Inkjet & Digital Printing

X-Print leverages the digital advantage to succeed in challenging economic environment

Thursday 24. February 2011 - HP announced today that X-Print, part of the Zinger group, of St Petersburg, Russia, has used its HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press to break into new markets and gain a competitive advantage despite making the move into digital printing at a time of economic downturn.

Part of the Zinger group that has a variety of wholesale and retail interests, X-Print was established less than a year ago as the result of a merger between Zinger and an advertising agency, and a refocusing of the group’s activities as a result of the economic environment.
“Since we were established during the economic crisis, we didn’t have a crisis management plan,” explained Alexandr Khomyakov, managing director, X-Print. “As things worked out, the crisis helped us. First of all, HP Financial Services enabled our investment in the HP Indigo 7000 press. Secondly, our expectations of digital printing as a strong growth market, proved correct and we were able to profitably service the growing number of shorter print runs that customers were requiring. The result was that many customers redirected their orders from conventional to digital printing.
“The economic situation also meant that our customers were trying to remain profitable and become more competitive,” Khomyakov said. “For many of them, high quality personalised products provided a way they could keep or extend market share. With the digital press, we were able to help them in ways we couldn’t have done before.”
Choosing a digital press was a big decision for the company.
“After studying the market, we found that the HP Indigo 7000 press offered the best quality-price-reliability ratio and best met our production requirements,” Khomyakov said. “We have found that we compete with offset with print runs at 500 copies and when it comes to combined runs – for example, printing leaflets and flyers together.”
As the first print service provider with an HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press in north-western Russia, X-Print soon established itself as an innovative company offering not only a wide range of commercial products from business cards to brochures, but also labels and tags, postcards, invitations and other products requiring heavier stocks. As a result, X-Print quickly reached the one million impressions per month landmark.
“Our customer base is extremely broad,” Khomyakov continued. “It includes companies, agencies and individuals. What they have in common is a requirement for short-run and/or personalised print.”
X-Print has extensive in -house finishing capabilities including die-cutters, laminators, stitching, varnishing and case-binding equipment.
“We see our next big opportunity in the photo-specialty market. Photobooks continue to grow in popularity, and developing the photobook market is the logical extension of the work we do already,” Khomyakov said. “We continue to work closely with HP and work to develop new applications for our digital press.”