Printera Group, a leading printing house in Croatia, has strengthened its market position with the acquisition of two new Komori GL40 advance printing presses. The Group produces an extensive range of commercial print including brochures and magazines, catalogues, culinary books, children’s books, novels, monographs and point-of-sale material.
Printera’s new eight colour Komori GL840P advance perfector is equipped with a coating unit and its new four colour GL440 advance has LED-UV drying. Their installation elevates the Group’s entire litho press fleet to B1 format and furthers its reputation as a foremost producer of premium quality print, additionally expanding production and turnround flexibilities.
Located in Sveta Nedelja, close to Zagreb, Printera is a privately owned printing house established over 30 years ago. Visionary owners and directors Robert Jurica Krajačić and Draženko Mamić joined forces to launch the Printera project, Robert after 18 years in his family printing house and Draženko with 21 years’ expertise in his own printing business. From the outset, as accomplished graduate graphic engineers, they have always shared the same foresight to pioneer leading edge technology and the insight to recognise future trends.
Says Draženko: “While we’re dedicated to print, we believe it’s essential that we work just as hard outside the profession. Our wives, our children and our love of sports - especially football for me - continually inspire our business visions. Robert’s a golfer, tennis player and an art collector – a passion which has opened the door for us to print monologues and art catalogues for many highly credited artists and the wider art world.”
Printera Group takes social responsibility very conscientiously, contributing to the wider community to ensure that Printera’s development is sustainable and aligns with the interests of the society which surrounds it – a commitment which has helped gain the Group recognition as one of the leading suppliers of quality graphic products to the Croatian market. Its presence now extends beyond national borders into countries such as Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Italy, France, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Lichtenstein, and the United States.
Says Robert: “We’ve always strived to differentiate and elevate our Group by continuously committing to innovate, deliver excellent quality and provide unwavering customer service. We look for suppliers with the same business philosophies as ours and we identified exactly that with Komori. So, in 2015, after years of using KBA and Heidelberg machines, we acquired our first Komori Lithrone - the eight-colour G840P perfector with H-UV drying - which replaced a KBA Rapida 105-8. This marked our introduction to UV, making us the only printing house in the area able to offer the benefits of H-UV technology to our customers. As we’ve come to expect with most innovations, it was not without its challenges, However, we have a highly skilled workforce who relish new technologies themselves and, as the exceptional benefits of H-UV soon became apparent, it was all worthwhile!
“Now, eight years later, we have even more facilities to tailor our printing techniques to the specific requirements of each project. Moreover, with the extended range of technological options which the two new Komori GL40’s provide we can work proactively with customers to help them develop their own innovative solutions. For example, for immediate drying across the widest range of substrates, we can utilise H-UV on our Lithrone G840, and LED-UV on our new GL440 advance. With the coater on our new GL840P, we can provide a wide variety of varnish and coating options, including 3D, after printing eight colours all in a single pass.
“This extension of our litho technology is also opening up a wealth of new opportunities to serve customers in the packaging industry. The LED-UV machine enables us to print on plastics, transparent materials, and paper laminated with aluminium foils. And where the digital print is the best solution, we can turn to the state-of-the-art Konica Minolta and Ricoh machines in our digital printing department.”
With their higher running speeds and quicker, automated job changeover times, the two new Komori GL40’s are capable of delivering between them around 30,000 sheets an hour. To optimise this, Printera Group has equipped its pre-press and finishing departments with technology to ensure the quickest overall throughput. The Kodak CTP Trendsetter system in pre-press enables precise, ultra-fast plate production and the finishing department houses an exceptionally comprehensive bank of finishing equipment. This includes HORIZON folding machines, Aster thread sewing machines, Muller Martini Bravo+ wire sewing machines, soft binding with PUR Muller Martini Acoro 6, and Perfekta cutting machines. Kolbus hardcover machines complete the many books, catalogues and monographs which Printera produces.
Adds Draženko: “The demand for such top quality printed materials remains strong and with our average orders ranging between 500 and 3,000, the highest print quality is paramount at all times. To ensure this is maintained on every print, sheets on our machines are meticulously monitored with inline cameras such as Komori’s ground-breaking PQA Print Quality Assessment System.
We’re in a world where quality and innovation meet, and our unequivocable purpose at Printera Group is to continue to redefine, shape and uplift the standards of the printing industry.”
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