Hager Papprint, replacing its previous system with HYBRID PACKZ and CLOUDFLOW, has been able to make many processes quicker, more efficient and more transparent, requiring about a third of the time previously needed to move a job through prepress.
Hager Papprint
Hager Papprint, based in Saarland, Germany, has an extensive history in the field of printing. The family business was founded in 1896 as a book printing and bookbinding shop. It has developed itself into a successful mid-sized industrial company specialising in the production of folding cartons and displays in offset and digital printing.
“Our company has consistently advanced itself over the years. Currently we are working on a new building in order to expand our capacities and meet the growing demands. In the future, we will manufacture for our wide range of clients from food, industry, healthcare and other non-food sectors on more than 10,000 m² of production and storage space. Our customers, most of whom have been with us for many years, appreciate our flexibility and our one-stop shop,” explains managing director Günter Merziger, who has been managing and developing the company together with Susanne and Thomas Wirbel for many years.
“In addition to production, proper artwork preparation also plays a major role. We have always recognized the advantages an internal prepress department would deliver us. We clearly benefit from: extensive experience, shorter workflow steps, quicker adjustments, and optimum quality,” states Merziger. “When it comes to their print artwork files, our customers have been happy with our direct and uncomplicated service. We couldn’t have accomplished this with just any software supplier.”
Maurice Cadet, prepress team leader at Hager Papprint, confirms that the production of folding boxes has special requirements. “Although in the end it’s only a printed sheet that passes through the press, producing a folding box brings with it many demands. The production with spot colors, the exact positioning of elements afterwards on the different surfaces of the box, the coding for the finishing process—the list is long!”
Switching to HYBRID prepress products
Hager Papprint recently changed the direction of their prepress and decided to move forward with HYBRID Software products. Günter Merziger remembers, “It wasn’t easy for me, because we already had a quite sophisticated software prepress environment, which we had been using successfully for many years. However, it was clear that there was an innovation backlog from our previous supplier, to which we had to respond. Our company needed to continue to develop in this area. Since, from the past, we already knew some of the people at HYBRID Software, we decided to examine the possibilities together.”
Along with HYBRID Software, intensive research was conducted to obtain as good a picture as possible of the actual results. “We outlined the processes of our previous software environment and counter-measured them with several benchmarks using HYBRID Software tools. I was aware that HYBRID Software’s PACKZ and CLOUDFLOW had proven their exceptional performance with some of our competitors. However, the results of our own benchmark tests really impressed me,” comments Maurice Cadet. “When you suddenly realize that, beyond proven working methods, results can be achieved much faster, safer and, above all, much easier, you quickly recognize the potential for your own company.”
Successful implementation of PACKZ and CLOUDFLOW
Hager Papprint decided to implement PACKZ and CLOUDFLOW, which was intensively accompanied by Maurice Cadet’s involvement. “Even on the second day of our team’s PACKZ training, we decided that we could begin replacing the old systems during the following week. To date, we’re very happy with our decision, as it is so much easier working with the PACKZ PDF Editor. Even though we did, of course, take a short period of time getting used to the new system, that is completely normal. I was particularly impressed by the live objects in PACKZ: the application of complex print marks is now really child’s play!”
In order to automate the prepress processes to a greater extent and to increase the capacity of the existing team, a CLOUDFLOW environment was also established to provide departments with central access to production data, direct communication and distributed quality control.
Günter Merziger is satisfied with his decision. “Since the introduction of HYBRID PACKZ and CLOUDFLOW and its corresponding integration with our ERP system, we have been able to make many processes quicker, more efficient and more transparent. All in all, we now find that we need about a third of the time previously needed to move a job through prepress. This gives us the opportunity to handle a significantly higher volume of orders with our existing team.”
Apart from the technical aspects, cooperation was also an important factor for Hager Papprint. Maurice Cadet comments, “We wanted a partner with whom we could work constructively, transparently, and who would be prepared to take unbureaucratic and unconventional paths if necessary. During the joint implementation of PACKZ and CLOUDFLOW we noticed, time and again, that the chemistry with HYBRID Software simply fit the bill.”
Hager Papprint made the switch to HYBRID Software products from Artpro/nexus, and as a next step, Hager Papprint customers will become directly involved in the process.
Visit the Hager Papprint website here.
