Ensuring profitability on print runs of under 2,000 copies

EYSINS, SWITZERLAND – The oldest printing factory in Russia, First Model Printing House, has chosen to invest in a KODAK PROSPER 1000 Press after spotting a gap in the market for short-run book publishing. 

“Historically, the use of traditional offset methods to print fewer than 2,000 book copies has been unprofitable due to the startup costs involved; however, switching to a digital system has allowed us to make profit on much shorter print runs,” says Boris Gorelik, Director of Digital Printing at the Chekhov Pechatny Dvor branch of First Model Printing House. The Chekhov Pechatny Dvor branch’s investment has allowed it to build a modern, diversified printing business that besides digital production, offers a whole range of web-fed offset, sheet-fed color printing and a variety of finishes. 

The Chekhov branch has more than 200 customers - mainly based around Moscow - ranging from single-book publishers all the way up to big publishing houses printing professional and technical literature. The plant produces hard- and soft-back books (both glue bound and saddle stitched), glue calendars and photo wallpapers, but it’s the company’s digital printing of hard back sewn books that provides the printer with its competitive advantage. The branch now prints more than 700 book and brochure titles every month, equating to over 3 million copies, half of which are printed digitally. Approximately 70-80% of the books printed are produced on the KODAK PROSPER 1000 Press, making it the branch’s main printer.

First Model Printing House first considered switching to digital book printing in 2008, and quickly realized that the industrial output required could only be provided by web-fed inkjet technology. Boris Gorelik said, “We chose the KODAK PROSPER 1000 Press because only Kodak produced presses with our required web width (660 mm). What’s more, the KODAK PROSPER 1000 Press had one more indisputable advantage, a printing speed of 200 mpm. This inkjet technology allows us to print with a 600?900 dpi resolution at a maximum speed that is far higher than competitive solutions.”

These increased production speeds result in the average print run taking less than an hour, meaning that the Chekhov Pechatny Dvor branch can now guarantee to produce any digital title within 10 working days. The company can even accept urgent orders when necessary, providing a two day turnaround. In turn, this ultimately means that the KODAK PROSPER 1000 Press has made print runs of 100-1,000 copies more profitable (this compares to a profitability boundary for traditional offset of 1,500-2,000 copies), which has served to bolster customer relationships. Most importantly however, quality is maintained, as Boris Gorelik confirms, “with the KODAK PROSPER 1000 Press, even where complicated raster and line illustrations are required, customers see that we can produce offset quality using digital technology, at exceptional speed.”

“First Model Printing House can now print book sizes of 15x22.5 cm and 13.5x21 cm - two of the most popular sizes in the publishing market - and since installing the press has witnessed stable growth in orders from the professional and technical literature sectors. Thanks to its Kodak investment, the company is now also in a position to enter new markets, such as color books, print-on-demand and many more,” concluded Anton Kodinskiy, Pre-sales Consultant for Digital Printing Solutions, EAMER GRC at Kodak.