Owners Sylwia and Miroslaw Dudek with their new press
Family-owned label operation Primera Polska has invested in a Mark Andy Digital One label press, the first in Continental Europe. The unit has been installed at the company’s Zory production facility, in the southern region of Poland.
The company, which began as a print broker and moved into production of short run labels in 2012, decided that it needed to increase its capacity for runs of 500-5000 labels printed in four-colour process. The press offers CMYK toner printing and an inline flexo unit for varnish or cold foil as well as a die-cutting station.
Affectionately known to the team as ‘Madox’, the press has increased capacity since May by over 800%. According to Primera, this allows the company to better serve customers by offering 24-hour lead time on most jobs.
The company has a strict policy of keeping spare capacity for its premier customers, and has a select portfolio of sought-after label work that takes great care to retain. Currently, a large proportion of its book of business comes from the electronic cigarette market. Labels in this segment are normally smaller format and require incredibly fine type.
According to co-owner Sylwia Dudek, ‘The main benefits of the Digital One are that it can handle a variety of standard substrates without the need for pre-treatment – and without a click charge to pay, the only cost we incur is the inexpensive toner.’ The Mark Andy also has a very low power requirement, needing only 220V of single phase power during full-production mode. ‘We have noticed little increase in our monthly electricity usage since we installed it,’ she added.
Her husband, Miroslaw Dudek, who is responsible for the technical side of the company, is quick to praise the versatility of the Digital One. From unwind, through web cleaning to CMYK digital printing, he said the press is easy to understand and operate from its central touchscreen panel. He explained, ‘The flexo station allows us to apply varnish or add a spot colour, and the laminating unit allows us to use linerless material. There is a UV lamp for curing, and the rotary die station uses easy to change magnetic dies. After that, the matrix is removed, and the finished web rewound – simple, and all in one pass!’
Key to Mark Andy securing the order was the fact that Digital One is an all-inclusive label production solution, offering inline converting and finishing at an affordable price point. Typically, Primera uses the digital label press to produce 125,000 labels of 200 different designs in under two hours. This complex, highly versioned job mix keeps the company’s staff of 12 busy, with five employed at the digital facility, and another seven at a nearby factory that houses water-based and UV flexo presses.
