted with Impress Control, the internal scanning
spectrophotometer, that measures elements on each sheet. “Our
average is 1,000 sheets off the XL, even for 300-400 sheets we
will not use the Indigo because it is too expensive. We have a
seven-minute makeready on the XL75 including a full wash and
plate change and changing the stock every time. That is five 400sheet
runs in 30 minutes, all dry because of inline coating. No
Indigo can compete with that. We need the Impress because at
that rate of production you simply cannot take enough readings
using a handheld device.”
Like Precision, Falkland has imposed standards on incoming
files to ensure that they are full press ready PDFs. These are
provided through a web to print site where matrix pricing reflects
JON LANCASTER, managing director of Falkland Press in Hatfield. He
runs an HP Indigo alongside a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL75 and a full
suite of finishing kit. Customers include corporates, print management,
agencies and some direct. “The XL75 is my ideal press,” he says.
COVER STORY
the efficiencies of operation. Where a customer wants these
prices for a job with bespoke service, he is turned down and told
the rates apply only to jobs submitted through the website.
The kings of web to print purchasing are German companies
Flyer Alarm and Unitedprint. In theory these companies have
enough capacity and are pricing at such low rates that many
small printers are going to struggle to survive, Matt Rockley
points out. “Given the margins they can’t be making much
money,” adds Lancaster.
The cross over between litho and digital is an issue. Ian
Pollock sees interest in the Presstek coming from companies that
have a digital press for the micro runs, but find it becomes too
expensive very quickly. “PrintFast is an example of that,” he
says. Lancaster agrees, but Quen Baum points out that “if it can
be done digitally, it should be done digitally and the end game is
that it will be done digitally. At the moment all manufacturers
are playing with pricing levels, but we have seen analogue
television become digital TV, music become digital and print will
do the same.
“Consequently technology should be paid for as quickly as
possible, not considered for its end-of-use asset value.”
PrintFast replaced a two-colour Ryobi bought ten years ago
ALISTAIR NASH, sales director of Precision Printing, a £12 million business
in Barking which is now split evenly between digital and offset printing. By
early next year Precision is likely to be the largest Indigo user in Europe
and it acts as the fulfillment arm for a retail photobook business.
www.printbusinessmagzine.co.uk May 2011 23

SHORT RUN
IAN POLLOCK, DI programme manager at Presstek UK, looks after
the largest installed base of Presstek machines in Europe. Presstek is
now bringing to market the 75DI, a B2 press with a six minute job to
job make ready. Job ganging on this format sheet will create a highly
competitive combination he argues.
for £16,000 with the £160,000 Presstek, even though there was
no queue of work for it. However, the company needed to
improve quality to stay ahead of the franchise chains and offer
something more. It has had a big impact on productivity and also
on efficiency, Godfrey saying that that good colour is reached in
ten sheets, a marked improvement from trying to print four
colour from the two-colour press. The investment is about
maximising profit now rather than for some point in the future.
LANCASTER IS EQUALLY ADAMANT that the XL will pay its
way well before inkjet printing ultimately takes over. The big
difference that he has noted came with the £160,000 investment
in the Impress unit. The extra cost will be justified in terms of
the speed of makeready and reduced waste that follows. “There’s
a lot of mileage left in the XL. I reckon that it will be ten years
before inkjet can undercut a machine like the XL which will be
paid for before then.”
Compared to Falkland’s HP Indigo, the offset press is
competitive at runs of 200 sheets, because of the cost associated
with running the digital press. What would change that would
be a drastic reduction in toner prices and a consequent fall in
click charge rates.
For Alan Dixon, however, the test is less about the technology
used to print the job, than optimising the process around it.
“There are algorithms that can work out which way any job
should go,” he says. “And MIS needs to connect, they can quote
jobs efficiently but need to create production jobs that can be
grouped together to gain the production efficiencies. Not many
have done this.”
This is how Precision came to write its own software, Nash
explains, eliminating operator intervention until the guillotine
stage when printing digitally. The company is now looking to do
24 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
ALAN DIXON set up Workflowz to deliver a range of automated
applications designed to increase efficiency and bring automation to
job creation and production. Among the tools he carries is imposition
software for job ganging and web to print. Customers include brand
owners and publishers as well as printers.
the same for offset printing and using technology to make the
decision which way a job will go. Heidelberg likewise plans to
offer software to make this choice as it rolls out Ricoh digital
presses alongside its Anicolor press.
But while technology can be highly effective, Dixon stresses
that a final human check is necessary before any job is sent out.
“Technology allows you to make mistakes faster,” he says.
Morgana follows the minimal touch credo, combining several
tasks into one machine. Its CardXtra Plus, for example, automates
production of business cards, turning what is an 18-cut process
on a guillotine into a single button operation. “You can print 250
business cards in 12 seconds and then need a lengthy process to
finish them,” says Baum.
Other Morgana systems will crease, fold and stitch in one
pass. “One of our most popular products is a preset finishing
device,” he adds. However, the finishing end must continue to
make up for the deficiencies in the previous processes,
compensating for image shift for example, coping with static and
slippery material.
MORGANA IS NICELY PLACED as short run demands simple
to operate automated finishing technology, worlds apart from the
heavy duty folders and stitching lines that offset printers use.
“It’s all about minimising the number of manual touches,” he
continues. Rockley has noted that with short run customers, the
finishing unit is often positioned alongside an Anicolor with the
press operator also in charge of the finishing machine, using flat
sheet feeders rather than folded sections on stitching lines.
But while finishing needs to be rethought in the context of
short run printing, the table was in agreement that the prepress
end is even more important. PDF is not a universal format, and
even where a PDF is supplied, this is not a panacea. Godfrey is

QUEN BAUM, managing director of Morgana Systems, the manufacturer
of small format finishing equipment. The company took off when it built
the first creasing machine to solve the cracking problems of digital print.
Now production is booming, just completing its best ever March and
reporting that production since November has increased by 50%.
at the sharp end: “Designers think they know what they are
doing, but we get files without crop marks, PDFs created in Serif
Pro or other software. We always have to go in and sort it out and
that can take 15 minutes each time to get to press,” he says.
The changes have meant that PrintFast cannot dictate who its
customers will be, having to accept work from an increasing pool
of customers, which dilutes the experience levels and quality of
work it receives. “We had a job on press we had quoted £235 for
and had made ready when the client called to cancel the job
because another printer had offered to do the job for £200. That
is what we are fighting against,” says Godfrey.
NEVERTHELESS THE APPROACH CAN BE WORTHWHILE,
one long-standing customer having moved from black and white
through two-colour and is now a four-colour customer while
another client that was moving office commissioned 17,000
personalised A5 cards to say there was to be a move and another
to say that it had moved.
Lancaster has also noted the different levels that customers
are at. “Some call to say ‘we want to include you in our quoting
round’ when you know they will never give you a job. Others
don’t want to make PDFs. We have one agency customer that
insists on supplying an InDesign file and requires a hardcopy
proof delivered to London, even though we can proof online. But
they do pay the £1,000 premium we charge them.”
Even Precision, dealing with what should be a more
sophisticated customer base has problems. “Not every customer
is ready for short run printing and to work like this. They want
it, but don’t know how to get there,” Nash explains.
The answer according to Dixon, even for a small company like
PrintFast, is a web to print solution which will deliver a print
ready PDF and where the customer has to sign off the job. A pay
COVER STORY
MATT ROCKLEY, Heidelberg UK product manager for B3/B2 sheetfed
presses and colour management, has been a showroom demonstrator
and was a press minder before that. Heidelberg has put in place a
joint arrangement to sell Ricoh’s Pro C901 press alongside the
Speedmaster Anicolor.
as you go Software as a Service solution would be appropriate
for a company like PrintFast. However, he says he gets enquiries
like ‘Do you sell software so that I can become the next
Moonpig?’. “I tell them Yes – but that has already been done,”
he says.
However, that opens up the question of how a printer should
be defined. “Most companies will say ‘I’m a printer’ and do not
engage with their clients,” Dixon continues. It is a consultative
approach that has paid off for Precision, Nash explaining that the
Barking company uses a consultative approach with customers
to set prices for the period of a contract rather than impose matrix
pricing. He explains: “Print is too reactive, and we call that
service. We should not be afraid to go and talk to clients and
understand what they really want – that’s real service.”
“It’s about educating customers to work in an automated
way,” adds Dixon.
IT IS NOT AS SIMPLE TO ACHIEVE THAT in many areas of the
business. It is a challenge that has to be overcome for printers to
be able to really achieve short run print production and to be
both profitable and comfortable with it. There are other
challenges too. Lancaster has had to invest in a new platesetter
to deliver 30 plates an hour and to keep up with demand on the
XL75.
Last month, the press got through 852 plates, with an
accelerating shift to short run printing, that number will only
rise. It means a logistical challenge in delivery of the right paper
to the press feeder as well as the plates, an area where digital
holds an advantage in being able to select from different paper
bins inside the press. “Short run printing on the XL is very labour
intensive. You have to move around so fast and it can be difficult
to get the minders to work that fast.” n
www.printbusinessmagzine.co.uk May 2011 25

COMMERCIAL PRINT
The right
WAVELENGTH
When B2 printer FM Print bought a B1 press it was a signal that the
company was reassessing its position in the marketplace and retuning.
For a B2 printer to buy a ten-colour B1 press is either a
sign of insanity or a stroke of genius. Or the logical step
of a company seeing a decline in its traditional markets
and realising it must change to guarantee its future.
Bruce Cuthbert, managing director of FM Print,
believes he is the third camp, though he might equally be in
either of the first two. Time will tell. What is indisputable is that
FM Print has moved from a 5,000 sq ft plant on the edge of
Basildon to a a 26,000 sq ft site across the road, where a tencolour
Speedmaster 102 is centre stage and being joined by the
B2 ten-colour Komori Lithrone S28 that until the start of April
was the company’s only litho press.
THE INVESTMENT HAS ALSO INCLUDED folders and die
cutting and a new Screen platesetter to deliver the larger B1 format
plates. These continue to be Agfa’s Azura TS no process plate
which worked well in the smaller format and fit the company’s
environmental profile. While the move is only a short distance, it
is a huge leap in capacity, but one calculated to ensure that the
business survives into the next generation. That generation is
already starting to take the reins; Cuthbert’s son James heads sales
and marketing and younger staff are replacing those that reach
retirement. There is even an apprentice on the books. “I’m very
very enthusiastic about youth,” says the elder Cuthbert.
He is steeped in print having been involved in web offset
printing around Essex before getting involved with sheetfed
printing through Falder Matthews. Founder Tony Falder,
Cuthbert’s partner in the business, retired towards the end of
last year, the trigger to allow the new generation to step forward
into the limelight. James Cuthbert, who joined the business five
years ago having spent seven years in marketing in central
London, will surely carry the flag forwards.
HIS IMPACT CAN BE SEEN ON the company website where
there are no pictures of presses, instead a friendly approach to a
generation of buyers that lack an extensive print background. The
company tweets enthusiastically. The bright and cheerful
approach continues in the office area and will extend into the
factory as the finishing touches are applied. Already the wall
between press hall and prepress is painted lime green. The
outside of the building will also be spruced up.
At one time the company relied on printing for national and
local government, but well before the Lehmann-led financial
crash, it had begun to see sales falling in the sector as print
management took a firmer grip, says the managing director. “We
had seen for a number of years that things were getting a little
more difficult and while it’s fashionable to blame everything on
26 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
the banks, that is just part of the story. Sales were beginning to
fall off and a number of customers had commented that the
printing industry needed to slim down. We had done all the
slimming down we could, but any more and customer service
would suffer and we couldn’t allow that to happen,” says
Cuthbert. “Then the Coalition came in talking about ‘Cuts’ but in
government print it has been more of a ‘Stop’. We realised that
we needed to merge our interests with somebody.”
Via a third party Cuthbert sent a letter to 20 printers in the
area receiving not the one response that previous experience led
him to expect, but some dozen expressions of interests from
companies on the brink to those that appeared very healthy. Last
summer FM began talking to Page Litho, but broke off
discussions when it was clear by September that Page was one
of those that was in very bad shape. He was not surprised when
that business called in the liquidator in December, but was more
surprised to be called by the administrator as one of a number of
companies that had been interested in buying the business.
FM stepped in to buy the assets and an associated company
Elle Publishing, a publisher of greetings cards for charities. “This
is a jewel in the crown,” says Cuthbert. “It currently produces 20
Utility futility
WHILE HE KNOWS WHAT TO DO when confronted by
printing problems, the practicalities of the short move to
the new factory, completely flummoxed Bruce Cuthbert.
Having acquired equipment from Page, he obtained a
local authority licence to store it in the disused factory that
would be FM’s new plant, the landlord having no objection.
Three months later he was being billed for full business
rates. Turning the electricity on became a battle of wills as
inspection dates, broken appointments, new departments
and red tape pushed the switch over date dangerously close
to the move and left builders literally working in the dark
(and cold). Telephones were only slightly better.
Getting insurance cover fell into a Catch-22 situation.
“We’re now going through the same thing with the gas,”
says Cuthbert. “The banks have been very helpful – all forms
of finance have been helpful. All the small businesses,
builders, IT and so on have been fantastic, but not the
utilities. Things are so more complicated than they used to
be, it makes you long for the old days of the GPO and the
electricity boards!”

million cards a year for 420 charities.” It is this volume of work
that has underwritten the investment in the ten-colour 102 and a
greetings card sheet was the first job through the press last month.
“Elle was the catalyst that gave us reason to expand,” says James.
The large press did not come from Page, which like FM had been
a B2 printer. James Cuthbert explains that FM had started out
looking for a six-colour B1 press as the type of machine that would
be ideal for greetings card printing. When a deal fell through, FM
started looking for an eight-colour and then on the suggestion of
an existing customer that a ten-colour would attract short run
magazine work, the quest switched to a ten-colour B1 press.
THIS WAS MORE DIFFICULT THAN EXPECTED. Having looked
at machines in Berlin and Barcelona, the machine it ended up
with was located just down the road in Grays where the owner
was moving the B1 out for a second B2 press that it had bought
from a failed UK printer. The deal was done on the spot, the press
moved directly to the new factory where it was stripped, cleaned
and assembled in place. Three weeks after the press was running,
Komori’s team was due to move the B2 machine from the original
unit alongside the larger press. The B1 format MBO is in place as
are a Longford folder for the greetings card work, guillotines, die
cutting Cylinder and the new platesetter. There are thoughts about
adding more digital capacity to join the KM6501.
Next comes the tidying up of the area, painting the floor and
outdoor fascias to match the quality of the office area which has
already been completed. A new MIS, being developed on the
PDQ estimating system is being installed with a module to
PROFILE
“We have already gained some work from
existing customers because we can now
take on larger projects,” says FM Print’s
James Cuthbert.
calculate greetings cards work, where jobs from different
customers can be planned up on the same sheet. “We have been
using the estimating system for 18 months and have just moved
to the full MIS system that they are developing,” says James.
“Because we are the first to do this, they are doing a lot to make
sure that it offers exactly what we need. It is going to fit our
business model and in the long term we anticipate massive
benefits.” The ability to gang multiple cards on a sheet and assign
a cost to each is an important feature that is under development.
THE MOVE TO THE LARGER FORMAT is bringing more
diversity to the client base and more opportunities for existing
clients. All at once a 48pp brochure which might be priced to the
bone on the B2 press makes a lot more sense when printed as a
three section job on the larger sheet.
“We have already gained some work from existing customers
because we can now take on larger projects,” says James
Cuthbert. “Our focus will be firstly about expanding our presence
in the charity market by offering more types of print to the 420
charities that we print cards for and to target other charities with
greetings cards and then for other commercial work where we
could previously only handle smaller jobs.”
There is no dash to fill the new machine regardless. The plan
allows for a gradual build up of work. Minders will be trained to
cover either of the presses depending on the loading for that shift.
The Komori is already balanced to print to ISO 12647-2 standards
using Bodoni PressSign software. The intention is to do the same
with the Heidelberg once it has fully bedded in.
FM also runs to ISO 14001, being one of the first in the
country with the environmental management standard. It has led
this certificate since 1997 and its impact on the business is clear:
one of the first pieces of equipment in the new plant was a central
waste extraction system. The choice of the Agfa Azura TS plate
also falls in line with the environmental print approach. Should
customers require it, FM can also calculate the carbon footprint
of any job on the estimating system and offset this.
THE ENVIRONMENT HAS BECOME second nature for the
printer and is not thrust down the customer’s throat. Practicality
wins out. One of the first benefits to one of the charity customers
has been to switch from a recycled paper to an FSC grade with
FM holding a year’s supply. The charity is saving tens of
thousands of pounds as result.
It is an approach that has FM Print at the forefront of the
changing industry, but with its roots firmly established through
many years of experience. These are the foundations that will
help the company grow in its next phase of development. n
www.printbusinessmagzine.co.uk May 2011 27

PAPER
Mondi mill is a
winner all round
Mondi’s Neusiedler mill impressed as a host to winners of a Two Sides
competition to help underline paper’s renewable and green credentials.
The river Ybbs flows past Mondi’s Neusiedler mill in
Austria on its way to join the mighty Danube. In the
summer local people swim and play in the current, a
mark of how far papermaking has come in recent
decades. A generation ago taking to the water was a far
riskier proposition, but now the paper industry has cleaned up
its act and the water it uses.
It is one measure of how sustainable paper production has
become. Compare this to the vast open cast mines used to extract
the metals that are used in computer technology. These scar vast
tracts of former forest in Africa, let alone the environmental cost
associated with the industrial processes used to extract the metal
ores from the surrounding rock.
Back in Austria, Neusiedler’s Theresienthal site was one of
the mills playing host to winners of a competition organised by
Two Sides (see p30) last year to drive home the point that paper
is produced from cropped tress or recovered fibres; that the
production process has minimal environmental impact; that in
The patented system of paper production at Neusiedler involves a triple
layer system for strength and quality. Automation extends to a lights-out
pallet warehouse.
28 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
short, paper is a communications medium that is sustainable and
renewable. Mining is vastly different and of course while metals
are reusable, they cannot be replaced.
A number of mills across Europe participated in the Two
Sides promotional campaign, welcoming print buyers and their
partners to the mill and their locality. Neusiedler is not far from
Salzburg, home to Mozart and ideal for a weekend of relaxation
and culture.
THE MILL IS PART OF THE VAST MONDI group which
employs 29,000 and produces graphic and office papers. Those
produced at Neusiedler are ream wrapped on highly automated
lines, sent along conveyor tracks in batches to fill cartons that are
loaded onto pallets by robots. It is a sight to delight anybody that
ever played with model trains as a child as the lines of A3 and
A4 paper switch between conveyors, are collected and arrive at
the stacking station.
This is the final point in a production process that is almost
fully automated, from the introduction of pulp to robots taking
pallets to a lights-out automated warehouse.
Pulp for the mill comes from elsewhere in the group and from
outside suppliers. All is produced under Chain of Custody
conditions as proof that the pre-production stage conforms to the
highest environmental standards. It arrives at the plant by rail
where the mill’s own steam powered locomotive shunts the
trucks into position to offload the pulp. This is a true steam
engine, powered by compressed steam-laden air from the plant’s
boilers, just one of the ways that energy use is optimised.
THE MAJOR ENERGY SOURCE is a gas-powered CHP boiler,
creating steam to drive the turbines which power the paper
machines. When these stop, while switching between products
for example, the hot water is captured and steam can be used for
loco engine, for local heating and can be sent through a pipe over
the river to heat a hospital around 8km away. Even when the snow
lays on the ground, water returning from the hospital remains
super hot. Energy generated on site is definitely not wasted.
Moving from one paper grade to another is relatively frequent.
The mile operates four paper machines and can produce 250
different grades, weights and tints of paper from 50-450gsm. As
the paper comes off the machines, it is reeled and processed into
smaller more convenient widths for handling. Some may be
processed on the spot into sheet or folio sizes, other papers where
demand is not so great (some of the coloured papers for example
and especially the black paper it makes) are not called on
frequently.
Here the reels of paper are held in a warehouse capable of
storing 20,000 reels, wrapped to protect them, for as long as is

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PROFILE
necessary. Black paper production takes place before a major
strip down of the machine for maintenance. This method of
production requires substantial on-site storage but it is the most
efficient in terms of avoiding waste.
PM6 is the largest machine on site. It produces a trim width
which is 4.5 metres wide and runs at 1,200m/minute, adding up
to 170,000 tonnes of paper a year. While this covers any number
of grades, all are made using Neusiedler’s patented Triotec
technology, where two outer coatings sandwich a central layer
calculated to provide the paper with its strength. The inner layer
can contain recycled as well as virgin fibres, while the outer
layers are made from virgin pulp to ensure the quality and
brightness of the surface layers that will be printed on. Each layer
can have a different composition, requiring three head boxes to
apply the mix to the former section.
PM5 IS A 4.4 METRE WIDE machine running at 700m/minute
while PM3 and PM4 are smaller and produce grades that are in
less demand: PM4 concentrates on 80gsm paper while PM3 is
devoted to boards of 160gsm and above. This machine is also
used as the test bed for new grades and styles of paper that are
produced by the mill and its sister mills in the Mondi group.
Continual research and development is a crucial task.
The variety of papers being produced means that Neusiedler
is very different from a newsprint mill or one making LWC where
the efficiencies derive from consistent continuous production of
a limited range of paper grades. Neusiedler is more like a
commercial printer where changing grades is like changing jobs.
It will produce up to 50 different types of 80gsm A4 sheets for
example.
CONSEQUENTLY MAKEREADY IS CRUCIAL to efficiency. The
vast machines can be stopped, reconfigured and started again
several times in a day. Staff develop the skills and experience to
30 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
do this which in turn develops a greater understanding of the
intricacies of the paper making process and when new grades are
being introduced. The most significant addition this year has
been DNS high speed inkjet, a reeled paper developed for highspeed
inkjet presses, whether running pigment or dye inks.
MONDI WORKED CLOSELY WITH PRESS manufacturers on the
requirements for the paper, coming up with a surface treatment
for the DNS high-speed inkjet paper so that the ink is absorbed
into the paper in a controlled manner, to avoid dot gain and color
bleed and to prevent absorption too far into the paper deadening
the image and creating show-through.
The mill is equally involved in developing papers which
match the specifications for other new digital print engines, as
well as Color Copy and DNS Indigo for the HP press.
Just which papers are produced when (apart from knowing
that coloured papers will be produced in the period before the
machine is stopped for maintenance) depends on order volumes
coming in from the sales network which stretches across Europe.
The IT system will provide an expected delivery date to the
customer, calling off the reels from the warehouse to be cut to
the specified size and quantity while managing stock and orders
to schedule the next production run. Mondi claims at least 98%
accuracy on fulfilling customer orders in this way.
CUSTOMERS ARE TYPICALLY paper merchants for the mill
branded papers or retail brands or for OEMs like Xerox. Papers
are designed to suit the requirements of different print engines,
what is needed for Xerox will be different to that needed by HP
Indigo for example.
Regardless of the different papers, all are produced to the
same sustainability measures. The environment is part of the
culture for the mill and its neighbourhood. And especially for
those of its neighbours who swim in the river Ybbs each summer.
Two Sides: promoting the sustainability of the paper industry
The visit to the Neusiedler mill was part
of the Two Sides campaign to raise
awareness that paper production is
sustainable and has minimal
environmental impact. The winner of
the weekend in Austria was Matthew
Webster of Virgin Travel, who was
making a first visit to a paper mill as a
result and came away impressed with
the scale of production and how
seriously Mondi took its responsibilities.
The pipeline to heat a local hospital
was a winner in this regard.
The Two Sides campaign itself has
expanded to encompass Print Power to
promote the use of paper as a
communications medium aimed at
corporates and agencies.
Headway is being made says Martyn
Eustace (picctured), but there is still
plenty to do. “In a survey conducted in April 2010, 71% of
media buyers said that they believed Print Media was leading to
deforestation. This is surprising but in line with previous
surveys. Two Sides will be revisiting this research later this year
and hopes to see some changing
attitudes,” he says. But there have
been successes. Utilities companies no
longer blithely claim that electronic
billing is good for the environment.
“The myths about paper have been
built up over time and won’t be
dispelled overnight,” he adds.
There will be many battles in a long
campaign, Two Sides trying to avoid
being dragged into direct comparisons
in terms of life cycle analysis and carbon
footprint measurements with electronic
media. “All communications channels
have a footprint,” he adds. “Being based
on a renewable and recyclable material,
print and paper may be the sustainable
way to communicate.”
To date the campaign has
concentrated on companies and on B2B
message. In the next year this will be expanded to include an
element appealing directly to end consumers, while continuing
to pounce on examples of greenwash where the environment is
used to justify a switch to email.

At Arctic Paper we started very early in taking measures to reduce our impact on
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and uncoated paper on the market. All of the Arctic Paper products are available
� ��� � ��� � � ����� � � � �� � ������ � ��� �������������� � ������������� � ������ � ��� �� ������ � �� �
visit our website www.arcticpaper.com
ARCTIC PAPER UK INFO-UK@ARCTICPAPER.COM www.arcticpaper.com

PAPER
Good on paper
A name like Arctic conjures up vast expanses of pristine whiteness and
the paper manufacturer lives up to this, with its wide range of high
quality papers and exemplary regard for the environment.
Aname like Arctic Paper comes with a set of
expectations. The product has to be pristinely white.
It can spawn a number of associated brand names:
Polar for example. It also has to be environmentally
friendly, as the Arctic remains a wilderness, albeit one
that is threatened by global warming.
The Polish-listed and headquartered paper company fulfills
these requirements. Today Arctic Paper is a group of four mills, two
in Sweden, one in Germany and one in Poland, where the company
is listed on the Warsaw stock exchange and where Arctic is
considered an example of a business that has invested in formerly
run down Polish industry and made it competitive in every respect
with the best in the world.
THE PULP MILL AT KOSTRZYN HAS GONE, coal fired energy
replaced by gas, a plethora of products produced in smallish batches
to uncertain quality control has been replaced by fewer grades and
much improved production management techniques. Along the
way the mill has shed staff. but what is left is a modern European
paper mill.
In this respect Caterham seems a long way from Scandinavia.
The Surrey suburb is home to Arctic Paper UK where Garry Colyer
is managing director. Most of the group’s papers are uncoated
grades with book papers especially important. Books that have been
printed on these papers are spread around the Caterham office, but
there are also magazines, brochures and sample packs and
brochures for designers that demonstrate the sort of effects that can
be achieved using the papers. These are available through merchant
stockists selling to printers and through specialist suppliers to the
publishing market.
Colyer came to Arctic Paper four years ago, having spent the
previous few years as a consultant working for a contract magazine
publisher. While there he had specified Arctic Volume as a paper to
add to the quality feel of a publication without increasing the number
of pages printed. “I was using the product before selling it,” he says.
“It is a fantastic product that is undersold and under utilised.”
WHEN HE JOINED THE BUSINESS, Arctic had been trying to sell
directly in the UK without great success. Now it has returned to
working through merchants, mostly within the Paperlinx Group.
PaperCo is the exclusive stockist for the Amber branded papers
produced at the Kostrzyn mill in Poland. These are good quality
general purpose uncoated papers, including preprint and
volumetric versions. The paper is sold directly to publishers for
books and manuals. PaperCo is also the route to market for G-Print
produced at the Grycksbo mill in central Sweden which became
part of the group in March last year. The UK is one of the largest
markets for this matt or silk coated paper.
The acquisition helped fill a gap in the range as prior to the
takeover Arctic did not produce its own woodfree coated papers
and as the company is also runs merchant operations in
32 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
Scandinavia and Poland, this was something that was necessary,
Colyer says.
G-Print is marked down as a special paper in production terms
thanks to a unique coating process that only the Grysksbo mill has
perfected. The result is a high strength paper used in books, maps,
posters and quality brochures. The mill also makes the coated range
of papers, Arctic Volume being distributed via Howard Smith Paper
Group.
Robert Horne is distributor for the book papers and the Munken
Design branded papers. These are produced at the Munkedal mill
in Sweden, reckoned to be the most environmentally friendly in
the world. The papers are aimed at the design sensitive market and
Arctic helps the merchant with a back-selling operation. Recent
appointee Lina Akesson is business development manager to work
with designers, ad agencies and other specifiers on their choice of
paper.
These are all uncoated papers offering different levels of
brightness, from the high white Polar, Lynx as a standard whiteness
and Pure as an OBA-free paper which has a cream finish. Since last
year the papers offer a choice of smooth or Rough finishes to
provide a greater tactile response to printed material.
The Munkedal mill is the showcase plant, in terms of how
paper can be produced with minimal environmental impact. But
it was not always the case. The mill is located at the head of
Sweden’s only deep water fjord. Back in the 1960s, the mill
included pulp production, the effluent from which was discharged
into the sea. However, rather than being dispersed into the ocean,
the waste settled halfway along the inlet creating a poisoned zone
killing all marine life. If the paper industry was already in the
sights of the nascent environment lobby, Munkedal was the chief
villain.

The company decided to swing as far as possible in the other
direction. Pulp production ceased, it became the first to introduce
a TCF paper and has become a show piece for good water
management. Not only is water use the lowest in the industry at 3-
4 litres/kg of paper produced (industry average is 11 litres/kg),
waste water passes through a series of ponds to clean it. The first
uses bacteria to remove harmful residues, an action which can
generate a steaming pool and has helped the area generate
something of a micro climate. The treated water passes next into a
second pool which is fish-filled and then to a third where visitors
are encouraged to taste the water. An environmental centre on the
site has become world-renowned for its water management
expertise.
“ONE OF THE MAIN THINGS THAT DRIVES Arctic is concern
for the environment,” says Colyer, “and particularly water use.
Water is going to become the new carbon footprint.”
All the mills can point to ISO 14001, Emas and local
certifications. PEFC and FSC chain of custody, and others to qualify
that what is produced across the group is ideal for purpose.
The fourth mill in the group is the Mochenwangen mill in
Germany which produces Pamo, a mechanical paper aimed at
paperback book production, but which is finding its way into some
hardback books, despite the tendency to yellowness that
groundwood papers have.
Combined, annual production across the group stands at
810,000 tonnes.
This is not enough to challenge the mega groups in the paper
industry, hence the focus of the papers on book production where
Arctic is the second largest producer in the market. It also explains
the focus on branded papers that do not have the exclusivity (nor
the price) of some of the top of the market brands, but which are
equally of better quality and offer a distinctive impact over the
commodity grades.
“IT’S ABOUT DEVELOPING THE BRANDS,” Colyer continues.
“G-Print for example is different to the standard coated woodfrees.
All our papers sit above the high volume commodity grades,
aiming to offer users something that is different and offers a better
performance.
“The group continues to invest and grow both organically and
through acquisition.”
Not surprisingly given the importance of book publishing to the
paper group, there is intense investment in new papers that will
work with the latest generation of print engines. Much of the
product range is already suited to both offset and digital
Arctic Paper managing director Garry Colyer has turned around the business in
four years, from having little success in selling to the UK market to having
strong relationships with merchants, mainly in the Paperlink Group. Most of
Arctic’s papers are uncoated grades with book papers being expecially
important. Also important is the company’s environmental credentials, with
its Munkedal mill a beacon for how paper can be produced with minimum
impact on its surroundings
production, the work in collaboration with the press manufacturers
will ensure this continues into the inkjet age.
Kostrzyn was acquired in 1993 on privatisation. Investment has
led to a gas fired CHP. Total production has gone from something
like 60,000tpa to 275,000tpa, Emas and ISO 14001 attained and
water use and air emissions slashed.
In 2008 the Mochenwangen mill was acquired and has since
been integrated into the group and last year Grycksbo, once part of
Stora, was bought from a VC investor. Arctic has continued the
investment in biomass generation and has been able to direct
production away from sales to the far east to profit earning sales in
Europe thanks to its sales network through northern and eastern
Europe.
More importantly for Colyer, Arctic Paper UK and mill sales to
the UK are now profitable he says. “We have recreated the
relationships that we used to have with the merchants. It’s been a
tough time to do this, but it’s been successful.” n
www.printbusinessmagzine.co.uk May 2011 33

How to get started in…
Flexible friend
If it can be printed on paper, more often than not it can be printed on
plastic, yet many shy away from expanding into this area. For the
innovative and undaunted, the rewards are there to be reaped.
In 1967 Benjamin Braddock received one word of advice
from Mr McGuire: Plastics. Fortunately for Dustin
Hoffman’s movie career, the script took him into bed with
Mrs Robinson rather than working alongside Mr McGuire.
Fast forward to 2011 and there is an increasing interest in
plastics, this time as a carrier for a printed message, from a simple
business card to a sophisticated piece of large format lenticular
or 3D display print. In between come all sorts of stickers, badges,
packaging, window films, labels, banners and manuals.
The chances are that if it can be printed, it can be printed on
a plastic material. Yet print on plastic remains a relatively
minority sport, practised by a handful of printers, and daunting
to outsiders.
While, when the sector began to grow 30 years ago, this may
have been true, today there is plenty
of knowledge available,
consumables and materials are
consistent and will produce good
results and all print technologies
can work with plastics.
Today the fastest growing
area appears to be large format
inkjet, where the continuing
improvement in flat bed UV
has opened up new markets
for printing on rigid materials,
principally plastics. Even
PVC, the bete noire of plastic
materials, is less of a problem
than in the past as means of recycling and reusing it have been
developed, albeit using chlorine.
Paper merchants have been expanding the plastics side of
their business, growing from from their sign and display arms
into commercial print. This cross over is increasing as sheetfed
printers add Agfa, Fuji, Océ and other flatbed printers.
ROBERT HORNE LISTS PVCS, polypropylenes, vinyls, acrylics
and polycarbonates among its stock holding. Each has its niche
applications and is preferred for different purposes, whether long
or short life, indoor or outside and will be more or less suitable
for different print technologies. Advice is available on tap.
Likewise Antalis McNaughton has a specialist division
providing these types of material. Chris Green, sign and display
market manager, says: “Anybody should be able to print on
plastics, perhaps amending existing kit to add a UV drying
system. The first thing is to talk to inks suppliers, equipment
suppliers and us as materials suppliers.”
The big difference between printing on plastics rather than
paper lies in getting the ink to hold on the substrate. On papers
and boards ink dries through absorption and evaporation. On
plastics this is not an option, though evaporation will eventual
34 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
lead to a dry ink. The answer is to use a UV ink which when
cured becomes completely dry and provided the substrate has
the correct dyne energy level, will adhere to it. The dyne level
can be increased through a corona charging unit, which can be
be added to a sheetfed press. This can be worthwhile if print on
plastic is to become common practice.
Care may be needed in finishing to avoid the ink flaking
during folding or cutting. And techniques new to printers like
welding and heat bending may need to be acquired.
Green adds that Antalis McNaughton can provide samples of
materials for printers to check production behaviour. More
interestingly, the company is expanding the range of materials
that spur creativity. The latest of these is a 3D material, iPrint
Pure which gives a deep 3D effect without the need for a
lenticular lens nor for special glasses.
“It’s something that printers can use
to differentiate themselves from
their competitors,” he says.
“Thanks to the proliferation of 3D
films last year and 3D television,
people are more aware of 3D now.
We introduced this at the Sign &
Display show and visitors loved
it, coming up with all sorts of
creative ideas.”
As well as large format
displays, the material can be
used for business cards
(“turning them into a
conversation piece” says Green), promotional direct mail,
packaging and can be printed by any technology.
“It’s about talking to your materials and inks supplier,” says
Green.
What is clear is that success in this area requires investment
and a commitment to innovation that many printers will find
daunting. For those that can, the rewards are there.
Innovation is something that Harry Skidmore MBE, CEO of
Easibind, has in depth. The iPrint material was first used by
Easibind, printing on its five-colour Manroland 500 B2 press as
HD Pure 3D. The Heanor company started printing on plastic
more than 30 years ago.
AT THE TIME EASIBIND WAS PRINTING paper stationery and
looking for a stronger material for folders and the like. Having
tried lamination, plastics proved the answer. That is still a mark
of whether paper or plastic should be used on a job, a menu
needed for a day or week should be printed on paper, but one
that is expected to last for six months should be printed on a
more durable substrate – plastic.
Easibind deals with business to business customers making
it possible to offer a closed loop recycling system. As the

CASE STUDY: Plastic Card Services has Genius production
ROB NICHOLLS IS STEEPED IN plastic cards. Before
starting Plastic Card Services in Macclesfield he had
worked for DataCard, producer of the world’s plastic
money. Now, while he has nothing to do with credit
cards, PCS produces 50 million membership, loyalty,
hotel and other cards. “The big sector is retail, but
we are also see potential in the leisure industry, in
travel and are doing a lot of work on membership
systems for bingo clubs and casinos for
example,” he says. “We even work for print
management.”
The difference between how PCS works for
print management and how those with a
perfecting B1 press respond to them is simple:
what PCS does is relatively unique. “While
price is an element, there are so many things
involved,” he says. “Organising the fulfillment,
the packs and meeting very strict SLAs can
become quite complex.”
The cards are printed on a KBA Genius UV
press, the waterless approach helping to keep
dot gain to a minimum. The lack of fount
means no IPA and a process that can be sold
as more environmentally friendly. But printing
is only part of the process as cards need to be
laminated and baked under pressure to create
a single piece of plastic that will not peel apart. The
B3 format of the Genius helps as there is less risk of
distortion and mis register than when printing a
large sheet. A high spoilage rate can be a penalty in
this type of work.
The company uses a range of materials including a
plastic which will biodegrade in three years in
landfill. It has taken PCS at least 18 months to
perfect the material and to ensure print quality is
maintained. It will become a best-seller PCS believes,
helping achieve a growth from 50 million cards a
year to 80 million. “It has been a lot of hard work
and sacrifice over the last two years. A couple of
years ago we had the insight that customers wanted
the environmental side to the fore which nobody
else seemed to be offering. And this is where we
have set out our stall. Corporates are under pressure
to be good citizens. This is why we have invested
and where we think the market is going.”
Rob Nicholls: “To our mind, digital printing is not yet good enough. It may
be OK for very short runs and requires precoated substrates.
Investment in further production equipment on
the finishing side due to arrive next month is
intended to meet this demand.
“Our biggest growth has been over the last two or
three years and last year was the biggest growth we
have ever had,” Nicolls adds.
The gift card market is considered a great
opportunity for the sector. The UK lags well behind
the US where the idea originated. The cards are sold
by retailers in predetermined values and generally
sold close to tills to become a spontaneous
…PLASTICS
purchase. Visual appeal drives the sale and the brand
owner gains because many cards lie unredeemed.
“The other aspect to growth is loyalty and reward
cards which have grown during recession as retailers
have sought to encourage existing customers to
spend more and are using the cards as part of this
effort.” And retailers are becoming more creative, a
recent project will see the card designed to be
carried as a key fob rather than in the wallet.
PCS is sticking with the KBA press. He
explains: “To our mind, digital printing is not
yet good enough. It might be OK for very
short runs. And digital requires precoated
substrates. We like to keep things as simple
as possible, sticking to the same substrates
and inks as much as possible. It is the total
solution that is important,”
That can include meeting target turnaround
times for cards that are sent to new members
or customers as they are signed up.
Consequently PCS can be sending out
differing volumes of cards at any time. For
the Danish Coop, it has produced 2.5 million
loyalty cards using the new biodegradable
material.
The clients can send in lists of new members
that need cards plus a welcome letter and other
content that needs matching to personal details on
weekly, monthly or even daily basis. PCS needs to
respond rapidly. A contract to supply the 100,000
members of the Gourmet Society has been a recent win
after the business had been placed in the Far East.
“We have 20 years of experience we bring to
bear,” he continues. “Some clients have tried to
outsource to China, but have suffered from quality
and control issues. They have had their fingers
burned and have come back.”

How to get started in…
company delivers new material it can take back the print from
the previous campaign or order and recycle it with no loss to
landfill. Many polymers can be recycled multiple times before
being repurposed into a new product type. The polymer has a
value to a plastics company, provided what is sold has been
presorted.
THE DIFFICULTIES IN RECYCLING are posed more by mixed
content products, say laminated card, rather than single product
waste streams like paper or polymers, Skidmore points out.
Easibind has the range of technologies to print with: B2
conventional offset, waterless offset with a KBA Genius UV,
digital print with an HP Indigo, flexo and following a purchase
at Sign & Display, wide format inkjet with a Screen Truepress Jet.
On the finishing side it has an Esko Artwork Kongsberg cutting
table. “This is an undiscovered treasure,” says Skidmore.
Easibind operates as a centre of excellence for the manufacturer,
allowing customers to come and view the digital device in
operation.
The waterless press is used where the company needs to
print microtext on security jobs as there is no spread from the
fount solution; the Indigo is used with a pretreatment for the
substrate and post-print varnish for shorter runs; lenticular can
be printed on the HP or on the Screen press directly to the lens
material.
THE HP INDIGO SUITS PRINTING ON PLASTICS as there is
no heat used in fixing the image, heat being the greatest enemy
of printing on plastics as it will cause the material to distort. For
this reason also printers tend to avoid printing on larger format
litho presses, keeping any waste through misregistration within
reasonable limits. Plastic materials are more expensive than
papers, so management of waste is an issue to consider. Run up
sheets will often be used several times to keep costs under
control.
But it is the creative potential that sparks Skidmore. “It is
impossible to be innovative without investment,” he says. The
print technologies are showing across the board improvement he
says. Now the materials are also getting better. “Polymers have
only been around for 50 years – this is nothing compared to the
time paper has been around. As printers we already have
materials that can be viewed in 3D without dedicated glasses,
but all the fuss goes to the electronics industry when they achieve
this. It’s hard for print to win the headlines, but innovation is the
key.”
His advice includes consideration of four questions for those
thinking to come into plastics printing: “How do you add value
through the machine specification? How can you reduce the cost
with the performance of the machine? How can you work to
reduce the carbon footprint with the performance of the
machine? And how can it be used to improve service and quality
to the customer?”
Easibind has spent £2 million over the last five years and will
continue to invest says Skidmore.
SKIDMORE’S SENTIMENTS WOULD BE endorsed by Tom
Clougherty, managing director of Deben Print in Ipswich. The
company has bought a five-colour Speedmaster 52 fully specified
for printing on plastic. It has interdeck UV lamps as well as end
of line curing.
The 12 strong business located the press in mainland Europe
before Heidelberg completely refurbished the press. Such
configurations are not unusual on the continent says Clougherty
where plastic printing is less unusual. However, this is the first
press to this specification in the UK.
“As Deben produces membership, store, and gift cards, as
36 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
well as vinyl stickers, window graphics, menus, shelf wobblers
and other point of sale material we liked the flexibility the SM52
offers. The diversity of the material the SM52 can cope with such
as PVC, polypropylene, polystyrene and polyester, besides card
and paper was also a deciding factor in the purchase of the
machine,” Clougherty says.
The company gains a faster production process and space
through no longer having to rack work until it had dried
completely. “UV printing has been around for more than 30
years,” he says. “We have stayed with it and with the format
because that suits out finishing equipment.
“We decided to stay with litho because digital is not right for
what we do. It is limited in not being able to print spot colours,
fluorescents or metallics that we need.”
Like Skidmore, he says that the key lies in innovation and
thinking creatively. “We have to look at a job before we decide
who we should print it, using opaque whites, or which colour
sequence we should us. We have to be innovative.”
HOWEVER, DIGITAL IS FINDING FAVOUR in printing on
plastics and not only in the display print area. It is ruled out for
most toner based printing because the heat used to fuse the toner
would damage the plastic sheet. The Indigo does not suffer this
problem, nor does MGI’s Meteor DP60 press. The machine is a
popular choice for general purpose digital printing in France and
increasingly elsewhere in Europe. It can print on a larger than
normal sheet, offering six-page printing or landscape A4 for
upmarket property brochures, but it is the ability to print on
plastic that helps the press stand out.
This comes through the control that the operator has over the
fusing temperature.
The company also supplies the laminating oven that is used
to produce industry standard credit cards, sealing together the
two image carrying sides with magnetic strip and processor chip
as required. The sheets are assembled and finished in a dedicated
unit which results in a card that cannot be split apart and meets
all security standards for strength. The cards can be embossed
afterwards if needed.
MGI UK joint managing director David Evans points out that
the DP60 is far more versatile than simply a machine for
producing credit cards. He names school badges, outdoor
signage, wobblers, window displays as products that fall within
its scope, wherever plastic printing is needed. “This can be a
value add offering for a paper printer. It’s all about adding value
and our ability to print on different substrates is definitely where
there is most interest. As well as promotional print, there are
areas where waterproof printing is requires, workshop manuals
for cars which can be wiped clean or ships’ manifests which
need to be waterproof.”
This line of thought can trigger a rapidly growing list of
products that are more suited to plastic than to paper, but which
continue to be printed on paper either through tradition or
simply because no printer has shown the customer a better way.
That better way may be worth thinking about, even for Ben
Braddock.
Large flatbed inkjet presses are popular
for printing on rigid plastics.

CASE STUDY: Reflex Printers
ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S LEADING PRINTERS on plastic sits on a
farm among the apple orchards of Kent. Here Reflex Printers has
built a glass and wood factory and office building with a
finishing department linking the print production space and the
office and meetings rooms. The factory is in itself a statement
that this company thinks a little differently, is confident in what
it does and is passionate about how it does it.
The print production area has two screen machines at one
end, a Fuji Acuity printer at the other and a Komori Lithrone 28
litho press. Alongside the B2 press is a space once occupied by
another Komori. It will be replaced by another piece of
equipment that possibly only exists as a concept for managing
director Tony Jones. He is on a constant look out for what comes
next, whether in terms of production technology, materials to be
printed on and the effects that can be achieved.
Thirty-six years ago the business was a T-shirt printer using
screen printing in Tonbridge. It moved into labels, expanded and
shrank again in a previous recession and moved into litho
alongside screen in 1993. Labels became plastic sheets and in
2002 the business moved from the local industrial estates to its
rural setting. The business employs 22 on a permanent basis,
adding agency staff during busy periods. The close knit team is
trained to be multi skilled and to really understand the job in
hand.
The two Mac operators, for example, have taken the basic
lenticular print packages and working with the print production
side have pushed the technology, adapted it, and resulted in
applications that are super charged versions of the original, and
which result in stunningly effective 3D and moving images.
Likewise sales director Kevin Lynch is out converting customers
to the message that plastics can deliver. It is a consultative
approach. “We go to customers with ideas, not prices,” he says.
Working on a project will mean liaison between the Reflex
production team and the designers. “We only want to produce
work that looks good,” adds Jim Shortland, production manager.
The work covers the gamut from straightforward labels that
can be printed on the screen machines, through work that uses
innovative materials like a double sided cling material that can
almost be thrown at a flat surface to stick there. There are
thousands of wobblers, pieces on clear plastic that is screen
printed before the litho process and then varnished to have
double sided sheets for promotional work, folders, signage,
prestigious invitations and the high impact lenticular work.
Print runs have come down making the B2 press inefficient for
some work. This, plus the format restrictions that come from the
Komori Lithrone 28, has led to the latest investment, a Fuji
Acuity Advance 3545 HS flat bed inkjet machine. At a stroke it
removes the limitations on format size letting Reflex produce
some very effective large size 3D and lenticular displays. It can
also take on short runs and lower value jobs without penalty.
“Five years ago digital printing did not have the quality we
needed,” says Shortland.
The machine arrived in January and has been placed alongside
the litho plate making and the screen making, processes which
take up less space than they used to when the area was first laid
out. For the first few months the company has tested and
tweaked the machine, creating the profiles it needs and
understanding the strengths and limitations of the technology
…PLASTICS
on the various materials it uses. A full bed 3D image of a New
York taxi leaping out of 5th Avenue pinned to the wall looks
great, but such is the level of detail, that Reflex wants to carry
out further fine adjustments before releasing the work on the
market.
Then it falls to Lynch to sell. The success of Avatar last year
did not lead to the anticipated book in lenticular work, though
projects are now filtering through he says. The explanation is
that printers and print management companies have a vested
interested in only pushing what they can do, and as few have
the six or more years experience that Reflex has, it has slowed
market adoption. He adds that marketing departments can be
poor at imagining their products in a 3D display. “And the 3D
interlacing work is expensive to do just for a proof.”
Kevin Lynch (left) and Jim Shortland pose with a 3D treatment of a film poster.
Nevertheless Lynch will keep at it. The plastic folders are a
tremendous showcase for the company, though the samples
contained are more carefully selected than before. It is a process
of seeking to work with quality clients rather than a scattergun
approach. The Reflex approach led by innovation and quality is
working. The factory says so. Its next move might be further
digital printing as the Acuity is attracting greater volumes of
work. There have been conversations with litho press suppliers
about what goes alongside the Komori. Whatever the decision, it
will be about keeping Reflex in front, a real case of watch this
space.
www.printbusinessmagzine.co.uk May 2011 37

LARGE FORMAT
BIG ideas
In order to break new ground with its ambitious variable data printing plans,
large format printer Imprint is developing its own web to print solution.
Web to print has never been tried on the scale that
Newcastle printer Imprint is considering. There
are printers that handle more jobs, printers that
take more revenue than Imprint intends, but no
other printer has applied web to print to large
format display printing as Imprint is considering.
There are good reasons for this. If nothing else the file sizes
for the sorts of display print produced at Imprint are enormous.
And nobody would sensibly develop a specialist display print
application before web to print for commercial printing. But
Imprint wants to break new ground with variable data printing:
it has to develop its own solution.
THE COMPANY OPERATES WITH three Inca Onset S20s, the
largest concentration of this press type in the country, an Inca
Spyder and most recently a Xerox iGen4 in a new factory ten
minutes from the centre of the city. The company moved in only
in September, installing the last of the Onsets in January.
There is a separate screen printing factory with a four-colour
Thieme and two single-colour machines across the city. “We will
never get rid of screen, because there are things that you do only
with screen printing,” says group production director Paul
Newton, explaining that screen is unbeatable for high impact
fluorescents, for metallics and for some spot colours.
Four-colour printing is, however, reserved for the digital
machines, these days in a spacious 21st century plant. It is on a
development that is more science park than industrial estate,
finished to a high specification throughout and designed for the
next phase in the company’s development. It paves the way for
the company to grow from around £7 million a year to £10
million.
IMPRINT STARTED 23 YEARS AGO as a screen printer
operating hand benches, added litho printing and acquired a
customer base from retail and brands looking for point of sale
and display print. Litho was dropped as it was easier to buy this
in than to keep investing and the business stepped away from
any temptation to invest in ultra large format KBA or Manroland
presses. Instead Imprint has moved in the other direction,
building on its decision to invest in large format inkjet printing.
In 2001 the company had become only the third to buy an
Inca Eagle 44. At the time sales were just £1.4 million so a
£400,000 spend was more than significant, especially as inkjet
had still to prove it could handle the demands of display print
customers. That was in 2001.
“It got us out of the rat race to some degree,” says group
development director Dave Bullivant. “You can’t survive as a
commercial printer, you have to offer something different.” In
2007 it acquired Perfect Screen Print, doubling the sales of the
business at a stroke, now poised for the next leap forwards.
The relationship with Inca and with distributor Fuji Sericol
38 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
has endured through new generations of press. “We have noticed
a big improvement in the quality of digital printing,” he
continues. At one point the company had three Eagles and two
Spyders, sweeping them aside to start the new plant with a new
generation of technology.
The three Onsets are spread along the length of the new
factory which looks as clean as when the company moved in in
September last year. All are profiled to match Fogra 39L proofs,
allowing large jobs to be spread across the three presses if
needed.
The move brought together 60 of the company’s 72 staff
together under one roof for the first time and has given the
management team the chance to set a new culture. Productivity
has improved through the efficiencies of having everything in
one location. “Many of the staff had never worked together before
and many have worked in factories which simply did not have
windows,” Bullivant says.
Newton adds: “It has been a tough year. We started with a
shell of a building – no lights, no heating. We had to decide
where to position power sockets – everything. And we made the
move without any customers realising what was going on. It has
been a big step change.”
THERE IS PLENTIFUL NATURAL LIGHT in the BREEAM
specified building, it is energy efficient and rainwater is
harvested. The environment, not surprisingly given its customer
base of retailers, is a priority that Imprint pays more than lip
service towards. It has taken on graduates on projects looking at
how to cut its carbon impact still further. The new factory has
allowed it to take another step greenwards.
Inside the company has specified high lux lamps to ensure
that light is even throughout the plant and that there are no
shadows created. Planning and executing the move took a year
of working out, calculating where power points should be
placed, how materials will flow from one end of the factory and
what sort of office space might be needed. Nevertheless the move
went to the wire. “We finally received the keys of the finished
plant on the Monday with the first press arriving on Wednesday,”
says Bullivant.
Other than keeping details of its move quiet, he says that the
business is very open with its clients and suppliers, fostering
deeper relationships that when it comes to selling variable data
print will open doors inside the marketing departments that have
to buy in to the potential of VDP.
“THE FUTURE FOR US IS ALL ABOUT VARIABLE data, it’s
about web to print working, it’s about personalisation,” says
Bullivant. “Once we talk VDP we are talking to the marketing
departments rather than just print buyers.”
In one application of the technology Imprint expects
customers to create artwork on line, choosing the campaign

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PROFILE
Dave Bullivant (left) and Paul Newton are
key members of the management team
with chief executive Jim Newton and
director Mike Younger.
40 May 2011 www.printbusinessmagazine.co.uk
images and amending templates to suit a specific store and
printed on the Onset digital presses.
“We aim to make the customer’s job easier, writing bespoke
customers for retail customers so that all their promotional
activities can be managed online,” says Newton. This includes
being able to calculate costs for large format print, something else
that is not widely available in off the shelf MIS. “Existing MIS
are great but we would end up having to adapt it to suit our
needs, so we decided we needed something that would meet the
needs of our own business,” says Bullivant.
THE WORKFLOW IS MORE USUAL, Imprint using Esko
Artwork’s Odystar PDF workflow to feed the Rips. Once printed,
die cutting is courtesy of a mammoth Crossland platen and
fulfillment wrapping takes place in the centre of the factory. A
recent addition has been an Esko Artwork Kongsberg digital
cutting table allowing Imprint to take on 3D displays. It has
added expertise in this area understanding that this is equally
essential to success in providing the free standing display units
that are a key feature of point of sale material. “We produced this
for an American customer who told us what we did was ‘the best
executed campaign he had ever had from a vendor in the UK’,”
says Newton.
The latest investment has been the first extended format
Xerox iGen4 in the UK. This will produce smaller format point
of sale work, variable data print and will reduce dependence on
local litho printers, particularly for fast turnaround jobs. It has
its own area of the factory, away from the Onsets. “Now we can
print those fast turnaround jobs ourselves rather than having to
find a very friendly supplier when same day delivery is required
and that can be difficult,” says Newton.
THE IT SYSTEM TRACKS JOB PROGRESS which is displayed
on a huge flat panel monitor that everyone can see. Operators
watch live information including productivity levels, which
machine and crew is proving most efficient in terms of both
square metres images and beds filled over the shift, the day or
week and so on.
The idea is to prompt a degree of competition between the
press crews and raise awareness about the impact on business
performance. Press operators are trained in how to run the
presses to achieve the best quality and maintain highest
reliability. Some have been sent on Inca’s advanced operator
training to allow greater amounts of maintenance to be handled
in house.
Training is a key element to how Imprint operates. Staff are
able to work across different machines and departments if
demand dictates. “And it’s important to have multi-tasking
people. You can’t tell someone that ‘this is the only job you will
ever do’,” Bullivant adds.
The directors have been known to get down on the shop floor
and to help pack during the busiest periods. But management
does not get to operate the machines despite succumbing to
‘printers disease’. Bullivant says: “We are very hands on and we
love machines as many printers do. But we have to think beyond
that.”
THERE IS A DAY EACH WEEK SET ASIDE for what the
management calls “working on the business”, a step away from
the dealing with the immediate production issues and forcing an
agenda of dealing with deeper issues, looking ahead and thinking
strategically. This is something that sets Imprint apart from those
that are constantly engaged in the rat race for work. Bullivant
says it, but all the directors would agree: “It’s the people that have
invested during the recession that are going to be best placed
coming out.” n

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B3 litho/digital/large format
Turnover: £350,000
Design & promotion services
Wide client base · Sensible price sought
Ideal bolt-on or for entrepreneur
with sales contacts
Ref: K/679 South East/South/London
Commercial printer with DM operation
Turnover: £300,000 - £5.0 million considered
Re-locatable or able to operate as satellite
Serious acquirer with funds
...and wanted
P/264 Home Counties
B2/B3 printing & graphics business
Turnover: £300,000 · Niche market specialist
Realistic price · Ideal starter/bolt-on business
NEW
G/527 West Midlands
Print management, B2/B3 commercial printer
Turnover: £1.5 million
Extensive product range
Excellent opportunity
L/329 East Anglia
Self adhesive labels
Turnover: £1.3 million · Niche products
Profitable · Wide customer base
Retirement sale · Sensible price
NEW
G/325 North West
Litho/digital printer/copy shop
Turnover: £200,000
Well established, family run, quality clients
Range of other niche/specialist services
Ideal for entrepreneur
Ref: S/544 Central Scotland
Quality commercial/specialist printer
Turnover: £1.5 million
Trading profitably · Range of services
Cannot relocate · Low price
Excellent opportunity
NEW
B/828 South Coast (re-locatable)
B1 litho/digital printer · Range of equipment
Turnover: £1,250,000
Profitable · Trade & selected assets sale
Good clients/gross margin · Excellent bolt-on
For sale as vendor not renewing lease
NEW
M/355 Home Counties (North)
B2 commercial litho print/finishing
Turnover: £1.0 million
Security printing services · Award winning
business · Retirement sale · Quality business
NEW
E/478 East Anglia
Specialist niche printer (security/healthcare)
Unique label printing · Print mgt services
Turnover: £2.0 million
Profitable innovative products
Strong client base · Excellent prospects
Sensible price
Ref: N/461 Oxon/Bucks/Berks
B1/B2 printer sought, specialist services
preferred · Turnover: £2.0 million+
Merger considered
Must be able to re-locate
NEW NEW
S/335 UK wide
S/524 UK wide
Data mgt/marketing services
Digital signage businesses sought
Turnover: £1.0 million+
Turnover: £1.0 million+
Serious buyer with funds
Credible acquirer seeks deals
NEW
NEW
D/647 East Anglia/Southern England
S/A labels (healthcare/pharmaceutical/security)
Turnover: £1.0 million+
Highly credible buyer
P/502 M1 Corridor
Document/print management
& marketing businesses
Turnover: £500,000 - £2.0 million
Serious acquirer seeks acquisitions
Merge to
Make Money?
Richmond Capital Partners are industry
specialists, with businesses waiting to
be bought or sold.
Our strength is based on intimate
industry knowledge and a philosophy of
confidentiality, discretion and
cost-effectiveness.
Our services include:
Mergers and acquisitions
Joint ventures/strategic alliances
Disposals
Business planning & raising finance
Due diligence support
Strategic advice
Business Improvement Programmes
Valuation
MBO/MBI advice
Research and targeting
Thinking of selling? If you’d like sound
professional advice, call Paul Holohan on
020 7636 5491
it could be the best move you ever made.
This is only a selection of the many
businesses we have - if what you want is
not here we will find it for you.
Specialists in Print,
Packaging and
Direct Marketing
12 Harley Street, London W1G 9PG
Tel: 020 7636 5491 Fax: 020 7436 8954
Email: info@richmondcapitalpartners.com
Visit: www.richmondcapitalpartners.com
Joining forces with another like-minded print
company could be the key to future success for both.
A merger can reduce overheads, increase the
customer base and widen product and
service opportunities.
Talk to Paul Holohan, with no obligation and in
complete confidence, on 020 7636 5491

When money matters.
You know who to call.
Contour
Business Busi
n ness
Finance
can ca
n
help
your
business bu
s siness
progress.
We
have a proven track record of working with the print and packaging
ng
industry industry and our experienced, qua qualified alified team of professionals are always
ays
on hand to offer advice and and support support when when you you need need it.
it.
WWe
e recognise the difficulties print t and packaging businesses face when
en
speaking to banks about obtaining finance packages to grow your
business. So we have established ed credit credit lines lines with with investors investors with with an
an
appetite to lend to our sector to o enable us to offer our new style of
finance, which is t tailored to your needs.
WWe
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business business, , make an investment, restructure or an MBO
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knowledge, experience and fin financial nancial support you are looking for for. .
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evaluation of competing offers so s so you always know the decisions yo you u
make are the best so solution olution for your business.
So, whatever you are looking fo for or get in touch. Call KKevin
evin Barron on
0207
5 580 7865
or email info@contourbusinessfinance.com
info@cont tourbusinessfinance tourbusinessfinance.com com
Hire Purchase chase
Working
Capital al Finance
Finance
CID and Factoring ctoring
Acquisition Finance
Finance
Commercial Property p y
Mortgages
Operating / Finance ance Lease
Lease
Merger Finance nance
MBO,
MBI, VIAMBO V
Financial Re-structure structure
Contour Conto ur Business Finance,
12 Harley Street, eet, London London W1G W1G 9PG
9PG
Tel:
0207
580 7865 5 Fax: 0207 0 0207
436 8954
www.contourbusinessfinance.com
rbusinessfinance.com
A subsidiary of Richmond mond Capital Capital PPartners
Partners

INTRODUCING
INTR
ODUC
ING
Performance and Productivity Planning
YOUR Y OUR
OPTIONS:
OPTI
ONS:
PRIMARY PRIMARRYY
INTERMEDIATE
INTERME EDIATE TE
care
omori recognises that the performance of your existing key assets is
paramount if you are to optimise productivity and generate the performance
levels which give you that vital competitive edge. KOMORIcare puts at your fingertips
the knowledge of Komori’s fully qualified technical team, possessing the very latest
information on all Komori products and systems. All this backed by the global
resources of the Komori Corporation.
KOMORIcare plans are structured to suit the various needs of UK Komori users.
Flexible options offer a range of benefits, including:
Enhanced equipment performance
.........................................................................................................................
Reduced risk of unplanned downtime
.........................................................................................................................
Improved make-ready times
.........................................................................................................................
Pre-planned maintenance budgeting
.........................................................................................................................
Validation and advice on your own production procedures
.........................................................................................................................
Discounted spare parts
.........................................................................................................................
Guidance on equipment enhancement *subject to machine specification
care c a are
ADVANCED
ADV VANCED ANC CED
ULTIMA TIMA
1 2 3 4
1+ 11+
11+2+
+ 2+ + 11+2+3+
+ 2+
3+ +
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or to discuss the design of a bespoke solution, contact:
Peter Redmond, Technical Director
Komori UK Limited, Victoria Road
Seacroft, Leeds LS14 2LA
Tel: 0113 823 9202
komoricare@komori.co.uk
care