At Printikett one likes small runs

It took seven years for Printikett Sweden to find the right digital equipment. Now they print digital labels like never before and the customers just continue to come.

In an old school outside Malmö in Southern Sweden, Kristina Norrman and Christer Persson are cheering on their new digital label printer, suited for smaller runs. Now It's almost exactly the way they want it and the order books are full. The road to get here has been long and lined with a challenging search for the right technology. One half of Printikett, Christer Persson, started working with labels in 1987, back then only with the hotstamp method – meaning hot stamped labels. When the company was transformed from sole proprietorship to a limited company just before the millennium, Kristina Norrman came into the picture. Thus emerged the embryo of today's Printikett. They went digital about six years ago. At that time with a Xeikon machine, which is designed for large quantities – not quite optimal for the company's current business plan.

Our niche is small and medium-sized runs and we now print down to a minimum of about 50 labels,; says Kristina Norrman. But of course you can order a single label if you like, she says, smiling, we are not impossible. Although we offer both, the majority of orders are made up of smaller quantities, usually between 1,000 to 2,0000 labels. Larger runs are about 100,000 to 150,000, often very small labels, or many smaller numbers of the same series.

HARD TO FIND.

It was a long search for several years to find the Primera combo system that now is running seven days a week. - "There was no suitable equipment for smaller runs seven years ago when we started looking," says Christer Persson. "I remember we were at Labelexpo to find a decent machine, with no success." And so, about a year ago, a tip came like a bolt from the sky in the form of an e-mail from one of Printikett's printing customers in Olofström. - "After that, we were really curious, not least because there was an imminent Labelexpo in Brussels," says Kristina Norrman.

At the fair, they found the toner-based Primera solution. There are some limitations with the Primera system when it comes to materials, because it is toner-based and has a fuser. All materials must therefore be heat resistant.
The installation was done in less than two days in November last year. A Thursday and Friday, remember Kristina and Christer.
Already on Monday we ran our first job in the new machine, says Christer Persson.

TWO IN ONE

The Primera solution actually consists of two separate units - a printer and a punch (or finisher) with the possibility of up to four digital knives. The printer name is CX1200e Color Label Press and the punch is called FX1200e Digital Finishing System. The four-color printer can handle a maximum width of 216 millimeters and has a print speed of five meters per minute.

Even if there is a fuser in the unit, you can run on plastic, but it must be polyester, preferably with thicker liner because it gives better results in the finisher – according to Christer Persson.
The finishing unit also features laminating and slitting, which ultimately provides products that can be delivered directly to customers. In addition, it gives flexibility in shape. It is a digital puncher, which means that you send a digital file with the cutting shape to the unIt's control program. In principle, this means that we can cut out any form, but complex forms take longer to cut. With the FX1200e you can cut up to four labels parallel in width.

WIDE PRODUCTION

The clientele is mixed, ranging from direct clients, individuals, municipalities, small and large firms and printing companies. One or two promotion companies knock on the door, as are a lot of advertising agencies. Due to popular demand, they have hardly ever had to actively seek out new customers, which seems unique to the graphic industry. Customers find their way here anyway and they always return with a smile on their face.

Word of mouth is probably our best seller, says Kristina Norrman. There's only two of us and we are really busy late into the evenings. Nor is it possible to pinpoint one or two types of products. The production is a bit of everything: chocolate, glasses, makeup, gift, loyalty cards, machine marks, and sometimes correcting other people's mistakes – printed matter that we may correct with small opaque labels, says Kristina Norrman with a laugh – and much, much more. More clearly, however, is that 99 percent of the products are for the Swedish market.

It has become more full-colour lately, both because the customers are increasingly choosing it, but also because we offer full-colour with our printers, both the Xeikon machine and the Primera.

PRINTIKETT AB – FACTS

Owners: Kristina Norrman & Christer Persson
Turnover: Approximately 2.5 million Swedish krona
Business: Small business that specializes in printing labels, particularly in smaller quantities, but also handles larger. Its customers include manufacturers, advertising agencies, retail stores, companies, individuals, associations, and other printing companies.