As soon as Prinovis CEO Bertram Stausberg pushed the red button, the cylinders of the giant printing press began to move – at a truly rapid speed. The paper webs ran through the new offset machine at 15 meters per second, and the waiting audience was presenter with fresh off the press sales brochures soon thereafter. Almost 100 Prinovis customers and employees were thoroughly impressed by the performance of the two new web offset presses that were officially inaugurated last Thursday in the new printing hall in Dresden.
Stausberg said in his welcome speech: “Today we celebrate the laying of important strategic tracks for Prinovis. With our new offset presses, we open our first hybrid facility and complete our key technology of gravure printing with offset printing.” The projects of many customers are becoming increasingly diversified with regard to print runs and formats, according to the Prinovis CEO. With the new technology the company is now perfectly positioned to meet these demands and, for example, accept print orders with small print runs. “The millions invested in the Dresden site in the twentieth year of the local print shop is a technological strengthening of our operations and a signal of stability,” Bertram Stausberg emphasized. “With this investment, our partners Bertelsmann and Axel Springer have expressed their trust in the work that we do and confidence about our position in a difficult market.” This step has not only secured existing jobs but also created new ones.
“We are proud to see the first hybrid facility of Prinovis with gravure and offset production being set up in Dresden,” said Hauke Knafla, Director Production and Technology Prinovis Dresden and in charge of the installation of the offset printing presses. “With these new machines, we have expanded what we are able to offer our customers and are delighted that production can now begin at full capacity. And we are highly motivated and will deliver the usual Prinovis quality in the offset segment, as well.” Bertram Stausberg especially thanked Knafla and his project team: “This has been a huge and complex project. I am very proud of the team that implemented the installation in addition to conducting day-to-day business.” Stausberg took a look at the past, to the destruction of the Dresden gravure machine M51 in a fire in May 2013, to explain the importance of these new machines for Prinovis. “At first, this was a horrible situation for the facility,” the Prinovis CEO explained. In a following discussion with the partners it became clear that the damage could be reasonably offset by taking the step into the strategically important offset technology. After the bankruptcy of a print shop in Rostock, the Prinovis team then found the appropriate machines; a new hall was even built in the Dresden location for their installation. As soon as the installation work was concluded in December of last year, the first order for an existing customer, K-Mail, was handled at full capacity offset production ( BENET reported ). “You can imagine that, despite the diligent preparatory work, we were relieved when this catalog order – a print run of more than half a million copies, after all – was completed smoothly and that the customer was completely satisfied,” Bertram Stausberg remembered.
New options for customer orders
With the launch of the hybrid site, Prinovis can now offer its customers new products that combine both printing methods: the jacket of a magazine can be produced in gravure print, a regional supplement in offset or the jacket in gravure with UV lacquer, the content in offset. Prinovis demonstrates the look of such a hybrid product with its new sales brochure, which for the first time combines offset content and gravure jacket. As of now, customers can also order magazines with different types of paper – for example matte offset paper and glossy gravure paper. New possibilities for the further processing and logistics are added. “We look forward to the future and the many projects we will be able to produce for our customers in the first Prinovis hybrid facility,” Bertram Stausberg continued. “Today, we’re sending the signal to the market that we pick up the changed customer needs and now make an offer that gives customers even more flexibility with their print orders. For Prinovis I want to express our promise to our customers and to my colleagues as follows today: print has an effect and continues to be strong in the competition with other communication channels. Printing and hence gravure printing is an essential element of the marketing offers in the cross-media media mix.”
After the inauguration ceremony the Prinovis customers had the opportunity to participate in a tour through the print shop and see the new as well as the older machines in operation. The guests also seized the opportunity for exchange. After all, there was plenty to discuss since many of the invited guests had participated in the fifth “Prinovis Media Day” before; due to the inauguration festivities it took place in Dresden for the first time.
Fifth “Prinovis Media Day”
Under the motto “Cross Media: Work in Progress”, the event at Kurländer Palais was entirely under the sign of new methods of customer communication. With the “Media Day” Prinovis offers its customers the possibility to discuss current research approaches and challenges with industry experts and masterminds and to find inspiring ideas for their businesses. Six lectures by external speakers were on the agenda for the day. Among other themes, they were dedicated to how companies can master the digital change, how digital marketing is most effective and what the future of people in their digital world will look like.
By the way, Prinovis is celebrating two important anniversaries this year: first, Prinovis Dresden can look back on twenty successful years – a number that the company will appropriately celebrate this summer with an open house day. Second, the Bertelsmann corporate divisions Gruner + Jahr and Arvato and Axel Springer merged their gravure printing activities ten years ago and established a partnership with Prinovis, aiming to meet the challenges of the market and use the advantages of a large printing group.
