Acuity investment sparks a year of growth for Art & Servei
Founded in Barcelona 30 years ago by Jordi París, Art & Servei employs 22 staff and produces a wide range of packaging, POS and merchandising products for major brands. In late 2016, París invested in his first digital press; a Fujifilm Acuity Select X28 with six colours, white and varnish. The investment quickly proved its worth and, one year on, the company has seen a major boost in productivity and efficiency.
With offset and now digital systems in-house and a variety of finishing equipment, Art & Servei prides itself on the level of service it provides its customers - end users, suppliers of other printing services, agencies and studios - and on the quality of its products. Its focus on the plastic, polyester and special materials sector has allowed it to compete and thrive during recent challenging economic times.
“A few years ago,” says Jordi Paris, “I started looking seriously at the evolution of different technologies and realised that digital print was where most development was happening, so I looked at the digital options that would best fit my business. While our customers were not specifically demanding this investment from us, we knew that with the right digital press, there was significant growth potential for us.”
After the investment in the Acuity Select X28, Art & Servei’s first challenge was to find work to keep it busy. “We had been studying the market carefully,” París continues, “and saw a consistently growing demand for shorter runs – sometimes for market testing, or from customers who make a variety of personalised and specialised products.
“We were previously offset printing this sort of work, which meant long lead times and considerable costs. Now with the Acuity Select X28, we can offer a much faster service to our customers and free up our offset machines for more efficient production. We have also been able to make much more accurate and much higher quality prototypes for existing customers, giving them a far clearer idea of what their finished product will look like.
“Our existing customers have been delighted with the extra short-run services we can now offer and, through recommendations they have passed on, we have been able to attract new customers as well. At first we were only running the machine for two hours a day – making prototypes exclusively – but now we are running a full shift every day as word is getting around about what we can do.
“The training and service we’ve received from Fujifilm has been excellent and, combined with our traditional print background and our in-depth knowledge of colours, pantones and materials, we have been able to get to grips with the new machine very quickly.”
Having never previously worked with Fujifilm, París is in no doubt that he has made the right decision: “Right from the start of the buying process Fujifilm instilled in us a sense of confidence that they knew exactly what they were doing, and the level of service they provided was of a very high standard. Their reputation as a digital technology pioneer was also a factor in the investment decision - I like the direction in which Fujifilm is heading as company, especially with innovations such as the Jet Press 720S and the new B1 system. Fujifilm is ideally placed to help us to develop and grow our digital print offering and I see it becoming a highly profitable revenue stream, perfectly complementing our established offset business.”
Says Joan Casas, Manager, Fujifilm Graphic Systems Spain: “We’re delighted that Art & Servei chose to partner with Fujifilm to make their first investment in digital print. With our unrivalled combination of expertise in printheads, inks and digital print platforms, we have been able to offer them the support they needed to get started and we are ideally placed to assist them as they continue to grow their digital offering.”