Swedish company ÅkessonBerg has invested in modern inkjet and Tecnau finishing to efficiently produce manuals for large automotive brands

Learn from the past and prepare for the future. Known as AkessonBerg since 2014, the company’s story actually goes back to 1984 when it was founded under another name. Since then, the Swedish printing house has expanded its portfolio of capabilities. With local roots, great personal commitment, and high flexibility, the company delivers unique and effective print solutions, paying special attention to affordability and sustainability both for its customers and the environment. ÅkessonBerg currently has two printing plants in Sweden (Vetlanda and Nässjö) producing manuals, newspapers, large and short-run book production, annual reports, and company presentations – as well as store signage, leaflets, and flyers for its customers.

The latest investment in modern inkjet technologies was a Tecnau Stack 2320 cut and stack solution inline to a Canon ColorStream 3000 series, mainly to produce user manuals for large consumer goods companies like Toyota and Husqvarna, but the solution installed was configured for full-bleed and slit/merge production to cover the widest array of possible applications.

ÅkessonBerg manages production through a web-to-print portal that allows customers to easily place orders, ask for reprints and have items delivered within 24 hours. The company provides a warehousing service for small entities up to large Swedish companies, so that customers do not need storage facilities of their own for finished ready-to-deliver applications.

In recent years, with the introduction of new digital print and finishing technologies, ÅkessonBerg started offering more efficient and inexpensive production by only printing accordingly to customers’ needs. This print-on-demand concept dramatically changed application capabilities and opened up new opportunities. Customers could now rely on short book runs and manual updates would no longer require discarding large inventories, with a clear and immediate advantage in cost savings and less waste.

“The new way of producing only what the customers need makes the process more efficient and cheaper, but it also provides great flexibility. For example, we can print a short-run of A4 books and then move to A5 without wasting time and resources. Then, in case a new batch of the first stock is required, we can easily go back and even make changes if document updates are necessary,” says Hans Lind, site manager at ÅkessonBerg.

The company usually produces single-cut book-blocks in 1-up stacks with offset separation on the Tecnau Stack 2320 inline to the Canon printer and then brings them to near line solutions for glue binding or stitching. “The Tecnau system is reliable, easy to setup, and the process is optimized to allows fast production: when glue binding is required the web, after being printed full width, is slit/merged in half and stacked in 1-up on the conveyor. The result is neat book-blocks ready for offline finishing.,” explains Thomas Olofsson, Area Manager Nordics, and Asia Pacific.

“Our customers require books not only in various formats but with different binding methods. The Tecnau Stack 2320 makes this task simple and keeps us productive without having to stop the printer for long adjustments between jobs,” adds Hans Lind. “We are now working to expand our business and increase the number of local companies relying on us for their printing needs. We already saw, after the pandemic, a steady growth in requests and we are now producing manuals for large companies in the automotive sector, but also local history books and religious magazines for regional firms. At a long-term level, in about five years from now, we aim to increase sales by millions. It’s a great challenge, but we are giving it our best efforts.”