DI Press Eliminates Outsourced Czech Printing

Presstek has successfully integrated one of its 34DI press at MHA Outsourcing, one of the largest outsourcing services for business products and services in the Czech Republic.

Presstek has successfully integrated one of its 34DI press at MHA Outsourcing, one of the largest outsourcing services for business products and services in the Czech Republic.

A few years ago, MHA recognised the opportunity for a new value-added service.

The company was responsible for delivery of promotional literature to its customers' numerous branches.

The print products were being printed by conventional printers and it took four to five months to execute the mailing campaign.

MHA decided to offer a full service to its clients by printing, as well as delivering, documents.

The work was initially handled by outsourcing to offset print ships.

As the number of customers grew and the company expanded, MHS realised that it would be more effective to bring the print work in-house, particularly in the case of fast turn-around, limited volume jobs.

The company's first acquisition was a Xerox Docucolor 2060 digital press, which provided limited digital print capacity, but MHA was still not able to print small jobs at short notice.

MHA chose to buy a Presstek 34DI digital offset press equipped with direct-to-press technology and laser imaging.

Petr Hendrych, one of the co-founders of MHA, commented: "Before purchasing the Presstek DI press, we did not have a true in-house press - 99 per cent of the job orders were still being outsourced.

All activities of MHA are dictated by our clients' demands and the need for quality and speed increased tremendously.

At the same time, cost efficiency is a must." He added: "Clients no longer order large volume of materials for storage - the time when customers purchased all their printed materials for the following year in advance is long gone.

MHA needs to print digitally and in low volume - this prompted the acquisition of the Presstek 34DI." Petr Hendrych was impressed by demonstrations he had seen of DI technology in 2004, said Presstek.

When he saw the 34DI in action at Ipex 2006, he knew it was time to act.

Prior to the acquisition, MHA outsourced almost 100 per cent of its print jobs but today, the new press has reduced dependence on outside contractors and ensured a new sense of technical autonomy, believes the company.

Hendrych said: "The purchase of the Presstek press enabled us to truly establish our own offset printing facility - we are no longer totally dependent on outsourcing.

We can handle our own pre-press data processing and for finishing we are equipped with a puncher and a cutter.

There are plans to purchase a folder and a saddle-stitching machine.

In the near future, we intend to purchase a perfect binding machine as well." The new press was installed in June.

The company said that the size of the 34DI press made it easy to integrate in to MHA's existing production set-up.

Hendrych cited new advantages of flexibility, speed, low waste produce, as well as easy handling.

The 34DI press is automated and it digitally images all four plates simultaneously on-press and utilises Presstek Profire Excel 16 micron laser imaging and Profire Digital Media, which is said to provide 120 lines per centiemetre (300 linesd per inch) and FM and stochastic printing.

The Presstek 34DI has enabled MHA to effectively handle a variety of job types, using both process (CMYK) and spot (Pantone) colours.

Typical orders are leaflets, brochures and envelopes.

The 34DI is equipped with a Palone feeder, which is said to increase the speed of envelope printing.

MHA can print the same motif on both the envelope and the printed material to be inserted, with identical high results.

The press is also used to produce packaging, folded materials and labels, for instance.

The water-free offset printing technology is claimed to be especially suitable for printing on a variety of product labels.

MHA is currently experimenting with 3D printing on plastic.

Another advantage of the Presstek 34DI is said to be the capability to produce versioned documents.

"Clients often demand different versions of the same publication, for example and the product is distributed to a variety of locations," said Petr Hendrych.

Most incoming job orders are placed electronically and most customers supply pre-press data produced in-house or by their graphic design agencies.

Simple designs are created on-line through templates at MHA's web site.

MHA intends to expand this function, as the process of template preparation has proven to be very efficient.

Proofs are checked in PDF format, electronically.

Presstek commented that DI technology is chemistry-free and is environment-friendly.

According to Petr Hendrych, an increasing number of MHA's customers are showing an active interest in the impact of technology on the environment.

He added: "Some customers even make environmentally friendly production one of the required specifications in their job orders." MHA is a member of EKO-KOM, an association whose focus is the safe processing of waste.

Building on New Opportunities MHA recognised that large banks tend to outsource a variety of other services.

By adding flexible print services for its clients, MHA said it has tapped in to a profitable new revenue stream.

Hendrych explained: "Outsourcing is playing an increasingly important role in our business development.

New outsourcing projects are developed in close cooperation with clients.

Prices of materials are discussed with the client, as well as the value added services and the final price of the product.

Our business process is entirely transparent and the ultimate goal is to bring economic benefit to both sides." The new Presstek 34DI has significantly boosted print capacity at MHA.

There are also plans to invest in finishing processes and book binding with the goal to set up a modern, automatic bookbinding department.

Those enhancements are intended to produce improved service for the company's customers.

Petr Hendrych observed: "Presstek is a top supplier of modern technologies and it has proven to be an excellent partner in our goal to deliver the highest quality of services and products to our customers." MHA was founded in 1992 as an advertising agency providing graphic services.

The company has evolved by strategically broadening its services in response to customer demands, said Presstek.

Today MHA's core business is a delivery service for a range of office supplies, from pens and pre-printed envelopes to printed materials, for businesses and financial organisations in the Czech Republic and other countries.

Its headquarters in Humpolec employs about 70 people.

Typical customers are leading Czech banks and insurance companies.

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