Web2Print: letters to the users

To plan, decide, order and buy "printing" via web without having to meet the service provider, of course at competitive prices, is now a regular feature also in Italy. And it is beginning to catch on in the labeling world. In what instances? With what limitations and benefits? Matteo Rigamonti, founder of PixartPrinting and pioneer of Italian web-to-print, answers questions from our editorial staff. And, from the next issue onwards, also from our readers.

Web-to-print is a special form of outsourcing, founded as a competitive alternative to "traditional" printing. It is a field where PixartPrinting has very quickly gained a reputation as a supplier of excellence. What is your competitive edge?
Web-to-print prices plus extreme speed and guaranteed response and delivery. But most of all – and this is our most obvious distinguishing trait - excellent quality, capable of satisfying even the most demanding requirements.

For example?
A typical example involves printing labels that, in general, must be of high quality even for mass market products. PixartPrinting has dedicated an entire company division to labeling, with ad hoc structure, operations and technologies. This means we are able to supply all kinds of product on demand to both labeling works and companies, particularly in the food & beverage sector.

What in particular is the label printing service based on?
The correct understanding of customer requirements and an up-to-the-minute machine yard, of which our technicians know how to best exploit the potential. A facilities at this level, with a wise management of the flow, allows us to run both sample quantities as well as batches of thousands of pieces, with times and costs that fear no comparison.

We have made an indepth analysis of the labels marked and the business is seen to be concentrated in the hands of a few large companies that produce at industrial level, accompanied by a host of fragmented small businesses that certainly have very high start-up costs. This is the reason that drove us to create a digital label department to enter this market, aiming at ancillary demand, which we believe has a lot of room for growth. We address these situations by applying the same principle that lies at the very heart of our business model - competitive costs, high quality and fast delivery.

What type of processes do you carry out? And with what equipment?
At the moment we refrain from engaging in special finishing work and focus on perfect execution of simple labels in limited quantities, ie those typically required by companies in the start-up phase or related to promotional and image campaigns.

As for our machine yard, we just need to mention as emblematic the latest super versatile Sei Laser cutting and finishing system, with which we can easily produce labels in any format, and the new Epson SurePress L-4033°: a reel-fed machine capable of printing on different media (currently glossy coated paper, uncoated paper and PP), that works in six colors (CMYK + orange and green), allowing us to reproduce more than 90% of the Pantone range. This Epson what is more uses high density inks (3 picolitres) that, even though waterbased, are resin coated and provide a result incomparably superior in terms of stability, gloss, scratch resistance as well as resistance to light and weathering. And they are food contact approved.

The Italian food industry consists of about 30,000 single companies and 30,000 individual micro converting businesses, 6,500 small firms, 200 medium-sized enterprises, only 10 large companies: a very high potential target for the on demand label printing service offered by Pixartprinting.