Two became one when Skilltryck chose new digital press

When Martin Holmberg would invest in a new digital press, he made a thorough market analysis. Only two digital presses passed the requirements of quality and capacity. The winner was HP Indigo 5500.

Skilltryck AB is located a few miles south of Jönköping and has supplied traditional sheet fed printing to the Gnosjö area for over 80 years. The printing company has been a family business for two rounds, the latest in the family Holmberg's possession, who took over 19 years ago.

– We have worked locally and printed mostly short runs up to medium-sized editions. In the recent years we have expanded our market to the south of Sweden, says Martin Holmberg, the owner and CEO of Skilltryck.
 
Like many others, Martin has seen a change in the market in the recent years. The varieties of customers has increased, forward planning is poor and, above all, the number of editions has fallen.

– We work mainly with mailings of different types, and notice that the customers usually choose to print smaller editions to see if it works, then make small adjustments and prints a new small edition.

To meet customers' new needs Martin purchased a digital printing company in Gnosjö three years ago. With the purchase, he received two Canon machines, which had been running for three years. Today both of them have done their jobs and should be discarded, prompting Martin to start looking for replacements already last winter.

– We are a small printing company that must pinching pennies and I'm interested in technology, therefore, I made a thorough review of the market.
Martin chose six to seven different providers, and went carefully through the machines. He assessed print quality, the machine's functionality and the price. Then he made a comparison of the machines under the principle 50 percent functionality and 50 percent price. Print quality was not negotiable, it was the best quality that mattered.

– There were only two machines that managed the quality and the capacity I was searching for. It was HP Indigo and Xerox iGen.
The choice finally fell on the HP Indigo 5500 for two reasons. With the HP Indigo the possibilities of finishing is better and furthermore the machine generates much less heat.

– High heat means the machine consumes much power, additionally it needs to be cooled, which consumes even more power.

The HP Indigo is already installed and has been running for a few months. It is stable and has worked very well, says Martin.

– We had less hassle during installation than I had expected. There were only a few minor errors that we easily solved.

With the HP Indigo Skilltryck has a higher breaking point for digital printing today than before, but the biggest advantage, according to Martin, is the improved quality.

– HP Indigo has a technology with liquid ink called digital offset and the fact is that the result is very similar to conventional offset printing. Today I can take the job and put it in the machine where I make the most money. The customers experience no difference, it will be the same high quality every time, says Martin.