Inkjet & Digital Printing
Cewe Color Group Increases Photo Finishing Production with HP Indigo Technology
Monday 03. September 2012 - Company installs HP Indigo W7250 and 7600 Digital Presses and plans second HP Indigo W7250 installation for 2013.
HP today announced that the Cewe Color Group has installed an HP Indigo W7250 Digital Press at its headquarters in Oldenburg, Germany, to increase its productivity of CEWE PHOTOBOOKS and other photo-specialty products.
Cewe Color specialises in the online print market and in 2011 delivered around 2.5 billion prints in CEWE PHOTOBOOKS, personalised calendars, greeting cards and other photo gifts. With 13 facilities and more than 3,000 employees in 24 countries, the company is one of the leading European photofinishing businesses.
“The CEWE PHOTOBOOK is our best-selling product,” said Dr. Michael Fries, member of the managing board, Cewe Color. “We produced more than five million personalised books last year and demand is still increasing.”
The HP Indigo W7250 Digital Press serves high-volume production using its unique combination of quality, productivity, and competitive total cost of ownership (TCO). In addition, the Enhanced Productivity Mode (EPM) enables customers to print more jobs digitally and cost-effectively, with a printing speed of up to 320 ppm in colour and up to 960 ppm in monochrome.
A second HP Indigo W7250 Digital Press will be installed next year. The two webfed presses will help Cewe Color, which has been an HP customer since 2003, to further increase its capacity.
“Digital print technology is indispensible for our business and it is very important for us to provide our customers with the latest innovations on the market,” continued Dr. Fries. “For the large volume of tailor-made photo applications we produce every day, we require presses which are fast and reliable. The HP Indigo W7250 Digital Press provides us with high-volume production and short-run jobs in offset quality.”
In 2012, the company celebrated its 50th anniversary. In the early years, the company derived its income mainly from processing film, which is now only a small percentage of its revenue. Instead, Cewe Color is continuing to expand its online printing service with its subsidiary companies, Viaprinto and Saxoprint, as additional business units. Viaprinto focuses on web-to-print production of softcover and hardcover books as well as medium-run brochures. Saxoprint offers leaflets, brochures and business cards for more commercial productions.
Also contributing to Cewe’s productivity is an HP Indigo 7600 Digital Press, which has been installed in Dresden. All three presses were purchased at drupa in May.
With a printing speed of up to 160 pages per minute in full colour(1), the HP Indigo 7600 Digital Press comes with new optional special features, such as raised print and textured effects that enable print service providers (PSPs) to offer innovative and high-value applications. The press can print onto more than 2,500 substrates including fully transparent and dark materials using HP Indigo ElectroInk White.(2)
“The collaboration with HP has always been of high value for us,” said Dr. Fries. “We can now offer a large variety of applications using digital and offset to meet the special needs of our customers. I am sure that our subsidiary companies, Viaprinto and Saxoprint, will benefit greatly from the investment as well.”