January 12, 2004 -- MAN Roland presses perform many functions for printers, one of them is creating new business opportunities. The sheer flexibility of the presses in handling a wide variety of stocks effortlessly has won them many friends around the world, including CM Printing in Kuala Lumpur where Intergrafica Print & Pack (IPP) is the local representative of MAN Roland. In 2001, 40 years after its foundation, the Malaysian packaging operation CM Printing took the decision to move seriously into labels. At the time the company was successful with board printing, and had three rotogravure lines. It was also ‘dabbling’ in labels, printing occasional jobs when customers asked for them. However after examining the market, and the press technology available, CM Printing believed that if it installed a new five-colour ROLAND 700 with coater, it would be able to provide the market with an excellent proposition in wet glue labels. Company owner and chief executive Chia Kar Yih says, “Firstly we believed offset would offer better products and service to our clients in terms of speed and flexibility, and secondly after a thorough examination of all the press technology available, with a live job of ours, we concluded that the ROLAND 700 press was best suited to our target market.” Five-colour ROLAND 700 running 24 hours a day CM installed the five-colour ROLAND 700 with coater, extended delivery and on a raised plinth, and two years later the company is the number one label printer in Malaysia, with the press running at full capacity and working 24 hours a day with remarkable output. Within this very short period, CM has become the preferred printer to work with for the breweries in Malaysia and the surrounding countries, and currently more than 50 per cent of its labels are exported. Such has been the success of the five-colour ROLAND 700 that CM printing has just formed an entirely new company around the press, rather than run labels as a division with itself. Mr. Chia says, “Having a separate company will enable us to better focus on the business, to provide the right investment, and to take the business forward.” “The millionth label looking exactly the same as the first” Of the five-colour ROLAND 700 Mr. Chia says, “There is no doubt that it has been one of the major contributor to the success of CM label business. Its quality and productivity are a winning combination for us, and for our customers. Its reliability and consistency have also been key factors; our label customers need the millionth label looking exactly the same as the first. The ROLAND 700 achieves this for us.” This level of work has won rich rewards for the company, with many of the breweries in this region switching the production of its labels from the US, Europe and Australia to labels printed at CM. The labels produced are not confined to beer bottles alone, with labels also printed for blow-moulded bottle packaging and soft wrap cigarette. Mr. Chia says, “Key factors for us with the ROLAND 700 have been its ease of use and the consistent delivery of quality products. CM Printing has built up a reputation for producing top quality work since we began, and clearly we wanted this to be the case with our labels. When we examined the press technology available we found the ROLAND to be most suitable to our needs, and certainly capable of producing the level of work we requi-re.” Beer/beverage labels fastest growing section Although CM Printing operates in three segments of market; tobacco, beer/beverage and household products, it is the beer/beverage section that is growing the fastest at the moment. Mr. Chia says, “Labels also has a huge export potential, particularly for us within the Asean trading region, where import tariffs for goods within the region are coming down rapidly. We are already competing successfully against European printers and we are winning because we provide quality, service and price advantages to our clients. They see tremendous value in buying from us.” CM place great emphasis on the quality of its products, and while its ISO9002 accreditation is an achievement, good process control in manufacturing is a mandatory. CM Printing is looking at installing a second ROLAND 700 in the very near future, as the present machine is now running at full capacity. Space at CM’s production centre outside Kuala Lumpur is available to support the addition of a new press, and more units if necessary. MAN Roland presses provide many benefits to printers and in the case of CM Printing that benefit has been to helping it to open up the big business opportunity in exporting to the region, and one which looks set to grow rapidly in the foreseeable future.