Launched in 1981 by husband and wife Luisa and David Scacchetti, the Mamas & Papas nursery brand is still very much a family business with their daughters Amanda and Olivia in Directorial positions within the company. From its headquarters in Yorkshire, the company employs 1,473 people around the world, with 66 stores in the UK and its products sold in over 3,000 locations in 49 countries – including national accounts with major retailers Boots, Argos, supermarkets and independent nursery outlets. The brand is favoured by celebrities such as Beyonce, Gwen Stefani and Alicia Keys.

Mamas & Papas’ creative, artwork and repro teams combine to operate on the lines of a full service agency but based in-house at its headquarters. From idea generation and concept brief through to print-ready artwork, they are responsible for the management and co-ordination of multiple projects, from photography to design and artwork production. The design briefs range from national advertising and in-store POS to product packaging and catalogues.

Brand identity and the control of brand colour is of utmost importance to the company. Print is placed throughout the UK across an approved roster of print suppliers from digital, to litho and web offset, so the need for controllable print is paramount. Mamas & Papas Studio Print & Production Manager Samantha Gayford explains: “We take colour matching very seriously and the ability to establish a colour standard for the brand that can be communicated consistently to our print partners is something we strive for.

“The main reason we came to GMG was a need for standardisation and achieving colour consistency across our print processes,” says Samantha. “We needed a way to reference the output characteristics of all our printers to allow us to deliver consistent results regardless of which machine or media the job was printed on.

“We had been using EFI Color Verifier for some time but found it limiting. Our in-house Senior Retoucher had experience of using GMG software before joining Mamas & Papas and recommended their products to us.”

GMG proposed a solution based on GMG ColorProof and GMG ColorServer software applications driving a 24-inch Epson Stylus Pro 7900 with inline spectro proofer for automated colour management and calibration. Designed to offer Mamas & Papas a device-independent output that would be easy to manage on a day-to-day basis, this also allows the company to manage output against their target print colour spaces, for example FOGRA 39L & 47L for uncoated print jobs.

For more than 20 years GMG ColorProof has established itself as the premier software solution for the production of high-accuracy digital contract proofs. Key to GMG ColorProof’s success in the proofing market is its unique 4-D colour transformation engine that ensures the highest possible quality and production reliability.

GMG ColorServer automates the colour normalisation of PDF files, providing highly-accurate CMYK to CMYK, RGB to CMYK and spot colour to CMYK conversions while preserving the integrity of the black channel. The result is a standardised and simplified colour management model that delivers consistent print results across any print process and substrate.

After a smooth installation and training period, Mamas & Papas couldn’t be happier with the results. “Since the installation in September 2013 the results have been impressive,” says Samantha. “Using GMG software gives us absolute confidence that colours will be the same across the board. It has enabled us to operate with greater efficiency, reducing the time taken to produce each job, with complete peace of mind that colours will match.”

With the majority of its packaging print supplied by printers in the Far East, a key area Mamas & Papas wishes to develop with its export suppliers is the setting up of targeted profiles for screen print and flexo by supplier, to maintain consistent print output. Linking colour management to their internal POS print facility is also an area Mamas & Papas are keen to explore, to bring this in line with GMG tolerances.

Toby Burnett, MD, GMG UK, says: “Implementing GMG solutions has enabled Mamas & Papas to remove output inconsistencies and standardise on a single user interface across all devices, which brings significant colour management benefits, productivity gains and delivering time and cost savings throughout the production workflow. We are very happy to be working with such a prestigious brand and look forward to helping them further with their expansion plans.”