PERFORMA

Arts Print recently pushed the button on a five-colour Performa 74 coater press as part of a co-operative agreement with a bigger printer specialising in the B1 (41in) format.The value added the new press delivers, and the ability to exploit synergies between medium and half-size format, have given the company a dynamic boost.

The commissioning of the new five-colour coater press was timed to coincide with the company's relocation from La Garenne Colombes in north-west France to Pantin, just outside Paris. It replaced a four-colour Heidelberg press for the same format.

Daniel Dray (left),managing director of Arts Print,and Jean-Marie Rudent,development manager at Stedi Média,at the Performa 74 five-colour coater press

In addition to the Performa, Arts Print, which was established in 1986, also operates three small-format presses. The company's fifteen employees generate annual sales totalling €1.6 million($2.35m). This most recent investment is part of a co-operative agreement with Stedi Média, a much bigger printing plant in the 18th Arrondissement of Paris, following its acquisition of a sizeable stake in Arts Print.

Innovative corporate concept

With a work force of 34 generating annual sales worth €6.3m($9.3m), Stedi Média is on a growth curve: "Some three years ago we started bringing a number of activities in-house, among them graphic design, customer logistics and PR, and have since carved outa strong position in the market as a full-service provider," says development manager Jean-Marie Rudent. At the end of 2006 Stedi Médiaentered a collaborative alliancewith another print operation, Watelet-Arbelot, which like Arts Print is also based in Pantin and hasannuals sales of €1.6m, but 18 employees. Between them, Stedi Média and Watelet-Arbelot have a total of three B1 (41in) presses, two of which are run by Stedi. Speaking of the alliance with Arts Print, Rudent says: "An emerging demand among our customers, which include Unesco, Printemps, Taillevent, Roc Neutrogena and Nicolas, prompted us to seek a dependable partner with a B1 capability along with adequate capacities for finishing and mailing (laser-based personalisation, insertion in envelopes etc), packaging and transport/logistics."

"The Performa 74 delivers outstanding quality, even when coating." Daniel Dray

Value-added printed products

As part of its co-operative agreement with Arts Print, Stedi Média took over all pre-press activities,and the two companies have been able to exploit synergies in their administrative and technical systems. "Our Performa 74 has not only proved to be superb value for money but also delivers value added because it can apply a fifth colour and an online coating," says Daniel Dray, Arts Print managing director. "The result is a time and productivity gain and the ability to turn jobs around in just one day.The quality of coating delivered by the anilox coater is outstanding, whether it is a spot coating, matt and gloss contrasts or a simple protective coating. As a result we canoffer value-added products in short runs yet at a fair price. Among advertising agencies, whose creativity is seemingly inexhaustible,this has really hit the mark," adds Jean-Marie Rudent.

The next step: still more sophisticated finishing capabilities

Substrate flexibility

Most of the jobs printed by Arts Print are document sleeves, high-quality advertising brochures and flyers (eg with fold-out pages), loyalty and invitation cards, covers for books and travel guides etc, and data sheets, bulletins and similar. Says Daniel Dray: "While these are very different products, thanks to our Performa's outstanding flexibility we can print anything from 60-gram carbonless copy paper to 400-gram cartonboard."