When Beniamino Moriniello, owner and managing director of Italian print enterprise Etitalia Industria Grafica (Fisciano), goes through his account books his satisfaction is unsullied by the current economic crisis. This is because sales have recently taken off – largely thanks to a KBA Rapida 106 seven-colour hybrid coater press that came on stream at the beginning of the year, continuing a business association with KBA that dates back to Etitalia’s foundation in 1999.

Attractive labels and packaging

Etitalia Industria Grafica is located in Fisciano, a university town in the province of Salerno, not far away from the south Italian port of Naples. In just a few years it has evolved into one of Italy’s foremost printers of labels, folding cartons and flexible packaging. Beniamino Moriniello’s family has been in the printing business since 1932 and he himself has gained a lot of experience in the label industry since the end of the nineties. His avowed aim is to offer his customers labels and packaging with a high visual impact that ensures their products will hit the mark.
 
Timely investment

The secret of Mr Moriniello’s success is to invest in the right kit at the right time. The new Rapida 106, and a ten-colour Flexotechnica N 10 G from Cerutti which was installed at the same time, enable him to offer cutting-edge technology for both flexo and offset. At the end of last year Etitalia moved to a 10,000m² (108,000ft²) site on a state- subsidised industrial estate in Buccino, near Potenza (also in Salerno), having invested some eight million euros in a new production plant that offers plenty of room for future expansion.
 
Says Moriniello: “We fired up our first KBA press shortly after the company was launched in 1999. At that time our choice of a six-colour Rapida 105 with coater was influenced partly by our faith in Angelo de Santis, KBA’s sales rep for southern Italy, and partly by the results of an exhaustive market analysis. KBA was instrumental in making our business a success. That is why, three years later, we installed another Rapida, this time a six-colour 105 with two coaters, interdeck dryer and hybrid capability.”

Flexo as a second business line

He continues: “We decided to expand from offset into flexo in 2005. Installing a small eight-colour press gave us the production flexibility we needed to establish a second line of business. We can now print plastic and aluminium sheets from a roll and thus offer customised flexible packaging as well as labels of all kinds.”

Reaffirmed commitment to offset

“While flexo is gaining ground in label and packaging printing, we had no qualms about expanding our offset capacities with the new Rapida 106 seven colour. We want to have the best possible kit for handling new offset projects. Although commercial printing in Italy has been hit by the financial crisis, prospects in label and packaging printing are much brighter. Our customers mainly come from the food-processing and beverages industry, where demand is relatively stable. But our additional capacity won’t start paying major dividends until the economy picks up again.”
 
Doubling sales in just two years

Beniamino Moriniello is planning to double sales to around €10m ($13.6m) by the end of next year, and boost them by a further 20% in 2011. His workforce, which has increased from 29 in 2008 to 40 today, will expand along with sales.

Beniamino Moriniello is delighted with the performance of his new KBA Rapida 106: “Our new-generation B1 Rapida proves that KBA is way ahead of the competition, and offers a raft of advances over its predecessor. With the exception of DriveTronic SPC dedicated cylinder drives we specified virtually every possible feature in the book. We mainly print runs of between 50,000 and 500,000 sheets, so high-speed job changes are not a priority. But where the press really cuts the mustard is during production runs, where it delivers the high output we need.”