Flexibility as a deciding factor

OPACKGROUP Repro Center chooses PACKZ

The OPACKGROUP Repro Centre (ORC), OPACKGROUP’s in-house repro studio, has switched to PACKZ, Hybrid Software’s PDF editor. Pieter Molenaar, head of prepress at the ORC, is impressed by Hybrid Software’s flexibility and support.

The Dutch OPACKGROUP is a packaging group comprising seven operating companies and ten production sites. In total, the OPACKGROUP employs more than 700 people. The group manufactures flexible films and packaging in paper and plastic variants for various sectors (food, non-food, agriculture and horticulture). Oerlemans Plastics, Fardem Packaging, Flexpak, Oosterwolde Plastic Industry, Perfon, Plasthill and Stempher are part of the group.

Flexibility and automation

The ORC, based at Oerlemans Plastics in Giessen, the Netherlands, works exclusively on the flexographic printing process for the OPACKGROUP companies. The in-house prepress studio is led by the experienced Pieter Molenaar. “I was an operator myself for many years,” he says. “That helps when discussing matters with companies such as Hybrid Software to make it clear what we need.”

Molenaar’s three-person team had been working with a traditional prepress environment for quite some time. Given the need for greater flexibility, automation and a more efficient workflow, they were looking for a new solution. The choice fell on the PACKZ PDF editor. “It’s fantastic that a company like Hybrid Software embraces the PDF format and also exports the PACKZ product to PDF,” says Molenaar. “The transition is happening very quickly and it’s significantly reducing turnaround times.”

The ORC, based at Oerlemans Plastics in Giessen, works exclusively on the flexographic printing process for the OPACKGROUP companies

Customisation and efficiency

PACKZ’s approach to PDFs was one of the key factors in choosing Hybrid Software’s solution. Whereas traditional workflows often involve converting files to internal formats, PACKZ consistently works within the PDF structure. Molenaar also highlights the smooth user interface and the professional support from Hybrid Software, which also provided a bespoke solution in this case: “We expect to be able to raise our quality standard for printed packaging in the reprographics department even further!”

“We have fully automated the application of proof legends and print marks,” explains Neal Inghelbrecht, Sales Manager for Benelux and the Nordics at Hybrid Software. “If we can achieve that automation within PACKZ, it offers an added benefit because it allows us to combine quality control and automation. That saves a step.”