Inkjet & Digital Printing

Obchodni tiskarny increases annual sales with HP Indigo press ws4500

Wednesday 02. February 2011 - HP today announced that the international printing and packaging group, Obchodni tiskárny, a.s. (OTK), of Kolin, Czech Republic, has reported increased annual sales with help of its HP Indigo press ws4500.

“One of the key reasons we purchased the press originally was to introduce production of cost-effective, short-run prints that maintain an offset-like print quality,” said Petr Ryska, managing director, OTK. “With the Indigo ws4500, we were able to expand our service offering with these new capabilities as expected, but also, the press enabled us to increase our product range in a way that we couldn’t before with offset and flexo printing technology. For example, we could offer variable data printing and an expanded choice of substrates for our packaging products. As such, this increased flexibility opened up new sales and business opportunities for OTK and contributed to the significant increase we saw in our annual sales for 2010,” said Ryska.
OTK, whose sales revenues achieved €50 million in 2010, produces high quality labels, shrink sleeves and flexible packaging for the food, beverage, cosmetics and pet food industries. The company also utilises the HP Indigo digital press’s variable data capabilities to print product barcodes.
“One of the other features of the Indigo ws4500 that our customers find particularly beneficial is the ability to match their corporate identity colours using the spot colour capability. Outside of the standard four colours (CMYK), we can offer an additional white, orange and violet ink, which has not only enhanced the print quality and colour accuracy we provide our existing customers, but this capability has attracted new customers whose print materials need to adhere to strict, brand guidelines,” said Ryska.
The special orange and violet inks comprise the HP IndiChrome on-press solution that extends the colour gamut. The HP Indigo press ws4500 prints up to16m/minute (four colours) and is capable of matching 97 percent of PANTONE Colour range.
OTK was founded in 1879 and has today about 500 employees. The company operates at different sites in Eastern Europe and was a winner in the 2010 HP Indigo Digital Labels and Packaging Awards competition.The company won the shrink sleeves category for promotional packaging of energy drinks.
OTK has also its own finishing equipment to increase production flexibility. The company further plans to explore new markets.
Adapting and succeeding in new circumstances has characterised OTK’s history. Its development has seen it grow from a litho printer producing calendars and chromolithographs. It built its market and from 1912 was exporting print to Poland, Romania, Italy, and Hungary. In the post-World War II period, it was a “national enterprise” until denationalisation in 1989 and its full privatisation in 1995. OTK’s privatisation saw two major waves of investment with the addition of an additional gravure press, two UV-flexo presses, additional litho capacity, CTP, DTP and finally HP Indigo digital printing capabilities.
The development of label, flexible packaging and shrink-sleeve production followed the acquisition of Jiho?escka tiskarny a.s. in 2004. The group now has a production facility in Romania and new sales offices in Germany and Russia.