cases of damage the printing industry · 2019-12-26 · 2013 by rivet of limoges (f), whilst a...

INTERNATIONAL EDITION · FOR HIGH QUALITY PRINTERS WORLDWIDE April 2013

Print in the media mixUse the creative potential!

ó The owner of the Megapac Print creative agency,Erika Gassner, proves that virtually anything canbe done with paper by regulary developing andwinning awards for high impact special forms ofadvertising for newspaper and magazines. She hasbeen pushing publishing houses and the printingindustry to finally pluck up the courage to dosomething really new and special. Page 6

Newspaper and book productionInkjet printing moves ahead

ó Inkjet printing is moving centre stage fornewspaper and book production. Océ and Manro-land Web Systems have now launched two pro-duction systems for these segments. One newspa-per production system will be commissioned in mid2013 by Rivet of Limoges (F), whilst a second digi-tal book production line is being demonstrated inOcé’s Poing demo centre. Page 8

∂ Imprint 5

PRINTING IN THELOGISTICS FACILITYThe book wholesaler KNVhas added an in-house PoDcentre to its services.Page 10

CURSE OR BLESSINGFOR PRINTERS?Is the print manager a realintermediary or simplythere to drive the pricedown? Page 18

UPDATES INSTEADOF NEW SALESRetrofits, modernizationand upgrades were the orderof the day at the WPE.Page 12

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CASES OF DAMAGE FROM THE PRINTING INDUSTRY

Deutscher Drucker | International Edition April 2013

SOUND FAMILIAR? You have just boughtyourself a brand new, super fast computer andwant to run your old creative software on it.Dream on. The new operating system won’tsupport it. Or perhaps your mature computer isalready about to give up the ghost, taking withit the application you’ve just bought that you’reso pleased with. It’s a bummer. System func-tionality is always tied up with the hardwareand sooner or later this leads to incompatibili-ties. To put it in a nutshell, things become lessand less suited to each other and you soon endup with nothing working. You just have to livewith it. Or do you?

JUNGLE.What for an individual is simplyannoying is for a company with its client-servernetworks, collaborative and production solu-tions a real and constant problem. Over theyears a heterogeneous IT structure inevitablygrows up from constantly expanded, upgradedand differing servers and desktops, and thisbecomes more and more difficult to administer.SMEs, in particular, who can’t afford full-timeprofessional IT service providers and who there-fore frequently have to rely on internal know-how are forced to make compromises the wholetime. Or are they?

NO, THEY DON’T HAVE TO. Cloud Computingis the magic phrase or, to be more precise, serverand desktop virtualization, which is the techni-cal basis for Cloud Computing. By turning to‘virtual machines’, system functionality is freedfrom the hardware platform and resources canbe jointly and flexibly used regardless of loca-tion. The server landscape can be standardizedand consolidated, IT administration regimented

and significantly simplified. Overall,IT is professionalized, rendered moreenergy efficient and cheaper; and it staysthat way.

UNSHACKLED. Unfortunately, Cloud Comput-ing is making slow headway in the printingindustry. Again and again it is the securityquestion and worries about data protection thatcone up. In practice, this plays virtually no rolebecause you can employ an absolutely securePrivate Cloud you control yourself. WhenDeutscher Drucker recently visited an industrySME that is setting the pace with Cloud tech-nology, totally different (and much more impor-tant) things were discussed. Despite the start-upcosts and the none too short a time to recoupthe investment, this entrepreneur was delightedwith the ‘new freedom’ that his new IT struc-ture had brought him. Previously he, like manyof his peers, felt himself driven by his own IT.Today, he can quickly direct the informationtechnology as he wants; and for the first timeconfigure it at short notice to support his corpo-rate strategy effectively. Now that’s reallypriceless.

Best regards,

Michael Schüle

≥ Ihre Meinung: [email protected]

Finally, master ofone’s own IT again

’’You can’t quantify what our new,flexible and clear IT structuremeans for future fitness.

Hans-Jürgen Mack, Managing Director, Druckerei Mack, Schönaich (Germany)

EDITORIAL

FOCUS DOERS BEHIND PRIZEWINNING PRINTED PRODUCTS

2 Deutscher Drucker International Edition | April 2013

It’s the products that are really notfeasible that are the most funPERSONALITY ó It’s when unusual and hard to produce products are required that the phone rings at ManufakturLappe in Neuss. It’s here that technical limits are probed, new ideas developed and the right partners quickly assem-bled in the drive to ensure the success of the job. These are precisely the projects that Hans-Günter Weber relishes.

By Martina ReinhardtEditor, Post PressDeutscher Drucker

ó If Hans-Günter Weber can’t sleep at night hegets up, grabs a pencil and puts his ideas down onpaper; drawing, scribbling, draftingsolutions for every possible require-ment that he may be called on tosatisfy. Or maybe not. Somewhere,however, the ideas will ultimatelyfind an outlet. And Hans-GunterWeber is full of ideas.Sometimes the ideas are for thedrawer, sometimes for the bin and,again and again, for customers. Heis profligate with his ‘brainware’. “Isimply chuck many of the draftsaway. What’s the point of keepingthem? If concrete requests comein we develop the products specif-ically for them.”

PROBLEM SOLVER. These prod-ucts and the ideas that lie behindare the heart of Manufaktur Lappe,which has facilities in Neuss andMendig and which is jointly run byWeber and his colleague RainerKlein. It is primarily responsiblefor the converting and finishingof printed products, whether they be books, mail-ings, brochures and company reports or displays,presentation packaging, folders and filing systems.When things get complicated and the task reallyseems to be insoluble customers have come to relyon calling Lappe and being offered a well thought

out technical solution. These are also precisely thetasks that Weber relishes. The, “things that reallydon’t work and that are right at the limits of tech-nical feasibility”, as he puts it. It is these limits thathe is happiest redefining on a daily basis. The runof the mill doesn’t stretch him and the thirteen

strong Lappe team, but then oth-ers can handle the run of the mill.It’s products like the premiumcard for Targo Bank that are fun.A production coordinator thatWeber knew well approachedManufaktur with the basic ideafor this project. He had seenChanel do something along theselines and he wanted somethingsimilar. In four weeks.

PRIZE WORTHY. The result wasan offset printed, folded card thatwas then screen printed and awindow cut out in the middle.Three parallel threads (fishinglines) were inserted into this win-dow to which tiny hot foilstamped symbols (people, aircraft,sun and moon) as well as a dum-my of the premium card werefixed. It was great to look at andtouch but it was also a projectthat nearly drove us insane”,

recalls Weber. The printing and screen printingwere no problem but the tiny, silvery figures weretoo delicate for conventional die-cutting. They hadto be cut by a laser but this raised the problem ofresidues soiling the glossy silver foil, which meantthat the hot foil stamping could only be carried

out after the laser cutting.“So, we had to find a way of carrying out all

the steps – i.e. stamping, laser cutting, gluing, die-cutting and threading – in the right sequence butwithout being able to try everything out inadvance”, explains Weber. “There was not enoughtime for this”. And, since the printing, the filmlaminating and the laser cutting couldn’t be donein house all the firms that were involved needed tobe coordinated so that one step could follow onfrom another. First of all the laser cut the channelin the centre of the card for the thread and thesymbols that would subsequently hover over it.Small catches projected on the outer edges. It wasonly then that the individualelements and the completewindow were die-cut andalmost stripped. Had the smallsilver symbols been a little bitlarger they could have beendie-cut as normal and gluedto the thread but because oftheir tiny size this was not pos-sible. All the effort paid offbecause the mailing won aGold PrintStar in the DirectMailing category. In contrast,the corporate image brochurefor Tetra Pak seems almost sim-ple. The inner four pages for the brochure wasdelivered as a printed sheet and the task of Manu-faktur Lappe was then to die-cut the pop-up, tocrease, to strip, to attach the pull string for thepop-up to the holder and to fix this holder to thebrochure with six glue points, to tie the pull stringsto each other or to holes drilled in the pop-up, to

The mailing for theTargo Bank had to beready in just fourweeks. This meant allthe steps had to becarried out in the rightsequence withoutbeing able to testthings out first.

THEDOERHANS-GÜNTERWEBER

MANUFAKTURLAPPE

Behind every prizewin-ning printed product

there are managers whohave directed its cre-ation and production.Deutscher Drucker pres-ents the people in ourindustry responsible for

the PrintStars.

In order to stimulate interest in the contents of Dru-pa Report 4, the 72-page magazine was enclosed in amailing package that reflected the packaging print-ing theme.

Hans-GünterWeber


Deutscher Drucker International Edition | April 2013 3

carefully re-close the brochures and to pack themin their delivery packaging. This solution won aSilver PrintStar in the Flyers, Inserts and Brochurescategory. Drupa Report 4, which focused on pack-aging production, reflected its subject matter bybeing stamped by Lappe and also won a Silver.

HANDS AND BRAIN. With jobs such as these itquickly becomes clear that the means to the enddo not lie in a gigantic machine park, a large pro-duction hall or a workflow concept. What Lappeoffers is traditional work by hand and a great dealof know-how. The 13 people employed by Weberand his fellow managing director Rainer Klein aretherefore mostly trained craft binders who havedeveloped specific areas of expertise such as die-cut-ting or stamping over the course of time. “We onlyemploy real specialists who each focus on theirown area”, states Weber. It is a team that one hasto be able to rely on and it’s a team that delivers thegoods. Hans-Günter Weber himself is an all-round-er. Trained as a letterpress and offset printer, hebegan a design course after his training at Aachentechnical college. After the third semester there hehad a formative experience. He was simply lookingfor a fellow student but he opened a door and sud-denly found himself in the middle of a small off-set printing operation, which the college of prod-uct design based in the same building ran. It wasthe smell that told him, “This is where I belong.”

Since then Weber has never moved away fromthe graphic arts. Not even after the finishing thecourse. For DM 13.45 an hour, which was below theset rate, he worked in the printer and took ondesign jobs on the side. The low pay was offset bythe opportunity to learn. “As soon as I got boredwith one machine I moved to the next”, recallsWeber. “I was eager to learn.” In this way he becamefamiliar with converting as well as die-cutting andstamping – and also sales. Then, after a time inproduction, Weber was offered the chance to moveto sales and estimating and subsequently field sales

too. “I have always seized the opportunity if thereis something new.” It was the perfect backgroundfor his subsequent career at Manufaktur Lappe,where he and his colleague Rainer Klein, who wasone his colleagues at the printer, have alreadyworked for 14 years. Manufaktur Lappe has a his-tory that stretches back over 40 years and duringtheir 14 years there Weber and Klein have literal-ly made their mark on it. They have graduallyexpanded the range of services of the craft binderyand have developed the company into the special-ist in fiddly jobs that it is today. Just how right thisroute was can be seen from the numerous certifi-cates and awards on the walls or the trophies in thecompany’s display case. And it is also demonstrat-ed by the customers who keep on coming back toGünter Weber and his team with their well nighimpossible projects.

The personó Date of birth: 23rd May 1956ó Marital status: Married, one daughteró Interests: Reading, drawing, walkingó Favourite printed productt: Any productthat isn’t straightforward to implement.

A corporate image brochure for Tetra-Pak featuring apop-up. When the booklet is opened a Tetra-Pakunfolds. If the string is gently pulled the carton clos-es in the normal way.

Print is always on the move. In dynamic, changing markets, printing companies always need to adapt to new conditions. This is manroland web systems’ focus: You, your business, and your future. You can expect us to show new perspectives having the entire value chain in mind. Expect integrated solutions for successful business models. manroland web systems GmbH, Augsburg.

another time.another print.

www.manroland-web.com



Customer wishes given the two-generation treatmentWINNER ó The offset printer Siggset Print & Media (Albbruck) mounted the stage three times during the presenta-tion ceremony for the year’s best printed products at the German Printing Industry Innovation Awards. Where did acommercial printer based on the Swiss-German border with 30 employees and taking part in its first competition getthe innovative power to collect a crystal trophy for three of its entries?

By Kurt K.WolfTechnical authorDeutscher Drucker

ó Even the location of Siggset, the offset print-er founded 34 years ago by Rolf Sigg, suggeststhat the boss of the company knows how to turnapparent drawbacks to his advantage. Albbrucklies to the north of the Rhine, which divides theGerman Black Forest from Switzerland. This meansthat only half of its catchment area lies in Ger-many and that half has far fewer potential cus-tomers than centres such as Basle and Lörrach,which are 50 kilometres away. The other, south-ern half lies in Switzerland and with the heavilyindustrialized cantons of Aargau and Zürich it isideal for print businesses. However, even thosepotential customers have had to be worked for,and the fact that Rolf Sigg has managed to run hiscompany successfully for 34 years despite thedrawbacks of the location and all the technicaldevelopments and economic crises that haveoccurred is testament to his imaginative customeradvertising and product design – what one todayrefers to as innovative power.

TECHNOLOGICAL BASE. Rolf Sigg was born in1944 in Zürich and over eight years trained inall the printing trades as well as in prepress areassuch as lithography and repro technology. Twoyears at commercial collegerounded off his training. After anumber of spells in large com-panies in Zürich (including secu-rity printing) he set up on hisown account in Germany with aGTO, photosetting and finish-ing. He then went on to buy twotwo-colour presses one after theother and then finally, in 1982,the first electronically controlled50 x 70 cm format four-colourpress. He used this to producemusic cassette and CD inserts forthe music industry. Print runs inthe millions went to Philips inthe Netherlands and JVC inJapan. In 1986 he bade farewellto the constant lack of space andmoved into a new building innearby Albbruck, which allowedthe company to grow rapidly.Important milestones includedthe step up in format to 70 x 100cm in 1992 with the installationof a five colour Speedmaster SM,which was then replaced by a modern CD 102-5+L. From then on the press was changed everyfour years to the latest CD model and then in2010 to the first CD 102-5+LX with UV technol-

ogy. This meant the entry into the high qualityfinishing of printed products on paper, boardand film from 50 up to 1000 µm. At this pointthere was nothing left standing in the way of the

creative ideas of Siggset and sincethen the company has designedits own products – including in3D – which are then offered tocustomers. “It was already clear tous that with straightforward fourcolour printing we were inter-changeable and could not sur-vive”, chimed Rolf and TobiasSigg in unison. “We are thereforeconstantly seeking to offer cus-tomers something that is unusu-al and that delivers them theadded value that we also needbecause of higher costs.” Toachieve this the company needsthe broad technical base to itsprint operation, its long experi-ence, the imagination of theworkforce, and the views of twogenerations about how their cus-tomer can earn more money withthe printed product. It is addedvalue that customers recognizeand are usually ready to pay for.

STRENGTHENED FIELD SALES. With his sonTobias, Rolf Sigg has an enthusiastic successorand partner who is working alongside him insales, marketing and management. Now 32, he

THEDOERROLF UNDTOBIAS SIGGSIGGSETPRINT& MEDIA

Behind every prizewin-ning printed productthere are managers whohave directed its cre-ation and production.Deutscher Drucker pres-ents the people in ourindustry responsible for

the PrintStars.

This wood laminate was printed and the colouredcoat of arms glued on to serve as the front cover of abook for the 50th anniversary celebration of thefoundation of the Schlaraffia men’s society.

Rolf and Tobias Sigg(r.) in front of theirHeidelberg Speed-master CD 102-5+LX.The interplay of thedifferent generationsis key to a successfulresult at Albbruck.

went from school to the Stuttgart MediaUniversity, spent practical semesters at Mir-ror Colour Print in London (UK) and theVorarlberger Medienhaus (Austria). He alsoacquired an understanding of the printing and fin-ishing of fine cartons and labels for the consumergoods industry at the large offset printerSchwarzach. In January 2008 he joined his father’scompany and in 2010 he became a directortogether with his father. Following on from hiswide-ranging training, he has been able to provehimself alongside his father, display his creativ-ity in dealing with customers and submit fiveentries for this year’s PrintStars at the GermanPrinting Industry Innovation Awards. Four ofthese entries were shortlisted, three won Gold, andit was Tobias Sigg who picked up three crystaltrophies for Siggset at the PrintNight; winningGold in the Flyer, Insert and Brochure categoryand special awards in the Green Printing and theCreative Image Language categories.

THE CUSTOMER AS PARTNER. Tobias Siggaccepted the awards but father and son werejointly responsible for the products. This suc-cessful cooperation across the generations is cru-cial in Albbruck for a successful result. Rolf andTobias Sigg explain that their customers are onlysuccessful if the printed matter generates addedvalue for their customers. Therefore one needs to discover how the cus-

tomers’ businesses work and how print from Sig-gset can improve things. If a customer comes tounderstand this then it is also ready to accept acertain amount of additional cost. For Siggsetthis approach entails a very substantial amountof consultancy and this, as with any other print-er, is seldom paid for. This is particularly painfulif, in the end, the order goes to a rival. This oftenhappens with management-led companiesbecause, after the advice, the buyers who were notinvolved at that stage will try to drive the pricedown through the floor. “Management-led com-panies are immoral in character because everyCEO must fight his corner and does not want togive way to price pressure”, comments Rolf Sigg.“However, when an owner runs his companyand agrees to the somewhat higher price for ourclear added value it is his own money and nobodycan criticize him.“ No wonder therefore that twoof the three winning products were produced for

owner-run companies and the third for a coop-erative whose management was prepared toacknowledge and pay for the one and a half yearsof advice.

THE PRODUCT AS WINNER. It’s not just print-ers and their customers who win when they pro-duce high quality flyers, brochures or books. Theproducts themselves receive recognition. In thisway, Verlag Deutscher Drucker is promoting com-petitive thinking through the competition forthe most innovative printed products of the year.After all, innovative products should be the focusof attention during every visit by a sales rep andnot just during the PrintNight.



The 2012 PrintStars from Siggsetó Gold for the ‘Good Architecture’ flyerThis flyer is a double-sided, ten page zigzagfolded product printed on 150 g/m2 transpar-ent paper. Four colour images and text areprinted on both sides and needed to beunderlain with silver and opaque white as

the fifth and sixth colours. The customer,Steiger Concept, presented its types of houseson the front side of the flyer and its manage-ment on the reverse. The text, fonts andimages were supplied by the Swiss advertisingagent Cavegnwerbung of Zürich.

ó ‘Creative Image Language’ Special AwardThe ‘Light – the magic of light and the tooth’image brochure for Vita Zahnfabrik H. Rauterwas printed by Siggset Print & Media. The

entire book was produced in black, with thewords ‘Light’ and ‘Vita’ embossed in whiteand black respectively. All the contents pagesare framed in black and feature strikingcolour photographs printed with high pig-ment inks and partially UV coated.

ó ‘Green Printing’ Special AwardThe product is a cookbook for the membersof the Migros cooperative of Zürich (Switzer-land) entitled ‘Green Gourmet’. It was pro-duced in conjunction with the WWF. Overone and a half years the customer suppliedthe contents (recipes) and the design for themake up of the cookbook, which Siggest thentook on. The book was printed on 135 g/m2Optibulk 1.5 bulk paper, the images were FMscreened and printed with conventional off-set inks. All 240 pages were overprinted with

a full surface dispersion coating to makethem grease and water repellent. StructuredSurbalin paper from Peyer was used for thebinding. The drawing of a beetroot plant wasprinted in bright green on the cover and itsform was embossed. The title was printed indark green and embossed whilst the letter ‘M’in the word gourmet was hot foil stampedwith orange foil. A protective jacket of 150g/m2 transparent paper designed to help theuser keep the book clean was also printedwith the bright green beetroot plant.

’’We always strive to offer theunusual, delivering added valueto the customer and justifyingour costs.

Rolf and Tobias Sigg, Managing Directors, SiggsetTobias Sigg (centre) receives the crystal trophy forGermany’s most innovative flyer in 2012.



Print has a massive creative potential butit often lacks the courage to use itPRINT IN THE MEDIA MIX ó “What paper can do’. Like a stuck record, Erika Gassner has been pushing publishinghouses and the printing industry to finally pluck up the courage to do something really new and special. The owner ofthe Megapac Print creative agency proves that virtually anything can be done with paper by regularly developing andwinning awards for high impact special forms of advertising for newspapers and magazines.

By Michael SchüleEditor, PrepressDeutscher Drucker

ó Initially, anyone visiting Megapac Print in theidyllic surroundings of Bachern am Wörthseefinds it difficult to imagine that a creative agencylocated down a side street and employing justsix people can be a firm fixture in the Europeanpublishing landscape. Yet Condé Nast, AxelSpringer, Burda, Gruner + Jahr, Klambt Verlag,IDG Communications Media and many othersknock on the door when they need to develop par-ticularly creative special forms of advertising fornewspapers, magazines or mailings. The compa-ny also generates ideas for printed advertising forfinal customers too. Megapac Print does not justsee itself as a creative service provider but as apathfinder when it comes to the development ofnew techniques, whether the idea comes fromthe customer or is one of its own. The companywill even take on overall responsibility for theproduction of special printed products as a totaladvertising package, and to this end has workedfor a number of years with two partner companies.

ALWAYS BE OPEN TO NEW IDEAS. Up untilnow, new, creative printed products and theirtechnical feasibility have been a source of fric-tion between agencies and printers. Things arecompletely different at Megapac because it is ableto command the very highest level of print andpostpress technical expertise. Inthe first instance, this is downto the experience and far-sight-edness of Erika Gassner herself,the creative head of the compa-ny. A business management grad-uate, who has also studied engi-neering and who is a trained psy-chological coach, she has nointention of slipping into a vil-lage idyll, having previouslyworked for well-known city-basedmedia companies before settingup on her own account.

Although Erika Gassner stud-ied business management andbefore that mechanical engineer-ing, she comments, “early on Ilearned that one didn’t have tohave studied in order to bringsomething about. One only real-ly learns something in life whenone experiences it and it reallygets under your skin.” In keepingwith this attitude, she sort of ‘fell’by chance (but inevitably) intothe printing industry. As a sales manager for thelarge packaging and folding box printer Meurerof Radolfzell (today Lagoprint) she very success-fully built up and consolidated the North RhineWestphalia and North Germany sales territory.Even then, as somebody who was interested inarchitecture, she was developing her three-dimen-sional ‘thinking’, which is something she is ableto draw on today when coming up with ideas inher agency. “For me, printing was never some-thing that was flat, it was always an object.”

At some point, Sebaldus Druck und Verlag(Nuremberg: subsequently Schlott-Sebaldus)became aware of the committed and commu-nicative manager. Sebaldus had just taken over Ver-lag Schwager & Steinlen and its thick board booksfor children and it was looking for a young man-ager whom it could entrust with building up a newboard printing division for the company. Gassnerknew that folding boxes were also printed onboard – and Sebaldus had enormous potential!

So she took the job – and five years later the com-pany was one of the top ten in the folding box seg-ment. After ten years the division had grown to300 employees and was supplying all the well-known packaging customers in the cosmetics,foodstuffs and luxury goods sectors.

In 1994 Gassner, who by nowwas a director of the holding com-pany and also Managing Direc-tor of Sebaldus Austria/Switzer-land, was tasked with integratingthe offset printer, which had pre-viously provided support togravure, into her division andreorganizing it. This meant thatsome 150 staff from the formeroffset division had to be maderedundant and Erika Gassnerbegan to develop her expertise inrestructuring. It also brought herher first contact with the maga-zine sector and in particular withcover production for various mag-azines whose contents were weboffset or gravure printed. It wasthe time when CDs were makingtheir debut as magazine give-aways but with the proviso thatthey had to be placed in whitesleeves on the front cover. Thiswas an outrage for Erika Gassnerand also for each individual edi-

tor and his or her pride and joy – the front cov-er. So, under direction of Gassner, different cov-er page concepts were developed that used thecover itself as a piece of flat packaging that couldbe opened up and into which something couldbe inserted. Since this and similar products wentwell, Gassner set out to establish contacts with oth-er publishing houses and proactively marketedher ideas. Within just 15 months the company wasturning over DM 10 million with a completely newproduct and Erika Gassner gained totally newinsights into the publishing industry.

In 1997 Sebaldus was restructured and turnedinto a joint stock company, concentrating exclu-sively on its gravure printing business and clos-ing its other divisions. Although the Internet hadyet to really take off at this time, Gassner alreadyhad a premonition of the structural changes onthe way for the printing industry and above all forpublishers. By 2001 the time had finally arrivedto strike out independently in this exciting envi-

THEDOERERIKAGASSNERMEGAPACPRINT

Behind every prizewin-ning printed product

there are managers whohave directed its cre-

ation and production.Deutscher Drucker pres-ents the people in our

industry responsible forthe PrintStars..

No need to hide behind Superman. Erika Gasner,owner and managing director of Megapac Print. WithMegapac Consult she also runs a consultancy thatsupports companies (in many cases print and mediacompanies) undergoing change or facing particularchallenges.



ronment and to combine her broad range of expe-rience with her ever-stronger creative streak andher well-established publishing connections.Although initially Gassner continued to work inparallel as a consultant and now and then as amanaging director in insolvency administrations,Megapac had been born.

KINGDOM OF IDEAS. Megapac Print is a thinktank. It does not wait for customers to approachit about the implementation of specific products.Around 80% of the product developments arisein house as dummies that have not been pro-duced to any specific brief. Erika Gassner, “Wedevelop all sorts of products, we look at a publish-ing product and find added creative value foradvertising customers. In our case, usually pub-lishers, seldom agencies.”

This was how the MegaFlap arose – the backcover extended to form a flap over the front cov-er (full format or die-cut) – which was developedfor the magazine Business Punk and its advertis-er BMW. At first sight this 2012 PrintStar appearsvery simple but if one knows anything about the

magazine production process it is obvious thatit took a whole series of creative ideas to realizethis advertisement format.

For the Berlinale, Gala had an advertiser,L’Oréal, that wanted the consumer magazine torain stars. Working with McCann Erickson, Mega-pac developed a container with a tear open clo-sure that remained sealed at the POS but when

opened released nine black and one cod-ed gold star. The gold star could then beused to obtain a cosmetic gift via the web.

Then there are the technical changes thathave had a major impact, such as the folder witha print run of around 500,000 being producedand filled for ADAC members. From the sample,Erika Gassner found that up until then the flapsof the folder had been manually glued in order tocreate a deep enough space for the contents.Megapac developed a simpler design that couldbe machine glued. It was both much cheaper toproduce and looked better. Gassner, “Even tech-nical product modifications can be creative.”

For the launch issue of Flair, the new women’smagazine from Klambt Verlag, the aim was tocatch the eye on the newsstands. The brief was forthe magazine to be placed in a ‘package’ but onethat would allow the reader to flick through thecopy without having to pull it out to do so. Theaim was to avoid two parts being left behind atthe newsagent. The result was a sort of ‘packag-ing frame’ christened the MegaLook, which fea-tures a board insert that holds the magazine in the

block whilst allowing it to be flicked through. Apossible 2013 PrintStar…

READY FOR CHANGE? No end is in sight to theflow of creative ideas from Megapac for the medi-um of print. It has long been developing totalconcepts to help customers to achieve a strikingpresence (displays, large posters, etc.). However,there are countless creative products and finisheddummies lying in the drawers in Wörthsee ratherthan out in the market place. In view of the par-adigm shift in the advertising business this issomething that gives Erika Gassner food forthought. What worries her, however, is not thatshe isn’t getting paid for producing dummies butthe ‘big things’. “The print medium needs tochange, it needs to change urgently, to becomemore varied in look, feel and smell. It is frustrat-ing how slowly things change in publishers thatare set in their ways and in many areas of theprinting industry. In the past, print’s primacy wasunchallenged. Now, however, not only is it vital,it is possible to exploit the potential of the medi-um to the full. Yet only a few have the courage todo so. There are still too many technical peoplesitting around for whom print is about volume andspeed. When I turn up with my ‘wonder box’ ofnew products the response is often simply defen-sive, a conscious blocking of the new or a worriedreference to the past. In part advertising sales-men, managing directors and publishers are sim-ply too poorly informed about the possibilities.Publishers should therefore make sure that theystaff advertising departments with people whocan offer the right products to satisfy customerrequirements. It’s better to have fewer people butto pay them properly for this.”

Erika Gassner is an optimist through andthrough but the contrast between increasingmedia variety and the snail’s pace with whichthe industry is breaking up the monotony of printgives her cause for concern. “Everything in life canbe rescued and it will be possible to rescue printadvertising. The only question is how many willfall by the wayside in the mean time…”

The personó Date of birth: 19th February 1962ó Marital status: Divorcedó Interests: Music, literature, sport, art,

travel, foreign cultures, joys of living, meaningfulness, Zen teaching.

ó Favourite porinted product: Favourite printed product: Hard to choose because passionate about all printed products; but of all the products she has developed Gassner is particularly fond of a dummy that holds a maga-zine and that fits together to form a loop at the front. This product has yet to be adopted but it’s sure to be taken up because it’s sim-ply so great.

The companyó Founded: 2001ó Location: Bachern am Wörthseeó Activity: Creative agency with partner

companies for print production. Development and production of unusual advertising products for magazines,news-papers, mailings and other special forms of advertising.

ó Turnover: €3 millionó Employees: 6ó Awards: Silver PrintStar in the magazine

category of the 2012 German Printing Industry Innovation Awards for the design of an ad special (flap based on the MegaFlap) for the magazine BusinessPunk.

The MegaFlap ad spe-cial produced by Mega-pac Print for the mag-azine Business Punkand advertisers suchas BMW or VW. Theback page (full formator die-cut) is extendedand folded over thefront cover. This great-ly increases the valueof the inside back cov-er as an advertisingposition.

’’We Germans tend to worry, we aresimply too negative. In our headswe seem to be rabbits rather thanlions.

PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY

Deutscher Drucker International Edition | April 2013

Fully exploiting digital printing – with the right postpressNEWSPAPER AND BOOK PRODUCTION ó Anybody who thinks that newspaper and book production is still theexclusive preserve of offset it wrong. Inkjet has long since pushed into this market segment and as runs fall and thevariety of titles increases it is playing a bigger and bigger role. Working with Manroland Web Systems, Océ has nowbrought two production lines to market that focus specifically on these areas.

By Judith GrajewskiEditor, Digital Printing and PackagingDeutscher Drucker

ó It all began two and a half years ago when theFrench contract printer Rivet Presse Edition ofLimoges took a look at how markets, advertisingand run lengths were changing. On the basis ofits findings, Rivet – together with the publisherof the regional newspaper, L’Echo – launched itsSynapse project for the digital printing of news-papers.By mid 2013 Rivet should be scheduling pro-

duction on the basis of an optimized distribu-tion scheme and printing daily and foreign news-papers on a production line consisting of twoOcé Jetstream 4300 inkjet presses and a special-

ly developed folder, the Manroland Web Systems(MRWS) Foldline VPF 211 pin folder. Accordingto the offset press manufacturer, this is the firstsolution for industrial, digital newspaper produc-tion.

GOAL. Currently, Rivet produces eight to ninenewspaper editions and a total of 38,000 copieseach night. However, as soon as the digital pressline is commissioned the number of differenteditions should be increased in stages to 17. Whatis known in the trade as microzoning means inpractice that target regions are narrowed. Nation-al titles will no longer be produced in Paris but inLimoges itself. In addition, Rivet aims to producenewspaper titles in the sequence in which theyare required by the distribution points for deliv-

ery. These are to be found in the region aroundLimoges within a 90 minute drive of the new 960m2 printing facility. Shorter delivery times and dig-ital printing technology mean that the newspa-per of the future will be built around variable,target-group oriented content designed tostrengthen reader loyalty. This in turn could leadto increasing advertising revenues, since titlesshould recover their attractiveness to advertis-ing customers as a result of their targeted cus-tomer approach and lower wastage. “The digitalprocess offers newspapers a new kind of businessmodel that supports publisher innovation”, com-ments a convinced Christian Sirieix, the Manag-ing Director of Rivet.

TECHNOLOGY. But what really makes the Océand MRWS digital production line so special?There is no doubting the fact that the full colourOcé Jetstream 4300 inkjet printing system is suit-able for regionalized newspapers. With a webwidth of 762 mm and a speed of 200 m/min it iscapable of producing 2,200 36 page broadsheetnewspapers an hour. According to the manufac-turer, it can print on all standard offset paperswith grammages between 45 and 80 g/m2 andneeds no primer. Océ claims that the perceived res-olution is 1200 x 1200 dpi and it can use eitherdye or pigment inks. However, on its own, the digital press is not

capable of fully exploiting its ability to vary con-

Falling print runs are forcing newspapers to revisetheir business models. Digital printing does not justoffer the possibility of regionalization, which willencourage advertisers to book advertising, it alsoallows shorter runs to be produced more economically.

Digital newspaper production. After printing on an Océ Jetstream 4300, the web is fed into the multi-function Foldline VPF 211 pin folder, which is capable of producingboth broadsheet and tabloid newspapers.



tent and format from one copy to the next. Thatis because a newspaper is more than just printedsheets, and postpress has to able to keep pace ifit is to be possible for every copy of a newspaperto differ in format or to be folded differently. Themulti-variable Foldline VPF 211 pin folder fromManroland Web Systems is designed to allow onesystem to produce tabloid or broadsheet, longgrain or short grain newspapers. It also supportsnewspaper sections with variable page numbers. Sofar as performance is concerned, the speciallydeveloped pin folder is configured for web speedsof up to 300 m/min but, given the press speed, itis currently running at 200 m/min. The maximumsupported web width is 1060 mm and, accordingto MRWS, this means that it is able to handle 96-page tabloid or 48-page broadsheet products. Themaximum production format is 400 x 580 mmand the minimum is 210 x 305 mm. Even withchange-over times, the emphasis is on speed,according to the manufacturer, and MRWS statesthat it can switch to a new grade of paper in aroundfive minutes or a new format in just three minutes.If a new cut-off length is called for, the Foldline VPF211 can switch on-the-fly. Control is entirelyJDF/JMF-based.

STATIONS. The multi-variable Foldline VPF 211pin folder comprises a former module as well asa fully flexible, self-driven cutting cylinder thatcan be adjusted in speed within just one revolu-tion. As a result, the cut sheets are transferred tothe collecting cylinder via a constant belt feedand then fed to the folding cylinder for the crossfold. The individual, folded signatures are then col-lected and, optionally, the newspaper can bequarter folded.In the configuration planned for Rivet, the Jet-

stream 4300 and the Foldline VPF 211 should beable to produce up to 17,143 four-page broad-sheet newspapers per hour in Rhine format, 19,047in Berliner and 15,000 in Northern format. Fortabloid newspapers the planned rates of outputare higher because of the different format andrange from 21,052 eight-page Northern formatnewspapers to 26,666 in Berliner format.However, the digital newspaper production

line will not be confined to newspapers. It will alsoproduce stitched booklets. To do so, a chopper foldis integrated into the finishing process after thecross fold. Depending upon the pagination, itwill be possible to produce between 28,571 A4booklets (8 pages) and 2,381 96-page A4 bookletsper hour. Book and magazine signatures will alsobe possible and Manroland Web Systems offersthread or saddle-stitching as well as perfect bind-ing as the final step. According to MRWS, theFoldline VPF 211 should be available by the mid-dle of 2013.

BOOK PRODUCTION. The fact that it is no greatstep up from booklets and magazines to substan-tial books is demonstrated by the second projectthat Océ is pursuing with its partner MRWS. Thisis an industrial book solution capable of deliver-ing 2,500 books per hour. The book block for-mat can range from 102 x 145 to 250 x 420 mmand the thickness from 4 to 70 mm. It is capable

of handling paper grammages of between 40 and150 g/m2.Here too the books are not offset printed but

inkjet printed on an Océ inkjet digital web press.At the Océ demo centre in Poing near Munich thepress in question is a new Jetstream 5500 Mono.This black and white printing system uses Océ’sDigidot piezoelectric drop-on-demand inkjet tech-nology, which delivers prints with a perceivedresolution of 1200 dpi. With a web width of 762mm and running at a speed of 254 m/min, the Jet-stream 5500 Mono delivers 5,140 A4 pages perminute, which is the equivalent of 1,600 eight-page signatures of a 15 x 22 cm format book.Once again, Manroland Web Systems has devel-

oped a folder for finishing the printed web. Thisis the highly flexible VFF-2 folder with variableformer fold – one horizontal, one vertical – anda variable cutting unit with two staggered cut-ting cylinders delivering two-up, three-up or four-up signatures to a shingled stream. For ten to 16-page signatures it is possible to add a third, ver-tical former. Correct web alignment is monitoredby video and stable transport is ensured by beltguides that fit into each other. For signatureswith a web width of 762 mm the cut-offs rangefrom 145 to 420 mm.After folding and cutting the signatures can be

forwarded to either a manual or a semi-automat-ic Rima compensating stacker and in Poing theline has an RS34S at this point. It gathers the sig-natures using the job marks, glues them and deliv-ers book blocks. Currently, work is underway tointegrate the newly developed MRWS fully auto-matic VBC 4 collator capable of delivering 5,000glued and pressed book blocks. This option for thedigital book production line should be availablein the second quarter of 2013.The postpress system currently supports a pro-

duction speed of 200 m/min but it is configuredto handle production speeds of up to 300 m/min.Thanks to the integration of the Océ Prisma work-flow the postpress units receive the necessaryinformation via JDF/JMF and adjust themselvesfor the new job with very little manual interven-tion.

APPLICATIONS. So, what can actually be pro-duced now by the digital book production linefrom Océ, Manroland Web Systems and RimaSystems? Not just book blocks, of course, but alsoindividual, stacked signatures, flyers and brochuresas well as magazines. However, regardless of whathas just been produced, the key thing is that post-press does not act as a drag on the digital print-ing capabilities but rather is every bit as flexibleand capable of switching to a new job from onecopy to the next.

The Océ, Manroland Web Systems and Rima (fromtop to bottom) book production line. For printing ituses an Océ Jetstream 5500 Mono, after which theweb runs over two formers, one horizontal, one verti-cal, is folded and then fed into the cutter, which hastwo cutting devices. The shingled delivery forwardsthe signatures to the Rima RS24S compensatingstacker, which is fitted with an auxiliary gluing unit,where they are collated and output as book blocks.



Production at the logistics facilityPRINT ON DEMAND ó A year and a half ago the leading book wholesaler Koch, Neff und Volckmar of Stuttgart(KNV) joined forces with Euradius, the Dutch-German printing and media group, to establish the KN Digital PrintforceGmbH joint venture and a PoD centre. This makes it the only book distributor that currently also produces books at alogistics facility.

By Judith GrajewskiEditor, Digital Printing and PackagingDeutscher Drucker

ó The book trade is in a state of flux. The bigchains such as Thalia, Weltbild or Hugendubelare consolidating and drastically reducing theirfloor space. At the same time, print sales areincreasingly giving ground to digital. The trendtowards more and more titles with shorter andshorter print runs is forcing publishers to rethinktheir production management, as Thomas Raffis well aware. He is head of sales and customerservices at Koch, Neff & Oettinger Verlagsaus-lieferung GmbH (KNO VA) of Stuttgart and Man-aging Director of KN Digital Printforce GmbH,which was founded in 2011.

MULTICHANNEL OFFERING. KNO VA, as abook distributor, and KNV, a book wholesalerbelonging to the same group, have been affect-ed by and are responding to changes in thebook market. For a number of years the compa-nies have been offering the redigitization andfinishing of book titles and have also beeninvesting in digital publication delivery as thee-book becomes increasingly more significant.Whilst digital books had a market share of just1% in 2011, in 2012 this rose to 2% or 3%,although the share varies from subject to sub-ject. KNO VA is already handling the delivery oftheir digital content for over 30 publishers to var-ious sales channels. All these digital activities,together with the e-commerce solutions thatKNV offers its book trade partners, are covered

by the KN Digital brand. Clearly, it’s no big stepfrom digital content to digital printing and thecompany’s decision to set up its own print cen-tre became a no-brainer with the addition of amajor new publishing customer, in this caseSpringer Science + Business Media, for whom akey crieterion was that its new service providercould offer digital printing capacity.

PRINT ON DEMAND. It was no surprise thatin 2011 KNV chose to join forces with Eura-dius, the Dutch-German printing and mediagroup, to found KN Digital Printforce and theon-demand printing centre in Stuttgart, whichwas opened at the end of August 2011 as partof this joint venture. “For us it was clear that weneeded a partner who knew their way aroundour world and who was technically capable ofimplementing our requirements”, recalls Raff.Given that Euradius not only operated severaloffset printing plants in the Netherlands andGermany but had also been involved in digitalprinting for a number of years and had had itsown digital printing division under the name ofPrintforce since 2009, it has been possible todraw on an extensive body of experience inbuilding up the on-demand print centre inStuttgart. In the Netherlands Euradius is involvedin a similar joint venture with Central BookHouse, the Dutch counterpart to KNV.The tasks were clearly apportioned. “We pro-

vide the technical know-how whilst KNV andKNO VA supply the marketing, sales and serv-ice side”, explains Ralf Schraud of Euradius,who is responsible for technical operations at KNDigital Printforce GmbH’s new PoD centre. Forexample, the machine park of the Dutch printcentre has been ‘copied’ by the German one

Two Océ Varioprint 6200 systems are used to printthe content pages.

KN Digital Printforce uses a Canon Imagepress 6010VP to print the colour title pages.

A C.P. Bourg perfect binding line handles the bindingand trimming of the book blocks.

Thomas Raff (l.), whois responsible for salesand customer serviceat KNO VA as well asbeing Managing Direc-tor of KN Digital Print-force GmbH, togetherwith Ralf Schraud, thePoD centre’s TechnicalDirector.



but on a smaller scale. “Here we are runningtwo Océ Varioprint 6200s for black and whitecontent printing and a Canon Imagepress 6010VP for the production of colour pages and bookcovers”, reports Schraud. Postpress is handledby a perfect binding line from C.P. Bourg andvarious peripheral devices are available for fin-ishing. KNV and KNO VA are currently the onlycompanies in the book trade involved in thedigital printing of books to have their own pro-duction capacity at a logistics facility and there-fore integrated into the supply chain. “We

haven’t started up in order to becomethe 97th digital printer in Germany andwe are also not trying to use digital printingto recover the volumes lost by offset”, con-tinues Thomas Raff. “Our strategy is different.By basing production in the logistics facility weeliminate things such as transport and incom-ing deliveries. We couple printing with our corebusiness, which is supplying books, and we areconvinced that this is the concept for thefuture.”

The digital print centre means that not onlycan KNV offer to physically store its suppliers’titles in its warehouse but also to hold themdigitally ready for printing. As a result the com-plete range of a publisher’s titles can be fed intothe KNV database and then searched for andordered by retailers and consumers via the var-ious platforms. If a title is not physically instock in the KNV warehouse, a customer order

triggers the immediate printing of the book inquestion. The printed copy is then delivered tothe trade partner along with those items in theorder that were already held in the warehouse.“Publishers can therefore supply their entirelist and there is no longer any risk of remaindersand returns”, explains Thomas Raff. “In thefuture it will matter less which printing processis used for production and more that the rightquantity of books is produced at the right timeand in the right place, so saving both ware-housing costs and freeing up capital.”

In moving into this arena, KN Digital Print-force GmbH has set itself the stiff target ofachieving the same timescale for customer deliv-eries as normal, even if the book has to be print-ed before delivery. “What are orders at 1.00p.m., we deliver to logistics by 4.00 p.m.”, claimsthe Technical Director Ralf Schraud. The books will then be with the retail cus-

tomer the following morning. “Our workflowsystem is based on an in-house developed soft-ware solution that allows us to automaticallycapture and check the publisher’s print data.This means that we can guarantee that a title canbe ordered through the book trade within 24hours.

PRODUCTION SPECTRUM. KN Digital Print-force GmbH has succeeded in securing morethan 70 publishers as customers since the launchof its print centre in August 2011. The two shiftoperation has four employees and mainly pro-duces individual copies or short runs of up to1,000 copies, predominantly in the field of sci-entific publications, specialist or special inter-est books. Softcover books can be producedentirely in house, whilst hardcover orders arecurrently still outsourced to the Dutch Print-force in Alphen.

Standardization is an important element inprint production. Consequently, seven grades ofpaper are currently offered by the PoD centre andthere is a choice between a matt or a gloss filmlamination for bookcover finishing. When itcomes to formats things are not specified to thecentimetre and both A5 and A4 sized books areproduced. On the software side the PoD centreis integrated into the ERP of KNO VA via its in-house developed workflow and a print controltool. With the aid of these tools publishers are

able to manage their complete PoD programmeand can simply and rapidly estimate printingprices. Several thousand titles have been pro-duced in this way over the last year and a halfat the digital print centre. “We are very pleasedwith the order volume”, comments ThomasRaff. “It has gone down very well with publish-ers and the prospects for the future of the PoDcentre are good.”

The centre has already reached full capacityand Schraud and Raff are considering expand-ing production capacity. “It is clear to us that byintegrating print services into the supply chainwe have hit on something our customers wel-come”, concludes Raff. In any event, the current development and the

inclusion of the print-on-demand titles in theKNV database has enabled the company to takea major step towards its goal of being able to sup-ply more than a million different titles to itsbook trade partners.’’When planning titles and design

many publishing customers arealready turning to a mix of offsetand digital printing.

Thomas Raff, Managing Director of KN DigitalPrintforce GmbH.

KNV AND KNO VA The book wholesaler Koch, Neff & VolckmarGmbH (KNV) of Stuttgart and Cologne, itssister company Koch, Neff & Oettinger Ver-lagsauslieferung (KNO VA) of Stuttgart, aswell as some book wholesale, media logis-tics and IT subsidiaries form one of thebook trade’s largest logistics groups. KNVsupplies more than 7,000 book retailers inmore than 2,200 locations in Germany, Aus-tria, Switzerland and the South Tyrol with alist of 510,000 books, e-books, DVDs, soundmedia, games and other book trade prod-ucts. The group was founded back in 1892and today employs more than 3,000 people.At present it is investing over a hundredmillion euros in a logistics centre in thenorth of Erfurt and from the middle of 2014this is where the logistics of KNV and KNOVA will be centralized. This will also allowthe PoD centre to be further expanded andeven more effectively integrated into theoverall production and delivery logistics.

∂ www.kno-va.de

Once a title is printed it is delivered along with the oth-er books that were ordered from the wholesaler.

The product spectrum of the PoD centre ranges fromsingle copies to short runs.

Matt or gloss film lamination is one of the possiblefinishing option.


12 Deutscher Drucker | International Edition April 2013

Filling the new press hole:retrofits, modernization, upgradesWORLD PUBLISHING EXPO ó Every year, at the newspaper production industry’s autumn show, the manufactur-ers proudly list the massive press lines that they have sold. At the latest World Publishing Expo in Frankfurt/Main thefocus was somewhat different. As a sign of how the industry has changed, a lot of the talk was of orders for updates.

By Gerd BergmannEditor-in-ChiefDeutscher Drucker International Edition

ó It was really only at the Würzburg press man-ufacturer KBA where it seemed to be business asusual, with Claus Bolza-Schünemann being thelast man left standing from the previous cohortof senior managers at the press manufacturers(see box on page 15).

MARKET DOWN BY SEVENTY FIVE PER CENT.Even KBA, however, has had to come to termswith the drastically shrunken market. Globalprint volumes are indeed slightly up but this islargely due to the emerging economies, whereliteracy and rising living standards are drivingdemand for print. What’s more, it is packaging,labels and film printing that are benefiting.

According to KBA the volume of orders forcommercial and newspaper web presses col-

lapsed from €1.9 billion in 2006 to €500 millionin 2011 and it has now revised its estimates for2012 and 2013 downwards in expectation ofdemand continuing to bump along the bottom.

KBA has added cheaper models to its portfo-lio of presses with the launch of the CL versionof its Commander CT. In this variant the com-pact press towers cannot be moved apart. How-

ever, it is far frombeing alone in mak-ing such a move.Goss will see in 2013the first ColorlinerCPS commissioned atDC Thomson inDundee (Scotland).Then there is theSwiss manufacturerWifag, which hasreturned to the newpress market andwhich presented itsnew S Line at a pressconference.

Wifag in particular,but also Manroland,devoted a large partof their press confer-ences to the ‘modern-

ization’ of newspaper presses. The Augsburgmanufacturer used examples from Hong Kong,Brazil, Canada and Luxembourg to show thatmany publishers are thinking about extendingthe life of their current kit rather than diggingdeep for a new press. A variety of things can bedone here such as reducing web width, improv-ing print quality, adding new ancillary devices

or a new Pecom environment with new controldesks.

For Wifag a project in Lahti (see page 15)should be a forerunner for its cooperation withGamag, the rebuild specialists from Berne. Goss,for its part, was more than happy to talk aboutan extensive retrofit project at the Sin ChewDaily in Malaysia, where new press controls arebeing fitted to 32 single width press towers,making them fit for the requirements of thenext ten years.

Besides the press manufacturers, companiessuch as WRH Marketing are also focusing onmechanical and electronic retrofits and werepromoting a whole series of modification pack-ages intended to rejuvenate Ferag productionlines.

SMART AND PRACTICAL. The aim of some ofthe newspaper production technologies on showin Frankfurt was to add options to what is already

high level technology. KBA, for example, present-ed impressive printed samples of work by the carphotographer René Staud to demonstrate theability to coat newspaper products inline onthe KBA Cortina, and it also showed zip perfo-rations on spreads of the kind offered as a spe-cial advertising format by the Würzburg Main-post regional newspaper.

KBA presented this forecast at the WPE of how the global press market willchange up to 2015 in terms of printing processes. Note that 50% of digital printbusiness comes from consumables and services and this is not included in theabove totals.

Following a further drop in demand in 2011, KBA has now revised downwards its2010 estimate of the market for commercial and newspaper web offset presses.

KBA’s CEO, Claus Bolza-Schünemann, wearing astainless steel tie pre-sented to him by the staffto celebrate his 25 yearswith the company.

Global press market by segment

2011 market volumesc. €5.8 billion

2015 market volumesc. €6.6 billion

Web offset(newspaper & comm)

c.€500 million

Web offset

c.€450 million

Sheet-fed offset

c.€3.2 billion

Sheet-fed offset

c.€3.5 billion

Flexo, gravure, screen

c.€760 million

Flexo, gravure, screen

c.€800 million

Digital printing(presses only)

c.€1.3 billion

Digital printing(presses only)

c.€1.8 billion

Market forecasts for web offset presses up until 2014

Euro crisis and economic weakness together with structural change affecting readiness of web offset printers to invest and making forecasting more difficult

Year

2010 forecast

Rev. 2012 forecast


Deutscher Drucker | International Edition April 2013 13

Tolerans, the Swedish manufacturer of inlinestitchers, opened up the prospect tabloid news-papers featuring cut outs to make it easier tofind individual sections. The solution consistsof two die-cutting cylinders integrated into aribbon stitcher to produce cut outs that can varyin size and shape. Such solutions, which enhancethe newspaper product and make it more strik-ing or easier to use, were primarily aimed at toptier newspaper printers.

MOVING FORWARD. Besides several Command-er CT/CL sales over recent months, KBA wasalso able to announce another – so far unnamed– European Cortina customer (“waterless hasfar from had its day”). Its rival, Manroland, wasdirecting the gaze of its potential customerstowards Kempten and Bozen – where it has pilotcustomers for its new E Line newspaper pressand its latest control desk design with iPad likeoperating modules.

Peter Kuisle, Executive Vice President for Salesand Service at Manroland Web Systems,described the first nine months following itstakeover by the Possehl Group as a success sto-ry, with orders for 22 newspaper presses beingtaken during 2012. The new CEO of the compa-ny, Eckhard Hörner-Maraß, did not travel toFrankfurt for the World Publishing Expo butinstead visited Manroland customers in the USA,China and Australia during October and Novem-ber.

Goss: role of new CEO is to deliver growthó Many new faces have appeared at the helmsof the major press manufacturers over recentmonths. Apart from Heidelberg, new seniormanagers have been appointed to the newspa-per press manufacturers: Manroland, Wifag andGoss.

The new Goss CEO, Rick Nichols, was appoint-ed in June 2012 and came from Terex Cranesand he was at the WPE in Frankfurt in order,“to get to understand the printing industry bet-ter and to talk to as many customers as possible.”Nichols has succeeded Jochen Meisner and hasbeen given the remit of optimizing product port-folio, workflow and corporate structures. Goss isaiming to become more competitive and soexpand its market share. Its owner, ShanghaiElectric, probably wanted a CEO who would gofor growth, is how Nichols viewed the changein the company’s leadership.

With production on three continents, around750 of the company’s 2,200 staff work in Europe.How Goss’s broad range of presses might changeis still a matter for speculation. Currently, itstretches from the 96-page Sunday 5000 heatsetpress through the third world bestseller, the sin-gle width Community newspaper press, to theM-600 reel to sheet press. At Drupa a web offset

press was also launched for packaging printing.Nichols and Senior Vice President CommercialBert Schoonderbeek told Deutscher Drucker thatno decisions have yet been taken about the pathit will take. However, Nichols described himselfas an advocate of platform strategies and men-tioned the problem of offering the market thenecessary service for ‘one-offs’ over the longterm. (ben)

Modernization projects: Wifag working with GamagFinnish contract a model for future cooperation

ó Wifag Maschinenfabrik AG, a division of Wifag-Polytype Group (Fribourg/Switzerland) and a spe-cialist in newspaper presses, and Gamag Grafis-che Manufaktur AG (Berne/Switzerland) havesigned a cooperation agreement. In future, thetwo companies aim to cooperate on the modern-

ization and modification of web lines. Gamag hasbeen working in the graphics industry for twodecades, primarily in Europe, North and South

America, and it currently has 16 employees han-dling removals, reinstallations and retrofits of webpresses. The Wifag contribution will primarily con-sist of its developments in the area of automation.A modernization contract from Finland, whichwas announced at the World Publishing Expo, isserving as the jumping off point for the proposedcooperation. The customer is Esa Lehtipaaino Oy,which has acquired a used KBA Express from Ouluin Finland. The intention is for the press to bemodernized, reconfigured and recommissionedin Lahti by the end of 2013. Gamag is coordinat-ing the overall project.

The use of Wifag drive and press control (Plat-form Plus) involves a rebuilding of the press tow-ers, the draw rollers in the turner module/foldersuperstructure and the folder to incorporate directdrive technology. The electromechanical side reg-ister drives and the mechanical facing register aswell as its electromechanical positional drives willalso be renewed. Two Wifag control desks willcontrol the press and it will be fitted with a Wifagsoftproof system. The package will also include aWifag production planning and press pre-settingsystem, with the overall contract including pressremoval, transport, the retrofit, which will be par-tially carried out in Lahti and Petäjävesi, recon-figuration and integration of Wifag automationsolutions, and the system’s re-commissioning.

The new Goss CEO, Rick Nichols (r.), and BertSchoonderbeek, Senior Vice President Commer-cial, in conversation with Deutscher Drucker.

The printing market is growing but its breakdown byproduct categories is changing. According to a 2010forecast from PRIMIR/NPES, digital is mainly takingshare from offset in books, direct mail and advertising.The Internet is reducing print and advertising volumesfor newspapers, magazines and catalogues. Chart: KBA.

Working together on automation and modernization(from l. to r.): Urs Eymann (Gamag management),Jörgen Karlsson (CEO Wifag) and Rolf Mani (WifagAutomation Director).

Books 5.5%

Books 4.8%

Catalogues 6.4%

Catalogues 4.6%

Advertising 5%

Advertising4.6%

US$ 700 bn

US$ 725 bn

Magazines 10%

Magazines 9.5%

Newspapers7.4%

Newspapers6.2%

Other 36.7%

Other 36.3%

Packaging 29%

Packaging 34%

WInnErS oF THE InTErnATIonAl PrInT TEcHnoloGy AWArDS 2012


Which technologies really drive the industry forward?INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY CONCEPTS ó In a major online vote, the readers of Deutscher Drucker, DeutscherDrucker – International Edition, Grafische Palette and the visitors to print.de have voted for the most innovative tech-nologies of 2012 from a shortlist of 33 technology concepts in the ‘prepress’, ‘print’, ‘postpress’ and ‘materials’ cate-gories. Here are the winners and those who took second and third places.

By Bernhard NiemelaEditor-in-Chief, Deutscher Drucker

ó In previous years voting for the most inno-vative technologies formed part of the PrintStars– the German Printing Industry InnovationAwards; but, starting with this year, the PrintStarswill be focusing exclusively on innovative print-ed products. The technology vote has nowbecome a separate competition in its own rightand at the same time it has been become inter-national. What remains unchanged is that thevote is online. The aim is to allow (potential)users to have their say and cast their votes. 1,643people voted in this year’s competition.

PREPRESS. A wafer thin decision gave the pre-press award to EFI’s MIS system ahead of Agfa’sAdvantage, with an average score of 7.77 pointsto 7.76. Third place went to the can:view2 LEDsoftproofing system from Caddon Printing &Imaging.The winning EFI MIS product consists of EFI

Digital FrontStore, EFI Pace, EFI PrintSmith, EFIMonarch and EFI Radius. EFI Digital FrontStoreis a web site and shop that print service providers

can personalize themselves. The shop offers thestandard types of printed matter for the cus-tomer to order and Digital FrontStore can beinstalled by the customer so its own staff canmanage print documents, send them for print-ing by the company’s printer and have themprinted automatically. EFI Pace is a fully integrat-ed, browser-based print management softwarepackage that has been specifically developedfor the printing and media industry. It covers allareas of a printer’s output, from estimating to dis-

patch. Estimating has been specifically extend-ed for large format printing. EFI PrintSmith hasbeen undergoing enhancements over more thana decade and is aimed at copy shops, on-demandprinters and small commercial printers. It is ful-ly integrated into Digital FrontStore. EFI Monarchis intended for larger graphic companies with oneor more production sites that require seamlessworkflow automation and that specialize in pub-lications, books, direct mail, transactional andcommercial printing. EFI Radius is specificallytailored for the production of labels, foldingboxes and flexible packaging. The seamless inte-gration of all the individual application pro-grams through the use of open standards suchas JDF means that printers can integrate theindividual EFI MIS programs into their existingoperation. Browser based access to all programsis useful and allows sales staff to access estimat-ing data at any time from laptops or iPads.

PRINT. The winner of this category was ISTMetz’s Ink Rub Tester (averaging 7.03 points), justahead of the iRegister Pro iPhone app fromTechkon (averaging 7.02 points). The Isra VisionProofStar proofing solution took third place on6.85 points.The winning Ink Rub Tester (IRT) from IST Metzis a device for determining the degree of cur-ing of UV coatings and inks and can be used onall two-dimensional coated paper or film sur-faces. It is capable of performing the normalscratch and solvent tests, whilst offering theadvantage of consistent test conditions. The

Prepress Gold: the EFI MIS systemFirst place in the Print category was taken by the ISTMetz UV curing tester.

pressure applied by the test head can be adjust-ed using weights and the device uses a fixed 50mm stroke length. The sample is arranged insuch a way as to present a consistent rub area,which guarantees highly reproducible test results.

POSTPRESS. Scoring an average of 7.67 points,Zünd Systemtechnik’s S3 Digital Cutter securedfirst place ahead of the RSP Finishing System2.0 from Cito System (7.48 points) and the PolarMohr WiMotion knocking block (7.43 points).The S3 Digital Cutter from Zünd Systemtech-

nik is modular in design, which allows it to beexpanded and for tool systems to be selected tohandle stiff and flexible materials up to 25 mmin thickness. Optional extras for handling mate-rials turn the S3 into an all-rounder. A directdrive system means that the S3 offers speed,whilst tools for cutting and creasing as well asa 300 W routing set extend the scope of themachine. The S3 also boasts award winningZünd Cut Center Software.

MATERIALS. The Durophan Plus laminatingfilm from fini.tec HPF secured an average of6.43 points to take first place, whilst Agfa Graph-ics came second with its N94 VCF plate (6.03

points). Kodak came third with its Sonora XPthermal plate (5.76).fini.tec HPF’s Durophan Plus laminating film

offers a scratch and abrasion resistant polypropy-lene film that is ultra matt, glues well, can beprinted and coated and is environmentallyfriendly to produce. Up until now, the problemwith polypropylene has been that even withcorona pre-treatment its surface tension is low.Following manufacture, the surface tensionsteadily declines so that within a few months itis no longer possible to guarantee reliable print-ing or gluing. With Durophan Plus the manu-facturer has managed to achieve a surface ten-sion that is stable for a minimum of twelvemonths, which ensures reliable gluing, print-ing and coating.Durophan Plus is also the highest matt (below

6 gloss points) and most scratch and abrasionresistant polypropylene film on the market. Itsprimary application is for paper lamination inareas such as book covers, folding boxes, fold-ers, ring binders and other graphic products.Durophan Plus is now also used for flexiblepackaging, where it usually still glued with asecond functional film; and, finally, it is used asa decorative film in the furniture industry.

WInnErS oF THE InTErnATIonAl PrInT TEcHnoloGy AWArDS 2012

Deutscher Drucker International Edition| April 2013 15

The Zünd Systemtechnik S3 Digital cutter was the winner in the Postpress category.

Digital Ink System toreplace ink ducts colour measurement system withSpectralcam HD

ó Quadtech Inc. (Sussex, Wisconsin/USA)showed high speed inline inspection and spec-tral colour measurement solutions for film, foil,paper and other substrates for use by flexo andgravure packaging printers at Emballage 2012(Paris Nord Villepinte). According to theexhibitor, the press controls should help toreduce makeready times and wastage to a min-imum whilst delivering consistent print quali-ty over the whole web. The Digital Ink Systemwas another new product. This is designed toreplace conventional ink ducts in web offsetprinting with computer-controlled ink injec-tors.The Digital Ink System replaces convention-

al ink ducts with computer-controlled ink-injec-tors. This should allow considerably more pre-cise density control over the entire printedimage, since the required amount of ink can beprecisely and consistently metered for each con-trol zone at all press speeds, according toQuadtech. Besides markedly improved colour density

the system should also eliminate the costs thatstem from soiling due to open ink ducts. Theresult is immediate and substantial savings onink, paper and maintenance. Quadtech is con-fidents that if an existing open ink duct systemis converted to its injection system – or a newpress is ordered with the Digital Ink System –then the up front investment will be rapidlyrecouped.The Quadtech colour measurement system

with Spectralcam HD should allow continuousinline monitoring of virtually all reel-fed pack-aging materials, including transparent andtranslucent substrates. The Spectralcam cameracalculates precise L*, a*, b*, ΔE and Δ densitiesat full press speed. It measures multiple colouraim values in the job without the need for colourmeasurement strips or patches. A low friction web stabilizer (patent pending)

uses vacuum technology to stabilize the web asit runs over a surface in order to keep the meas-urement point at a fixed distance from the cam-era. This, according to Quadtech, opens up theprospect of a controlled and repeatable methodfor spectral colour measurement on transpar-ent and translucent films or papers during actu-al production without the risk of damaging thesubstrate.The Quadtech Color Quality Solution, which

was launched in May 2012, is a joint venturewith X-Rite and the Huber Group and adds inkformulation functionality to the measurementof true spectral colours by combining inlinespectral data from Quadtech, ink formulationdata from X-Rite and ink dispensing technolo-gy from the Huber Group.

Publisher:Deutscher Drucker Verlagsgesell-schaft mbH & co. KG, riedstrasse 25, 73760 ost-fildern, Germany, Tel. ++49/(0)711/448170,Fax ++49/(0)711/4481782, www.print.de, [email protected] Director: Bernhard niemelaE-Mail: [email protected]:Gerd Bergmann,E-Mail: [email protected]

Advertising and Translation: neil Stratton,Babel Marketing ltd., Dellstone,6, Ivy cottages, Hinksey Hill, oxford oX1 5BQ,United Kingdom, Tel.: +44 (0)1865 739484,E-Mail: [email protected] Drucker International Editionis published monthly and distributedworld wide via PDF file;Single subscription: € 150/year (excl. VAT) Subscription: www.print.de/dd-ie

IMPRINT Deutscher Drucker – International Edition


16 Deutscher Drucker | International Edition April 2013

Hot foil stamping at the limitsof feasibilityAN EXPERT REPORTS FROM THE COAL FACE ó “Is the through printing of the silver lines too pronounced andwas the hot foil stamping too messily executed and is there therefore a fault in the execution or is such throughprinting inevitable with letterpress? “ This was the question our expert was called upon to answer in gathering evi-dence for a legal dispute.

ó THE DISPUTE. Expensive invitations wereproduced for a consultancy on coated card witha solid gold (spot colour) background. Singlecolour motifs and text were then printed onthis and fine lines, text and logos were then hotfoil stamped on the card.An initial print run was rejected due to a forme

fault and the reprint was also rejected because,in the view of the plaintiff, the stamped linescame through as ‘reliefs’ on the reverse of the hotfoil stamped card. This time, the defendantrefused to reprint, arguing that for technicalreasons it was not possible to improve matters.Since it was not possible to reach agreementamicably, the lawyers were called in.

INSPECTION OF THE SAMPLE MATERIAL.The evaluation was made purely on the basisof a visual inspection. A visual comparison of thefirst and second batches of the invitation revealedthat the through printing of the stamped lines

in the first batch was clearly less pronouncedthan in the second one. According to the records,no complaint had been made about throughprinting of the lines in the first batch.On more detailed examination under the

microscope it became clear that in the first batchfine hot foil stamped elements had either notbeen transferred or only partially transferreddue to the markedly lower stamping pressure. Fig-ure 1 shows an example of this. In the secondbatch these elements were better transferreddue to the significantly higher stamping pressure,as figure 2 clearly shows.

The better detailed reproduction of the finestamped elements resulting from the betterprinting conditions then resulted in the finelines partially penetrating through to the reversein the second batch of invitations that are thesubject of the dispute. This is clearly process related and could not

be avoided with the substrate that was used,since the substrate thickness and the deforma-bility of the substrate during stamping play amajor role. The downside of good reproductionof the details is the printing through of fine ele-ments.

METALLIC PIGMENT INKS. Matters were aggra-vated by the fact that a metallic pigment inkwas used for the printing of the gold solid area.This ink is highly sensitive to pressure and reactsby exhibiting undesired matt/gloss effects.Consequently, matt/gloss marking may arise

even when there is no visible mechanical print

through of the stamped lines. This is the casewith some of the through printed lines that arethe subject of the complaint. Furthermore, there are also areas of the lines

that display mechanical deformations on thereverse side.In one specific area of the secondbatch of invitations mechanical deformations areapparent in the outer regions of the lines thatdo not arise in the central region. Here, a better makeready of the stamping

forme would have resulted in a better stampedresult.

ANSWER TO THE QUESTION. As a result ofthe investigations it was possible to state that thegeneral execution of the hot foil stamping layat the limits of what was technically feasiblegiven the substrate being used. In order toachieve good hot foil stamping results the prepa-ration of the stamping forme would requireelaborate preparation (makeready) coupled withstamping conditions (pressure, temperature)matched to the substrate being stamped.Lower pressure would result in less marking on

the reverse but the reproduction of the finestamped elements would be impaired. A betterreproduction of the details of the fine elementswould lead to marking on the reverse due tothe higher pressure. This was exacerbated bythe use of the highly pressure sensitive metal-lic ink.With regards to the through printing of the

stamped lines it was the view of the expert thatonly that mechanical through printing thatcould be prevented by more elaborate makereadyof the stamping forme could be classed as a fault.As described above, the other markings arosedue an effort to achieve a good stamped resultin the reproduction of the fine stamped detailson the substrate that was being used. A pricereduction of 10% was set for this fault.

Edited by Frank Lohmann

DD SERIES

PROBLEMS IN GRAPHICS COMPANIES

Michael Kirmeier,publicly appointedand sworn expert forquality evaluation ofprinted products,runs an expert’spractice in Munichand works for Prüf-bau.

≥ [email protected].: +49 (0) 89/62 26 94 03www.druckgutachten.de

Figure 1: Distorted transfer of fine elements in thefirst batch.

Figure 2: Good detailed reproduction of the fine ele-ments in the second batch.



ó Besides these climate problems, ink mist canalso form, soiling the press and posing a threatto the health of those working on the press, asthe patent application explains.

Air duct elements therefore run into the pressunits in such a way that these elements can car-ry away any air accumulating in the vicinity ofthe press units, according to the application.

BUILD-UP-FREE OPERATION. According tothe developer, this invention is the first to pro-pose air duct elements running into the pressunits of a web offset press so that air accumu-lating in the region of the press units can becarried away. It should make it possible to:ó effectively counter the build up of warm

and possibly humid air in the vicinity ofthe press units.

ó create ambient conditions that arefavourable for the printing process in thevicinity of the press units in a simple andstraightforward way.

ó It is also claimed that there is no risk of aweb offset press being soiled as a result ofink mist.

ó Another important consequence is that itshould be possible to prevent the risks to

the health of people working on presses, asthe application further states.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS. If one looks atthe further developments of the invention, inone of them sections of the air duct elementrun roughly horizontally in the tunnel of thepress unit above and/or below the forme cylin-der and the transfer cylinder and the horizon-tal sections join vertical sections of the air ductelements.

Air is carried away from the vicinity of thepress units along the horizontal sections of theair duct elements and this air is then removedvia the vertical air duct elements.

Ideally, the air carried away from the pressunits is cleaned by at least one filter. The clean-

ing of this air by at least one filter is recom-mended because it can prevent ink extractedfrom the press units along with the air fromreaching the surroundings.

A further development of the invention envis-ages, for example, that cladding and/or protec-tive fittings designed as hollow componentsshould form the horizontal sections of the airduct elements and/or the vertical sections ofthe air duct element.Then, if cladding and/or protective fittingsdesigned as hollow components form the hor-izontal and/or vertical sections of the air ductelements, existing components can be used tocarry air away from the press units. Conse-quently, access to the press units is not furtherimpaired by the air duct elements, as the appli-cation further explains.

IMPROVED CLIMATE. The additional fittings onthe press units should have the effect of enclos-ing the press units so that warm and possiblyhumid air can be collected in the vicinity of thepress units. Given the current state of press tech-nology the effect of the resulting climatic con-ditions is detrimental to a stable printing process.In order to be able to carry away the air col-lecting in the vicinity of the press units, a weboffset press as envisaged by the invention has airduct elements running into the press units. Asthe application further explains, the developeris convinced that warm and/or humid air gath-ering in the vicinity of the press units can be sim-ply and reliably carried away from the pressunits by these air duct elements, so that an accu-mulation of warm and possibly humid air inthe vicinity of the press units can be counter-acted; creating a climate that makes a stableprinting process possible. Frank Lohmann

A web offset press with no heat build-upand no ink mistPATENTS AND REGISTERED DESIGNS ó Web offset presses generate heat as a result of many different factors.This, combined with enclosure of the press units, can result in the build up of warm air and in high levels of ambienthumidity (nearly 100%). Such conditions are detrimental to a stable printing process. The invention describes a weboffset press that should allow such problems to be dealt with.

The air duct element serving a press tower (14 or 15) has horizontal sections so that each horizontal sec-tion runs in a tunnel of a press unit (13) beneath the forme cylinder and the transfer cylinder in the pressunit in question. Alternatively or additionally it is also possible, according to the patent application, forsections of the air duct elementto run horizontally above theforme cylinder and the transfercylinder in the tunnel of the pressunit in question. In addition, thehorizontal sections of the air ductelement running into the pressunit should join vertical sectionsof the air channel element. The airremoved from the press unitsshould then be carried away fromthe press towers by the latter. Inthis arrangement, the horizontalsections of the air duct elementthat run into the verticallystacked press units of an individ-ual tower join a common verticalsection of the air duct element inquestion.

DD SERIESIDEAS FORTOMORROW’S TECHNOLOGYWe provide a look at patent and registereddesign activities in our industry. In thisissue: Manroland Web Systems GmbH,86153, Augsburg – Patent application,document No. DE102011015306A1

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CUsTomErs & mArKETs


ó Print management is a purchasing service inwhich the print manager acts as a middlemanand expert adviser between the customer andprint service provider, handling the pre-financingof print jobs and charging the customer. Cus-tomers are offered permanent account managerswho advise them on all (print) media questions.These account may either be seconded to the cus-tomer’s own premises or be based in the printmanager’s offices.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME. The term print man-agement is used in differing ways by us and thedistinction between it and the print broker isunclear. The classic print broker tends to be a free-lance or commercial representative active innational markets. Now, however, there are Germancompanies offering print management servicesthat refer to themselves as print brokers.

Print management is not to be confused with‘print(er) management’, which is a service focus-ing on a company’s digital printers and copiers,and which relates to (office) printers.Advertising agencies also offer to handle the sourc-ing of printed matter and the customer benefitsfrom having just a single contact for the produc-tion of a print job. It is, however, rare to find printmedia campaigns being handled internationallyin this way.

Printers too may in some cases act as print man-agers in order to expand their range of services andto increase customer loyalty on a national level.Print managers are primarily characterized bytheir international nature. They offer internation-ally active companies who are looking to achieveconsistent brand management a network of spe-

cialist consultants and a broad supplier base inseveral countries. Contracts are generally drawnup for a trial period and then for a number ofyears (usually 2 to 5) and frequently guaranteesavings for customers.

PRINT MANAGEMENT CUSTOMERS. Customersfor print management services are secured throughlarge-scale international invitations to tender towhich print managers respond by determiningand submitting the lowest prices from their sup-plier base.

Typical customers are international companiesfrom all industries that use print advertising andwho buy anything from €1 million and up. Thefinance sector (24%) and retail (23%) account forthe largest shares of the market volume handledby print managers. Travel and leisure accountsfor 10%, whilst publishing (periodicals, books,advertising printing, forms and POS) and govern-ment each account for 9%. Telecommunicationsand IT account for 7% and the pharmaceuticalindustry is responsible for the smallest share of 5%.The remaining 14% is made up of other industriesand service providers, including the motor vehi-cle industry.

THE PRODUCT SPECTRUM. Printed products ofall kinds are handled, including marketing print,corporate printed matter, POS, print-on-demandproducts, magazines and company reports.

Around half of the print volume handled byprint management in Germany falls into the cat-egory of magazines, newspapers and books. Officeitems and forms together with mailings accountfor 10% apiece, labels and packaging as well as

document management for 6% each. Printedadvertising accounts for only 5% of print manage-ment volume, whilst POS products make up 3%.The remaining 12% consists of various productssuch as security printing, envelopes, plastic cards,wallpapers and so on.

The range of services includes the logis-tics services involved in the distribution ofprinted products, mailing fulfilment, adver-tising material sourcing and distributed print-ing across national frontiers. Comprehensivereporting is a fundamental part of the package. Onthe other hand, the services provided by a printmanager generally include little or no creativeinput and they do not offer the classic agencyservice.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES. Theadvantages for the customer are, firstly, a techni-cally knowledgeable contact (especially in coun-tries where, unlike Germany, there is no widelybased professional training in the graphic arts). Bybeing able to call on a larger network, such con-tacts are able to handle peaks in work withoutany problem and without the final customer hav-ing to provide specialist buyers to cope.

Another advantage is the ability to tap intoknowledge of local markets and prices, togetherwith international supplier management, crossborder reporting of print costs and product cate-gories, supplier turnovers and coordinated (andmulti-national) campaign planning with logis-tics. The conclusion of framework agreementsand other measures for contractually agreed lev-

Print management customers: opportunityor risk for print service providers?PRINT MANAGEMENT ó In 2008 the German printing market was worth somewhere in excess of €30 billion and 9%of this was handled by print managers. A study by Pira International forecast an 18 % increase in the volume of printmanagement orders by 2013. Print management is a service concept that has been well established in the UK for some35 years and it has been making headway in Germany for the last ten years or so.

The print manage-ment market in Ger-many broken down byproduct groups. Theleading categories arenewspapers, maga-zines and books.

’’Print management is not to beconfused with print(er) manage-ment, which is a service dealingwith digital printer and copierassets in companies.

Newspapers, magazines, books

Printed advertising

Point of Sale (POS)

Office items and forms

Labels and packaging

Mailings

Document management

CUsTomErs & mArKTEs

Deutscher Drucker International Edition| April 2013 19

THE AUTHOR

Carola Lammich,master ofBusiness Consulting (m.BC.)and Dipl.-Ing. (FH) PrintingTechnology, has manyyears of experience in theprinting industry and printmanagement. Today she isan independent profes-sional.

≥ [email protected]

els of cost savings should help customers to achievetargets for purchasing savings. In addition, it is pos-sible to achieve a beneficial reduction in the sup-plier base without any loss in the level of serv-ice. Demanding activities such as print accept-ance, supplier qualification, on and off site, andquality control are also undertaken by print man-agers. Long payment terms and, possibly, consol-idated statements simplify payment procedures.

IT’S NOT JUST CUSTOMERS WHO PROFIT.The advantages to printers of working with printmanagers can include access to new customers andjobs that would not otherwise be within reach.Then there are higher order volumes and a widercustomer base without the need for any exter-nal sales force activity. It may also be possible toconclude price list based framework agreementsthat minimize time intensive estimating. On topof this there is access to favourable terms forpaper.

Access to Europe-wide requests and tendersthrough the print manager is another benefit forthe printer, who would otherwise not enjoy suchmarket access or who would only do so with con-siderable sales effort. Quotation enquiries areexpertly checked by the print managers staff andclarified with the customer so that the work theprinter has to do in this area can be minimized.

THE DOWN SIDE FOR PRINTERS. The disadvan-tages and risks for printers are payment timesthat are often long, especially in the case of Britishprint managers. There is little direct contact withthe final customer, which means that the widercustomer base cannot be actively integrated intoselling processes. There are longer communica-tion paths in the case of queries, since, in gen-eral, the print manager has to be contacted first.However, this is not that uncommon in the caseof jobs being handled by advertising agencies.

The processes by which the print manageritself wins customers often involve substantial ten-ders. These in turn involve requests to print serv-ice providers for prices and this can place a con-siderable estimating burden on the printer’s staff.The products for which quotes are required areusually printed items from previous years that are

documented but they will not necessarily berepeated precisely as they were.

So, in addition to these quotations, up to theminute prices for printed products will also berequested. As a result many quotation requestswill be received. Some of these will not have

been adequately filtered in relation to the rangeof service offered by the print service providerin question and many will not result in a job.

The narrowing of margins should also not beforgotten, since a part of the in any case tightmargin is creamed off by the print manager.However, this is also the case with other inter-mediaries such as advertising agencies. A down-ward price spiral is made worse by intensive,Europe-wide competition. However, this alsoaffects printers whose previously direct cus-tomers begin to work with a print manager orwho begin to do their own print buying on aEurope-wide scale.

WELL-KNOWN SUPPLIERS. In terms of sales,the big players in print management includeRR Donnelley, Williams Lea (Deutsche Post),Workflow One, Standard Register, Pitney Bowes;suppliers who are best known for office itemssuch as Office Depot and Corporate Express;companies known from the copier/digital print-ing segment such as Xerox, Océ and Ricoh with

a specific print management segment, as well asmid-sized suppliers such as Adare, Communi-sis, HH Global, Banner Managed Communica-tion, Charterhouse and others.

MARKET TRENDS: SEE PRINTING INDUSTRY.Print managers are exposed to the same markettrends as those facing the printing industry itself.These include the altered perception and valueput on printed products, technological aspectssuch as the migration of advertising budgetsonline and mobile advertising, as well as thedemand for cost-neutral, environmentally friend-ly products.

The margins for sharing between print serviceprovider and print manager are slim and theprice pressure applied by the customer high. Thenational infrastructure a print manager needsto build up in order to be able to serve customerslocally is expensive.

The pre-financing of jobs by the print man-ager can result in gaps in financing and so printmanagers may strive to keep payment times totheir suppliers longer than the terms they haveagreed with their customers.

Together with the European trend to longerand longer payment times, this can pose prob-lems for printers. Since materials account foraround 50 per cent of an order, they will alsohave to pre-finance a not inconsiderable propor-tion of the order volume, but cannot in generalimpose longer payment periods on their ownsuppliers

DECIDE FOR YOURSELF. So, does it pay to workwith a print manager? You need to pose the fol-lowing questions:ó How much could you save on your external

sales force expenditure as a result?ó How high does your margin have to be for

the business to pay?ó How long a payment time can you cope

with?ó What order volume might you probably

achieve?ó Could you save costs through the print man-

ager’s paper buying terms?ó How are you going to check how economi-

cally successful the cooperation is? Howmuch is your print management customerworth?

The print manage-ment market in Ger-many broken down bycustomer groups,with retail and finan-cial service providersat the top.

one disadvantage is when print managers take 120days to pay, which means printers have to pre-finance their paper for long periods.

Retail

Telecom & IT

Finance sectorPharmaceuticals

Publishing

Government

Travel and leisure

Other

Payment times for industrial customers 90 days

Payment times for print managers 90 days

Payment times for papersupplier 30 days

Finance gap:90 days for the material

component (c. 50%)

cases of damage the printing industry · 2019-12-26 · 2013 by rivet of limoges (f), whilst a...

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