Fujifilm Acuity B1 helps Verhoef boost production speeds and slash operating costs

Dutch printer's investment led to high-quality output and positive return on investment

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Fujifilm
Fujifilm Acuity B1

With various branches in the Netherlands and Belgium, Verhoef has a proud heritage stretching back over 60 years. The company, based in Veldhoven just southwest of Eindhoven, supplies customers throughout the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and France with high quality, durable products. Verhoef prides itself on delivering both the highest quality print – on various substrates, including wood and plastic – and also on its rapid order fulfillment. In order to boost still further both production quality and speed, the company invested in an Acuity B1 from Fujifilm in early 2019.

Using a mix of screen and digital printing technologies, Verhoef’s blend of expertise allows for the creation of innovative ideas. “Our working method is to be practical, inventive, and cost-effective,” says company owner Jan Verhoef. “We stand by these principles in every area we work in. We produce products such as modular systems, labels, banners, window decorations, signage, vinyl, floor stickers, and tiles. Each product is very important, and we strive to deliver it to the highest specification and in the most optimal time.

“We did have another digital printer in the years leading up to the investment in the Acuity B1 – but we found that we needed something that was quicker from a production standpoint and cheaper to maintain,” explains Jan. “We noticed the Acuity B1 for the first time at an exhibition, and we were immediately impressed by its capabilities, especially the fully automated printing aspect. We already had (and still have) an Inca Digital Onset X1 from Fujifilm, and having seen the quality output and reliability from that machine, we knew that partnering up with Fujifilm again made sense.

“We’ve been very impressed with the Acuity B1. While our production has quickened, the quality has also been outstanding. The white ink option, which we were the first in the world to take up, allows us to produce vibrant work that really stands out, especially on transparent materials. The white ink print heads are very stable and, two years on from our investment, we’ve had no issues at all.”

Mr Verhoef also notes how impressed he and his colleagues have been with the automated operation of the machine, “The operator will start the printer up, and then the production run requires no intervention at all, allowing our staff to focus on other tasks. Overall, it’s helped with cost savings and shortened our production times, which is essential given the demands of our customers.
“Working with Fujifilm and Inca has been a pleasure once again,” concludes Jan. “They are good listeners and provide helpful advice – they are the perfect partner for us.”

Jaap van Duren, general manager at Fujifilm Sericol, comments, “Verhoef has always stood by its principles of delivering high-quality work cost-effectively, and we’re delighted to see how the Acuity B1 is aiding that pledge. Having already benefitted from the reliability and quality of the Onset X1, the company is now seeing identical success with the Acuity B1. We look forward to continuing to work with them and helping them to improve still further on the service they offer to their customers.”

Fujifilm Corporation is one of the major operating companies of Fujifilm Holdings. Since its founding in 1934, the company has built up a wealth of advanced technologies in the field of photo imaging, and in line with its efforts to become a comprehensive healthcare company, Fujifilm is now applying these technologies to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in the medical and life science fields. Fujifilm is also expanding growth in the highly functional materials business, including flat panel display materials, and in the graphic systems and optical devices businesses.

Fujifilm Graphic Systems is a stable, long term partner focussed on delivering high quality, technically advanced print solutions that help printers develop competitive advantage and grow their businesses. The company’s financial stability and unprecedented investment in R&D enable it to develop proprietary technologies for best-in-class printing. These include pre-press and pressroom solutions for offset, wide-format, and digital print, as well as workflow software for print production management. Fujifilm is committed to minimizing the environmental impact of its products and operations, proactively working to preserve the environment, and strives to educate printers about environmental best practice.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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