Customer Testimonial

:Dotrix user Packaging Printer

Company: Unigraph Location: Brazil

SMS Target profitable growth with :Dotrix 2

Customer Testimonial

:Dotrix SMS Target profitable growth with :Dotrix

Brazilian packaging group invest in :Dotrix

SMS Impressao Digital is a new company formed by the merger of three respected Brazilian print groups. Unigraph, Geograph and Insight are all highly experienced in the packaging, label and POS/POP market. Although the companies had prospered in recent years they had all seen the same trends and pressures in their market. One trend that concerned them the most was the movement towards lower run lengths which meant that large portions of the short/medium run length markets were becoming loss-making activities or (at best) break-even.

New challenges faced by packaging printers

It was clear to the SMS management team that new strategies would be needed to succeed and that digital print technologies would be required to address the challenges being faced in the competitive and rapidly changing packaging market. Profit margins were decreasing as quickly as run lengths. Print buyers/brand owners were demanding increased levels of product quality, design innovation, shorter lead times as well as the ability to use variable data for increasing numbers of jobs.

As individual businesses, each of the three SMS founders had a lot of expertise to offer

Unigraph had been successful for 15 years in the packaging industry as a service bureau

providing plates, film and digital data for the label and folding carton market.

Geograf had been a leading supplier of POS materials, displays, signage and some folding

cartons.

Insight were one of the first regional printers to offer banners and posters to the food retailers

and supermarkets. They already had some experience of digital print though this was with

some of the earlier inkjet devices.

SMS Target profitable growth with :Dotrix 3

Customer Testimonial

The owners of the three companies knew their market had become tougher than ever before and felt that combining the three organisations would give them the best chance of success. SMS was born and soon it became clear that their future profitability would hinge on their ability to implement digital press technology.

Production speed is the key

“We need more capacity at the right quality. We need to produce many orders of short jobs. In Brazil the trend is towards shorter runs but more of them, it is a big problem for offset“explained Mr Michele one of the SMS owners. “We knew we needed extra manufacturing capacity with speed and quality to profit and grow in the coming years”

The Brazilian packaging market is changing dramatically, but has many of the same issues and challenges faced by packaging printers in other parts of the world. Retail is becoming increasingly competitive. Unlike other parts of the print market that are being replaced with the electronic word, the packaging market can never be replaced. The right packaging and brand management strategies have a direct financial return for the brands they support. The new generation of print buyers and brand owners are facing their own ‘battle of the shelves’, requiring frequent production of fresh new test designs. Shorter run length jobs and more of them is a global trend that will continue to pose profitability problems for traditional press technology whilst creating opportunities for those with digital presses.

SMS - working in partnership with top brands

SMS work with a number of well known brand leaders in Latin America, such as Carrefour, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and others. Staying at the top of the market meant adapting to the changing needs. If SMS could satisfy the demands of the top brands they would continue to grow even though many other packaging printers were seeing eroding profit margins. SMS knew that the new trends and demands in packaging would force them to invest in a digital press and they had three main targets that they set themselves. At the outset SMS wanted to be the first with UV digital inkjet in their market. Next they wanted speed of production, they needed to improve capacity and needed the digital benefits that would allow them to produce lots of short and medium run length work profitably. Thirdly, SMS needed to improve their flexibility. They needed the flexibility to turn work around within shorter timeframes and they needed the flexibility to offer UV-quality print on a wider variety of printed substrates.

SMS Target profitable growth with :Dotrix 4

Customer Testimonial

Print buyers and brand owners in the South American market were looking for more diversification in the types of materials they could use in their packaging. Print buyers also knew that they could take cost out of the packaging supply chain by reducing inventories and placing orders on a ‘just in time’ basis. The challenge for SMS was to understand which type of digital press would have the specification and design to help them achieve all of this.

SMS decide on high speed UV inkjet

“We looked at all the different digital press technologies available” said Mr Michele “but the Agfa :Dotrix was the one that combined high speed with UV and variable data. UV is important because of the wide variety of materials it can work with – it gives us the ability to innovate. Solvent inks will disappear in a few years for environmental reasons and performance issues, we had to choose UV.”

Agfa arranged to take SMS to visit Gardners, a successful and progressive English printer that was already using :Dotrix. The visit was a chance for SMS to see the :Dotrix in a genuine production environment and SMS liked what they saw. “I saw the :Dotrix working all day long without stopping and the owner told me it was the most important machine he had, at that point I was happy” said Mr Michele “.. Although my business partner already knew the :Dotrix was the right choice before the visit to Gardners”

Digital UV inkjet – the key to future success

After the visit to Gardners, SMS went to Belgium where they met the :Dotrix team. With the right type of digital press selected and personal assurances from Agfa HQ they knew they had made the right decision “I could observe that Agfa was a technology company developing many new products, I was also impressed by the M-Press and their inkjet technology in general. We liked the

SMS Target profitable growth with :Dotrix 5

Customer Testimonial

flexibility of the Dotrix. It can work with such a variety of substrates. :Dotrix will be the automatic choice for all the printing on vinyl and plastics” said Mr Michele “but it will also allow us to remain profitable for short and medium run length work in general”

The Agfa :Dotrix has a full 65cm roll width and can produce 1200m²/hour with many of its users operating the device on a 24-hour basis. It is roll-fed like a normal press and can print on almost any substrate. Because the :Dotrix is built on the chassis of a flexo press it can

integrate easily with all the standard coaters, dryers, slitters etc used in the production of traditional flexo packaging. The combination of speed, near-offset quality, UV inks and the wide choice of printing substrates meant that SMS had reached the logical conclusion in their quest for new production capacity.

SMS are at the start of their journey with digital UV press technology but know that they have made the right choice. “:Dotrix is the only way to deal with the requirements for short and medium runs. We can differentiate and make new products, we can do this with UV inks and new substrates to make unique offerings. When this goes well we will buy another :Dotrix and then you can interview me again !” concluded a happy Mr Michele. We will take him up on the offer......