OREANDA-NEWS. Fujifilm “Jet Press Print Innovation Award” was given at drupa2016. In picture from right CEO Francisco Martinez, and CEO of FFGS Sei Yoshida.

Fujifilm today announces that highly-regarded German commercial print company, Straub Druck + Medien AG, a trailblazer in digital printing since 2006, has placed an order for a second Jet Press 720S making it one of the first companies in Europe to install two Jet Press 720S presses. The company installed their first machine in late 2014, with CEO Francisco Martinez describing the investment at the time as the company's first real step towards becoming an all-digital print-house. One year on, it is well on the way to achieving that goal with the addition of a second Jet Press 720S.

Says Francisco Martinez, CEO, Straub Druck + Medien AG: “Since we installed the first Jet Press at the end of 2014, the overall volume of work produced digitally has been rapidly increasing. Around 65% of our work is now printed digitally and we expect this figure to reach 80% by 2018. The performance and quality produced by the Jet Press has been outstanding and it is for this reason that we have taken the decision to invest in a second press to help us meet the continued growth in our digital services.

“With the first press, we've been able to offer considerably better value to our customers on a price per page basis than ever before, while keeping the quality of the product consistently high. Magazines and calendars make up a substantial proportion of our work, so many of the features the Jet Press offers, such as collated printing, have been invaluable.”

The ultra-high quality achievable on the Jet Press has meant that Straub Druck + Medien has also been able to generate new business opportunities across a range of new markets, including the production of bespoke magazines for high-end watch makers. “The level of detail required for this sort of work makes the Jet Press the ideal platform with which to present these customers and products,” Martinez says.

Founded over 130 years ago, Straub Druck + Medien AG is based in Schramberg in the Black Forest, and employs over 90 people. The company produces a range of high-quality printed products, both long and short run, including annual reports, brochures, scratch-and-sniff calendars and mailings for regional, national and international customers. It also offers a wide variety of processing and finishing options for all applications.

“We are delighted with how things are progressing,” continues Martinez. “By the end of our first year operating the first Jet Press 720S, we had turned over roughly one million euros on the machine, with a large proportion of that revenue being new business we would not otherwise have been able to accept. We have also seen some existing customers migrate from offset processes to take advantage of the inkjet service now available, and jobs move from other digital presses when the very highest level of quality is required. With up-time of over 70-85%, we have found the Jet Press 720S to be a highly productive machine, more than up to the challenge of meeting this increased demand.

“We have also now been able to introduce a web-to-print service due to the high level of efficiency offered by the Jet Press, and profitably accommodate the very short runs often associated with web-to-print. We've seen this service grow rapidly and expect to see a further 80-90% increase in volume over the coming year. The installation of the second Jet Press will give us the capacity to meet the demands generated by this growth.”

Martinez has also been very complimentary of the service and support received from Fujifilm over the past year and cites this as one of the reasons for the investment in the second press. “We've had very few problems with the Jet Press since we made the initial investment, but on the rare occasions there has been an issue, Fujifilm's service has been exemplary. Whenever we have required technical support we have received same day or next day assistance.”

“We're delighted with the positive impact the Jet Press 720S has had on Straub Druck + Medien's business so far and are naturally very pleased to see that the performance of the first press has already resulted in an order for a second press.” says Taro Aoki, Head of Digital Press Solutions, Fujifilm Europe. “It's a huge vote of confidence in Fujifilm inkjet technology and our B2 inkjet proposition. We are also delighted to announce that Straub Druck has received a new award launched this year, the “Jet Press Print Innovation Award”. This Award has been created to highlight and promote those companies who are doing particularly creative and innovative work on the Jet Press platform, and Straub Druck's profitable partnership with Fujifilm makes it a worthy winner.”

Aoki concludes, “Straub Druck & Medien leads a rapidly growing group of printers right across Europe who have come to recognise the unique benefits that a B2 inkjet press, and the Jet Press 720S in particular, provides. Customers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands have seen these benefits first hand, and many more are in line to join them in the coming year. The growing success of the Jet Press 720S shows that it is a market-proven platform for real print production, and that its quality has become the new de-facto standard for commercial and packaging print.”