ePrinting, an Italian print company, has a lasting relationship with Komori. Owner Francesco Costa explains that his passion for print started at a young age. With a people centered approach to grow his business, Costa is now realizing tremendous growth plus his personal passion for nature made him choose the Komori GL840 Advance including the ozone free HUV technology.
The company is thriving, producing high quality print jobs and can guarantee delivery times in an extremely precise way.
Komori GL840 Advance
My name is Francesco Costa, I am 31 years old and I live in Grottaglie, a charming Apulian town in the province of Taranto (Italy), known throughout the world for the famous "ceramics". I have two children and a wonderful wife with whom I enjoy fishing in my free time in the nearby Ionian Sea, or walking for a long time in the woods and countryside of the nearby Pollino National Park. I also love taking care of my personal garden, which gives me particular satisfaction especially when I see my children involved. I consider NATURE the means to achieve one's own physical and mental well-being, especially in the most demanding moments of life. I often flee on my boat or with my tracking shoes to reach a state of well-being that gives me the energy to better face work challenges.
The love of print runs in the family
I attended an Art Institute with a specialization in Advertising Graphics, graduating in 2011.
During my studies I often attended my parents' graphic company, the TIPOGRAFIA ETTORRE established in 1989 and where I breathed the "smells" of typography since I was a child.
Even during my studies, at the Institute I attended, I was lucky enough to attend Typography and Lithography laboratories, slowly maturing a strong passion for this sector, thanks also to the imprinting received from my father.
Key focus on the production times & proces
The part that has always excited me about my work is the production process. It is fascinating to think that to produce a printed product, you need a pre-press phase, a printing phase, a post-printing or finishing phase. And the knowledge of the means available, combined with the type of demand that comes from the market, allowed me to understand how important the evaluation of production times is, in order to better coordinate the teams of each sector (Pre-Press – Printing – Finishing) to create production efficiencies.
This passion for the "calculations" of production times, has led me to an enthusiastic search for the best technological solutions on the market, with the aim of pursuing the goal of guaranteeing its customers a high QUALITY and an excellent SERVICE.
High service levels for the win!
In 2019 I founded my company, ePrinting, with the idea of focusing production in the B2B sector, offering my customers (lithographs, graphic agencies, advertising studios), the possibility of being able to guarantee a fast service to its customers and a high level of quality, without compromising the competitiveness of the printed matter.
The sector in which we operate with ePrinting is the commercial/editorial one (magazines, books, leaflets, brochures, etc.), where the service, perhaps more than quality and price, is decisive and winning. So, after creating a new production site of 2500 square meters (always in Grottaglie), I focused my attention on the search for the best technology that could guarantee the 3 requirements of the sale: Price, Quality and Service.
A strong Komori heritage
I've known Komori for years. My father in the last 20 years, has bought for the old family business, 3 KOMORI: an L440, an L420 and an LS840 with which within a few years he was able to consolidate an interesting turnover, gaining great skills in the B2B sector.
The knowledge of the Komori world, the relationship with the local sales (which I would call almost familiar, as well as professional), the efficiency of technical assistance, the reliability of KOMORI mechanics and electronics, the technological evolution made totally available to the operator, made my choice in the printing sector easy.
In fact, after carefully analyzing all the main German brands, I was convinced of the idea that Komori was the best solution for my business.
People first approach
It is obvious that relying only on technology is not enough to achieve and consolidate growth. In the new production site, I worked hard to put my collaborators at the center. I consider companies made first of all of people. It is no coincidence that we talk about human resources, resources that if put at the center of a project, will be the driving force for its development. I found in Komori a great partner to reinforce this “people first” concept. The knowledge of the plant by my collaborators is a merit of the Japanese manufacturer, an extra gear if you want to guarantee quality and service to customers.
I interact daily with my collaborators and what emerges in the press sector is the tranquillity with which they use Komori. Ease of use and reduced human effort are the cause of this operational tranquillity, a credit that I must give Komori.
New installation with HUV technology
In September 2022 we installed a new KOMORI LITHRONE G40P advance 8 colors with HUV curing system. The machine is equipped with all the automatisms necessary to be competitive in the orders that characterize our work, orders in which the average circulation does not exceed 1000/1500 copies.
In addition to the simultaneous plate entry, which allows you to replace 8 sheets in just 80 seconds, the machine is equipped with all quality control systems (PDC-SX, KID, PCC) that allow you to standardize quality with extreme ease of use. I was convinced to buy Komori because I consider the machines of the Japanese manufacturer the most balanced in terms of reliability, production performance, and impact on the environment.
It is no coincidence that I chose the HUV system, an excellence that only Komori has in the Ozone Free UV curing sector. With the new plant within 6 months, I have seen our business volume grow by well over 30%, with a quality level (also guaranteed by HUV technology) that our customers greatly appreciate. The fully automated plant equipped with HUV polymerization, today allows us to guarantee delivery times in an extremely precise way, without the risk of having to give up the most urgent orders.
In addition, HUV printing has allowed us to acquire processes that we would never have been able to print with a conventional machine, such as the PPL plastic support that until a few years ago our customer had printed outside the region. Not only that: having also produced an important digital system, I was able to see that our Komori configured in this way is competitive even on very small production batches. An order of 200 copies of a Book consisting of 40 put in the machine, it is more convenient to print it on the Komori than on the digital system, with excellent production costs and a quality that has no equal.
Data-driven production for even more efficiency!
Today I am studying with my collaborators, every single order with the aim of creating a historical (thanks also to Komori's clouds) that will put us in a position to choose the best way to move the next steps. In the commercial sector, it is evident that over 60% of the processes travel in the A4 format (multiples and submultiples). With Komori we are studying, for this reason, the Lithrone G37, an offset protocol format that, alongside the current Lithrone 840 Advance, could allow us to standardize production formats, achieving enormous time savings and therefore huge production economies, thus becoming further competitive.
In short, I can consider myself a lucky guy. Because I find myself in the sector I love thanks to the cultural heritage left to me by my parents, I am surrounded by valiant collaborators that I consider part of my family and I was lucky enough to meet Komori on my path, which I consider a serious and reliable partner with whom I can develop an exciting industrial project.
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