Mid November is always the time of year when yuletide business starts rolling in at CEWE. Considering that the seasonal trade accounts for a quarter of annual sales, Europe’s largest photo finisher has tooled up accordingly: yet another swissQprint inkjet printer went into operation at the end of October 2013, making a total of five identical Impala large format printers at the company’s two production plants in Germany.
It was only a year ago, likewise in the advent season, that a fourth Impala joined existing machinery at the Germering plant and quickly came up to speed with its siblings. Large format photo products were already fast-selling Christmas gifts last season. CEWE reckons with even higher demand this time around, not least as a result of launching its “CEWE Wandbild” brand of large format photo prints. Acquisition of a fifth machine is the company’s provident response, ensuring there will be no exceptions to meeting customer wishes on time. Customer confidence and satisfaction are cornerstones of CEWE’s success story, which opened a new chapter when large format prints were introduced in 2011. All of that rests on the proper infrastructure, utterly reliable logistics, and unfailing quality.
Reliable Swiss inkjet systems fit the scheme perfectly. They are capable of printing with consistent high quality directly onto acrylic glass, rigid foam panels, aluminium composite boards and similar rigid materials. Canvas is also an option: all of the machines are equipped with a roll to roll option that instantly converts the flatbed printer into a high-precision roll printer. CEWE uses eight of the Impala’s nine colour channels: four standard CMYK process colours plus light Cyan, light Magenta and light Black for natural-looking skin tones. Last but not least is the white channel on every machine. This is used to apply a mask or foundation coat, essential for reproducing vivid colours on acrylic glass.
A quintet of identically configured printers makes for vastly easier order processing. Any job is assignable to any plant, for optimum utilisation of capacity. Against this background and in view of the anticipated volume of business, this fifth printer acquisition, too, can be expected to pay for itself within a very short period of time.