Finishing & Screen Printing

Albumprinter in Amsterdam

Thursday 28. April 2011 - The Photo Book Pioneer with a Short but Brilliant Company History Already in 2003, Hans Velthuizen had the idea of photo books. He developed a special software everybody could use to create their very own digitally printed photo book. He founded Albumprinter in Amsterdam and was the first provider of photo books via Internet in Europe with a direct home delivery service. Since then Albumprinter automated the production processes to satisfy the rapidly growing demand for its products.

For casing-in, the company chose the Diamant MC Digital and is thrilled with it.
Photo books offer a variety of advantages compared to albums. With very little effort they can be produced one or more times. The user determines the number of pages in the book and chooses not only the contents but also the cover. It is no surprise that the customer response was extremely positive and the growth rates overwhelming. The business is booming. From 2003 to 2007, sales at Albumprinter increased by a gigantic 22.000 percent.
The number of employees grew from four people in 2005 to 130 just four years later. In 2007 FEM/Business, the leading Dutch business magazine, classified Albumprinter as one of the fastest growing companies. Red Herring Europe 100 lists the 100 most promising Technoloy companies in Europe and Albumprinter was one of the finalists in 2008.
In addition, they were the winner of an award given by Deloitte, a consulting and testing company, awarding 50 of the fastest growing companies in the technology sector for their entrepreneurial achievements. The Investment Company Van den Ende & Deitmers invested long-term at the beginning of 2007 with Albumprinters creating the possibility for further growth. The Albelli brand was launched in 2008 for retail business. The production plant, already located in Den Haag, was moved into a new building offering more space and an open-plan design.
Constructive Cooperation with Müller Martini
The strong company growth made it necessary to adapt the machine pool as well as the operating methods. During its start-up years, Albumprinter used small machines and modified them to meet the special requirements. “Since these machines involved a great amount of manual work the book quality largely depended on a single machine operator”, states production manager Ed Koks. “What we needed now was operating equipment that guaranteed a consistently high quality.”
The workflow needed a great deal of automation to ensure continued high quality. Processing small print runs was a totally new market with no existing solutions available. In order to find them, Albumprinter and Müller Martini Buchtechnologie started a very creative and constructive cooperation. The Diamant MC proved to be an excellent basis to integrate exactly those extensions necessary to produce high-quality photo books on a large scale. “The employees at Müller Martini Buchtechnologie not only had open ears for our requirements but were amazingly quick to come up with trendsetting solutions”, compliments plant manager Jacco Buurman. Since June 2010, Albumprinter has been casing in hardcover photo books day in and day out with the Diamant MC Digital photo bookline – even as many as 16,000 books a day. “We were looking for a machine that could provide uniform quality and got a machine that also enables an output of considerably larger quantities of books. It provides the prerequisites to increase business into the future”.
Customer Satisfaction is the Key to Success
And the company keeps expanding – although not as spectacular as in the first years but still significantly. Albelli grew 35 percent in 2010 and, since the takeover of two smaller British photo book producers, is aiming at as much as 50 percent growth for 2011. It involves further automation and intelligent linking of the existing machines.
Jacco Buurman has clear goals. “A satisfied customer is important to survive in the market and keep growing. Only then will they come back again and again. We reach customer satisfaction with quality, speed and reliability.” He wants to reduce delivery times. At the moment, Albumprinter promises deliveries in Holland no more than four days after placing the order – and has succeeded in actually delivering about 93 percent of all orders within just three days. Customers in other countries receive their books after no more than six days. The product portfolio is extended on a regular basis. Besides photo books in many formats and designs, Albelli offers personalized wall calendars and appointment books, greeting cards and canvas prints. Slightly more than half of Albellis customers reside in the Netherlands and Belgium. The other half are in England, Germany and France. In 2010, Albelli delivered photo books to 144 countries. The Internet makes it possible.
Customers are welcome at the production plant. Almost daily, groups of visitors watch production from the gallery extending into the workshop. From there, they have a great view of the entire manufacturing plant. Those living close by can even pick up their books personally. Albelli is in every sense close to its customers, their wishes and requirements.
New Solutions for New Markets
The incoming orders at Albelli are gathered in batches and then run through the production chain together. Since the customer is not limited to a fixed number of pages the book block thicknesses vary within a single batch. Due to the thickness adjustment possibilities offered by the Diamant MC Digital the photo bookline automatically adapts to each book thickness and does not need adjusting within certain thickness tolerance limits. When the tolerance limits are exceeded the bookline changes the single units over to the new format step by step.
While in the background the current thinner book (yellow endsheet) is still being cased in, the headbanding station has already changed over and the bookline is supplied with the thicker books (white endsheet).