Print - the power and quality of traditional printing
The latest investement, 64-page heatset rotation press is suited for both four-colour jobs and also for high-quality printing of 1 and 2-colour sheets for catalogues. These investments have increased the production capacity. The new machines also give us a certain economy of scale: same-brand machines simplify use and maintenance, and ensure reliable output. Internal material flow is as far as possible automated with the aid of robots and AGVs.
Growth, effiency and improvements
Another good indicator of Hansaprint's growth is the increase in paper consumption. This was 67,000 tonnes in 2001 and now the consumption have been crossed the 90,000 tonne barrier.
Based on these figures, talk of the dominance of electronic media and the plight of traditional magazines and printed products is truly unfounded. The traditional printed product is still the best user interface for convenience and practicality.
In addition to production efficiency, there has been - and will continue to be - vigorous investment in work on quality on the traditional printing side, for example, investement in automation of quality control. A lot of importance has also been attached to improving papers and printed colours. Hansaprint is constantly doing development work on this with paper manufacturers, and in many of the projects at the Future Printing Center.
One improvement that has resulted from technical development is able to print with increasingly high quality on slightly 'worse' paper. Examples of this are the four-colour pages in phone directories and Ilta-Sanomat's weekend supplement IS-Plus.
Direct and Print complement each other
Printed products have their own ways of dealing with the competition with electronic media. But what about traditional printing versus digital printing? Is there a competition between the two?
Digital printing and traditional printing complement each other well, since they each have their own strengths and spectrum of uses.
In practice Hansa Direct and Hansa Print collaborate closely. Print jobs can, for example, be done on the Print side and they can then have personalisation added by Hansa Direct. Through Direct's expertise Hansa Print has developed selective binding and personalisation. With this kind of hybrid printing solution it is possible to end up as customer-specific, 'versionised' magazines with a personalised order card as a supplement to the magazine at the end of the subscription period.
