Same Press, Separate Routes
Three European printers show the diverse usage avenues one versatile press—the Arsoma EM 410—can take.
By Susan Friedman
Landscapes, languages, driving on M-roads vs. the autobahn—all are differences one would expect to encounter when visiting England and Switzerland.
But three label printers operating in these countries reveal further contrasts. On the surface, they are like-minded: Each is wrestling with constrictive price pressures, and none want to get so caught up in productivity that they lose sight of quality level goals. Contrasts crop up in their growth strategies, which may involve new or existing customers, specialization or diversification, innovation or investment.
The Arsoma EM 410 press from Gallus has proven flexible enough to be the common denominator in these varying market approaches. The 16", 500 fpm EM 410 offers flexo and UV flexo printing, rotary screen printing, rotary hot foil stamping, rotary and flatbed diecutting and reverse side printing, as well as options in varnishing, laminating and structure embossing—a versatile platform that becomes a springboard for diverse usage avenues.
Flexibility to follow opportunity
At Polestar Hannibal, the self-adhesive (or pressure-sensitive) label sector of the Polestar Group in Thurmaston, Leicester, England, the Arsoma EM 410 illustrates an open willingness to take the business in whichever direction core customers—primarily in the food, household and confectionary goods markets—lead.
Describing competition for customers as so intense "you have to put barriers around them," Managing Director Bob Blow stresses printers can't afford to be rigid and miss opportunities within a customer's total requirements. For longtime client Nestlé, for example, Polestar Hannibal recently expanded its services beyond printing self-adhesive labels to include printing laminates and converting plain labels.
"The label business is changing in that lots of work run on a label press is not labels," Blow says. "Label presses are becoming general narrow-web machines."
Up until this spring, Polestar Hannibal's fleet of seven presses—offering flexo, letterpress and rotary screen printing—included one Arsoma EM 410 running both water-based and UV flexo.
Hannibal's attention to total customer requirements was rewarded when its foil laminate business picked up enough to fill a second Arsoma EM 410 press, delivered in April. Existing 7" letterpress machines simply weren't wide enough to produce the $3.2 million (U.S.) in sales Blow predicts will roll off the 16" EM 410.
Polestar Hannibal maintains line speeds of 165 fpm to 195 fpm on the EM 410, which may lag slightly behind U.S. productivity standards, but, Blow says, make it easier to maintain necessary quality levels. Hot foil stamping is done off-line to prevent further reduction of press running speeds.
To maximize profits, core customers' largest orders (up to 264,000 sq. ft.) are printed all at once, and then parceled out in batches as needed.
New products mean new business
Specialization in one end-use market or print process is purposely absent from the business plan at Sessions of York's Roll Label Division in York, England.
The 188-year-old printer, in its fourth generation of family management, produces self-adhesive and computer labels for customers in the food, beverage, household goods, toiletries, fragrance and confections industries. Production Director Alan Gray is emphatic that the company does not maintain a core business—but instead makes a concerted effort to spread its services across a variety of markets.
"Printers must strive to provide a mix of services because of price competitiveness," Gray asserts. He sees biggest growth opportunities in combination process.
Eighteen web presses offer combinations of water-based or UV flexo, letterpress, screen and hot foil stamping capabilities. The company does not favor any particular substrate—an even mix of papers, films, and multi-layer laminates run on-press.
Sessions of York's efforts to attract business from every corner of the label industry are centered in new product development. The purchase of a third Arsoma EM 410 press in 1998 provided the company with increased flexibility, versatility and confidence to continue uncovering novel printing solutions.
Fitted with seven flexo stations and space for two screen units, the EM410 has introduced many customers to UV flexo—the process used for ninety percent of all work done on the press. "Customers haven't accepted UV flexo as the same quality as offset, but they are learning," says Gray. "One thing that has improved confidence and boosted quality is computer-to-plate."
The new press also helped Sessions tap further into the productivity niche it has found in flatbed diecutting. An in-house manufacturing and servicing department allows efficient integration of flatbed diecutting into nearly every press, but the EM 410 offers faster flatbed diecutting speeds (up to 330 fpm) to give productivity an extra lift.
Investing for customer savings
The reigning label printing philosophy at 20-year-old Etimark, based in Grabs, Switzerland, is to achieve competitive pricing through specific technology investments—a formula proven to entice and secure the typically loyal Swiss customer base.
"As long as you can offer quality and good prices, nothing can get between you and your customer," states Udo Schulz, marketing manager.
Labels printed by Etimark mainly adorn dairy, pharmaceutical and food products. An Arsoma EM 410 press was the ticket to cost-effective printing of aluminum foil lids for dairy products—a critical need of many Etimark self-adhesive label customers.
The EM 410, which joined Etimark's other flexo press and two letterpresses in 1998, brought about price competitiveness in more ways than one.
Etimark is now a single-source supplier of self-adhesive labels and lids for the dairy market, ensuring consistency and color matching between the two products. And, because the press can handle both small to mid-size foil orders and longer runs of up to 10 million lids or labels at speeds up to 60,000 impressions per hour, it can potently combat the higher price of foil.
A new flexo unit may soon join the EM 410's eight existing UV flexo stations, relates Schulz, for the purpose of printing an opaque white background on the lids. This investment would trim lid prices even further, since they are currently purchased preprinted with the white background.
