Labels online: the qualitative leap

ON DEMAND Pixartprinting powers up its label web-to-print service, investing in dedicated latest generation equipment. Objective: ensure flexibility and maximum quality on both very short runs as well as with larger lots while printing on any material, with on-time delivery and “web” type costs.

A pioneering beginning (Matteo Rigamonti founded the company in 1994, when web2print was in its infancy); an impetuous and surprising growth (32 million in sales in 2011, +42% on 2010, and 180 employees); 80 thousand customers across Europe, with a progressively growing export share; an average of 3,000 orders a day; a machine yard without equal. This is how Pixartprinting looks today, but given its propensity for development, it is reasonable to expect the company will change again and again... It will also be interesting to see how, after the recent sale of 75% of its shares to the investment fund Alcedo, operation aimed at financing a five year growth plan, that aims at 100 million of turnover and perhaps even a listing on the Borsa.
The Venetian company’s impetus is powered by the continuous upgrade of tools and systems: the latest investment involves label printing and intend also responding to the demand for quality products in "long" runs (namely tens of thousands of pieces every service), with delivery times within a few days and at competitive prices. Matteo Rigamonti, who heads the company as president, and general manager Alessandro Tenderini, spoke to us about operations underway during a recent visit to Drupa 2012, namely “the” world printing technologies showcase.
 
You have always supplied web2print labels. Hence, what will change in Pixartprinting’s offer after the recent investments?
Rigamonti We have set up an entire dedicated department, centring on highly flexible state-of-the-art equipment and specifically designed for labeling, which also allows us to print from reel and on media of any kind with 3 picolitres of ink in hexachrome. Up to now we have produced excellent labels, exploiting useful characteristics of printers and cutting systems created for other types of processes, but also being held back by sheet-fed systems, the limited variety of printable materials and not very resistant printing inks. With the new Espon SurePress L-4033°, combined with a Sei Laser cutting system, we can however speedily and inexpensively produce longer runs on natural or gloss coated paper or PP films. In addition, adding orange and green to the traditional four color process, we can reproduce almost all Pantone hues.

The quality of the finished work is also very high. This machine uses high density inks that, even though waterbased, are resin coated providing a result incomparably superior in terms of stability, gloss, scratch resistance as well as resistance to light and weathering. They are also food contact approved and therefore suited for a sector comprising tens of thousands of small-to-medium-sized enterprises that truly need products on demand, be these labels, tags or whatever.
 
More quality hence, but also more quantity and variety. Will prices change?
Tenderini No. Indeed in fact the Epson works at a slower speed to other printers (about 5 m/min) but at the same time it requires a much lower investment and, therefore in the end, production costs per square meter do not change. The price of the particular type of ink to be used on this machine however is significantly higher than average, but the qualitative result is so superior that we decided to foot the extra cost ourselves... and hence nothing changes for the customer.
Moreover, our success is based on excellent production and zero defects: contacts with customers via web and fast delivery times do not leave room to address any errors. Not to mention the fact that, called upon to fulfil thousands of orders a day, even a small percentage of complaints would block our workflow, that has to proceed without hitches.
 
What market objectives have you set for your company?
Rigamonti These days Pixartprinting primarily serves printers and converters and in this context labels generate about 5% of total company turnover. Thanks to the potential of the new equipment, with which we also produce tags and many other variants of the label as such, we aim to increase this product line. We believe that this is what the market needs. The operators rarely find it worthwhile to invest hundreds of thousands of euros in equipment to produce prototypes and the odd reprint or, at most, small batches of well-printed labels. Turning to us therefore they have immediate benefits, which also include transparency and clarity regarding our rates, unbeatable prices and guaranteed delivery times. Hence I am confident as to the good prospects of this service.
 
Do you also work abroad?
Tenderini Yes a bit all over Europe, and increasingly so. There is ample room for growth and Pixartprinting has all the features necessary to consolidate a position of prominence. Across the continent there are no more than 4 or 5 services able to compete in design and supply capacity, and I don’t know if any of these can claim to have the facilities we have. Moreover, thanks to the fact that in recent years, carriers have lowered their tariffs, shipping costs in Italy and abroad are virtually identical. Indeed, in our opinion, is not fair to ask different prices for delivery to say Paris or Palermo if the distance from the works is the same.
 
Has the visit to Drupa opened new prospects? Did you "discover" technologies and equipment that you did not know about?
Rigamonti Drupa is a great show, to the point where I stayed longer than I originally intended. I must say though that we did not make any great "discoveries", both because we always pay great attention to technological innovation and because at fairs, as a rule, companies bring machines that have already been presented in various ways in advance.
Aside from the spectacular "launch" of the new color reproduction system developed by Landa, we indeed saw many fine machines that though we already knew or that we have even already bought. We already installed the best offset presses, wide format as well as the Epson label printers months back and the reasons for this are clear: our growth prospects in labeling are based on the performance of the new line, and the products we print in offset owe their competitiveness to the efficiency of the two new Komori 8-color presses, with their two minutes of start-up, compared to the 20 or 30 minutes of some years back. Having said that in fact we have made some purchases this year. These are two new 42 plate/h basysPrint CTPs to empower our offset department, all to the benefit of our service capabilities and hence directly for the benefit of our customers.                                      

PIXARTPRINTING: THE SERVICES THE COMPANY OFFERS The Quarto d'Altino (VE) based company prints and "finishes" any type of product: small format (magazines, catalogues, postcards, stickers, labels, brochures), large format (posters, displays) and packaging, including cartons and boxes. Its recognized service capacity is based on a well-oiled organization and on a broad and highly updated yard of offset and digital printing and finishing machines. Feather in the company's cap, the strict respect of delivery times, with shipments within 24, 48, 72 hours or (if for those who want to pay even less) within 7 working days.

The person is there.
You can sense it
The web-to-print service is based on speed, efficiency and cost-saving on a "short chain", which eliminates travel and negotiations, thus reducing both contact and production times and costs. Thus on www.pixartprinting.it the customer can directly choose the product to be made, the characteristics and timing of delivery, can formalise the order, start production, follow the procedures ... and make the payment.
Sometimes, however, this is not enough. For some users it is important that "behind" a site there are people to interact with, because it reassures as to the real substance of a company and especially because this enables any possible doubts to be solved quickly and clearly.
Pixartprinting knows this and, along with its longstanding helpline in the local language, it has recently added an online chatline that helps, step-by-step, to identify the product, draw up an estimate, format and transfer the print files and do whatever else is needed. And now, on its YouTube channel, it has published what it calls “Videopills”, video-clips dedicated to major aspects of printing, descsribed off-screen by an expert who explains the steps of processing, offers advice and reveals the tricks of the trade. The objective is clear: to teach people  to correctly prepare the print files to facilitate the use of online services. The “Videopills”, currently being translated and implemented at the other Italian Pixartprinting sites, follow on from the opening of the Facebook Italia page that since September, has already surpassed 14,000 "likes".