Offset Printing
Imprimerie de Champagne switches to 32pp format
Saturday 04. July 2009 - Two KBA Rapida 142 eight-colour perfectors
In a bold strategic move to raise its profile in the French magazine market, where long medium-format presses predominate, Imprimerie de Champagne has become the first printer in the country to invest in two KBA Rapida 142 6B (56in) eight-colour perfectors.
The first press, an upgraded model which at Drupa 2008 reaffirmed KBAs pioneering credentials with unique demonstrations of large-format four-back-four perfecting, went live last October. Alongside diverse improvements in sheet travel and turning it has a new, lower delivery to allow the production of high-quality commercials. Despite – or perhaps because of – the current economic recession, Imprimerie de Champagne managing director Hervé Gironcourt sees the 32pp format as a means of differentiating his products in the fiercely competitive magazine market and moving ahead of rivals with their ubiquitous 16pp B1 (40in) presses.
Based in Langres, Departement de la Haute Marne, Imprimerie de Champagne is part of the Graphycom group, one of the last big independent printing and publishing houses in France. Other members of the group include Rotochampagne, a web offset printer; Ippac, an advertising agency; Les éditions Crépin-Leblond, a publishing house; Ifrest, a mail-order company; Le Journal de la Haute-Marne, a regional newspaper; and Top 52, a free.
The Graphycom group, which employs 360 people and has annual sales of around 50m ($70.2m), is headed by Jean Bletner, who is also editor-in-chief of Le Journal de la Haute-Marne, the groups flagship title. Imprimerie de Champagne, another major member of the group, has 92 staff and posts annual sales 18m ($25.3m).
First printing unit for trade magazines
An output of 500 titles per month (among them Wolters Kluwer, le Groupe Moniteur, Elsevier Masson, CMP Medica, Interligne, Les Nouvelles Esthétiques etc) makes Imprimerie de Champagne the premier printer of trade magazines in France. Circulations range from 1,500 to 6,000 copies, pagination varies from 80 to 120 pages for monthlies and 32 to 72 pages for weeklies. Trade magazines account for 80 per cent of earnings, the remaining 20 per cent being generated by commercials, catalogues (eg ETAI, Reed Exhibitions), books etc.
Prior to going for 32 pages, Imprimerie de Champagne operated classic 720 x 1040mm (40in) presses. “Previously the market for trade magazines focussed exclusively on the B1 format,” explains Gironcourt. “We geared up with 32pp presses as a means of evading ever fiercer price competition, trimming costs in line with economic realities, and burnishing our image as a high-tech, high-volume printer.”
Developing the market for weeklies
Just four months after firing up the Rapida 142 eight-colour perfector the company placed an order for a second, identical machine. Says Gironcourt: “We print time-critical weeklies, so we needed a back-up press to safeguard production. At the same time the additional capacity allows us to plan ahead with much greater confidence and drum up new business in the weeklies market.”
The second Rapida came on stream in May. Both presses boast a raft of extras including KBA QualiTronic inline recto/verso sheet inspection, ink-unit cooling and impression cylinder packing with jackets etc. To support the first 32pp large-format perfectors in France, Imprimerie de Champagne also installed two Agfa Avalon 32 ctp systems and three MBO large-format folding machines.
“We are delighted with the technology of our two large-format presses,” says Hervé Gironcourt, “Registration is spot on, ink-unit response is much faster and inking is better than with the B1 presses we previously used, while automated plate changing makes operation very much easier.”
Four-minute plate change
A format change with parallel cylinder washing and plate change takes just four minutes. The changeover time for a trade publication is just fifteen minutes to the first saleable copy, with approximately 100 waste sheets. Production speed averages 8,000 – 8,500 sheets per hour. Since most products are printed on lightweight stock, right down to 0.04mm (1pt), both presses feature a lightweight capability. “A few weeks ago we had no trouble printing a run on 57gsm matt-coated paper,” declares Gironcourt.
Another key option is the remote adjustment of the delivery suction rings from the console, enabling the print-free zone – and thus the sheet format – to be reduced. This has delivered a saving equivalent to one complete sheet in 110. But where large format perfectors really score is on productivity. “A B1 press can print a maximum of 16 four-colour A4 pages in one pass,” says Gironcourt. “This compares with the eight-colour Rapida 142s 32, 40, 48 or 64 pages measuring anything from 150 by 210m to 240 by 330 millimetres. So one pressman can produce twice as many A4 pages on one pass. What is more, we only need one station in the mailroom instead of two.”
A challenge to 16pp web presses
With capabilities such as this at its back, Imprimerie de Champagne is planning to expand its product spectrum still further: faster makereadies and lower start-up waste than with a web press mean that it can compete cost-effectively not only for short-run, high-pagination business (1,000 -1,500 copies with up to ten 32pp sections) but also for long-run, low-pagination work (50,000 – 100,000 copies with a maximum of 32 pages apiece). At the upper end it is competing with 16pp web presses and at the lower end with B1 litho presses. This has enabled the company to bring in-house ten titles that had previously been contracted out to a heatset web printer.
Another of Imprimerie de Champagnes strength is its affiliation with a group boasting its own hybrid sheetfed/web production capabilities, generally using the web printing plant in Chaumont. As with fifteen other titles, the body of a weekly classified ads publication, La Centrale, is printed on a web press, while the cover is printed on the 32pp Rapidas.
Analogue and digital complementary
Imprimerie de Champagne will soon be transferring production of Le Journal de la Haute-Marne to a digital web press (inkjet). As Jean Bletner points out: “This will allow us to print local editions with mini circulations and supplements that can be updated on a daily basis. Not only that, we shall also be able to print to an accuracy of one single copy trade titles whose circulations and page counts are steadily shrinking.”
According to Hervé Gironcourt, the new large-format KBA presses enhance Imprimerie de Champagnes brand image and give it the option of printing trade magazines on both 32pp analogue presses or digital presses.
“We are fast becoming an all-in provider of database services and are in the process of building up this side of our business. We can provide digital data for the large-format sheetfed presses, digital sheetfed or web presses, or an html/xml website. The initial data are the kernels we must grind. So its advisable to offer the broadest choice of technology possible.”
In the first six months of 2009 Imprimerie de Champagne defied the recession to boost sales by 7%. So its strategy is evidently paying off.