Fifth-generation family-run firm continues evolution into a full-service provider
Cavelti is a 140-year-old fifth-generation family-run business in Gossau, St Gallen, Switzerland. It has evolved from a newspaper publisher and traditional book printing company to a full-service provider for integrated communication. The innovative media company delivers product and customer-oriented quality. It places great importance on constantly optimizing its production processes and work according to internationally recognized standards in order to guarantee optimum quality. Its project teams consist of professionals from the fields of consulting, conception, content, digital marketing, creation, publishing and print production. This also includes the branding and digital marketing specialists of brand agency Kernbrand, a subsidiary of Cavelti AG. Pre-pandemic, around 10% of Cavelti’s volume output was digital printing and it is growing steadily. Although it is difficult to make long term future digital print forecasts it is expected that within five years digital could represent between 30% and 40% of overall print volumes.
“Three years ago, we took a strategic decision to grow in the digital printing market. The world of communication is changing rapidly, and Konica Minolta is an important partner as we help our customers to master this challenge. The technology also met our needs.”
Claudio Cavelti
Managing Director, Cavelti
Communication is Cavelti’s world. As part of its overall corporate strategy, it attaches great importance to the fact that all communication channels for a brand and its company can be part of an integrated communication strategy. Dynamism and flexibility are in its DNA. To further enhance this approach and support the innovative media company’s move towards becoming a full-service provider of integrated communications, Cavelti invested in a Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1e UV inkjet press, supplied and installation by Swiss partner Graphax, and a Konica Minolta AccurioPress C14000 flagship high-speed toner press.
Both presses are award winners following extensive Buyers’ Laboratory (BLI) testing – part of a focus shift towards digital production capabilities. They enable Cavelti to respond to fast changing markets that demand flexibility to cope with increased pressures on short run jobs and quicker turnarounds.
Live demonstrations at other Konica Minolta customer sites, the huge flexibility offered on substrates, the easy path into finishing solutions and the introduction of new applications were also important factors that sparked a change of business strategy to grow digital production even faster for Cavelti.
Other inkjet solutions from other manufacturers were tested but the print results did not compare. Overwhelming factors in favour of the KM-1e were a wider colour gamut that delivered the delicate corporate colours of Cavelti’s printed products with unrivalled purity and radiance, and consistently flat sheets with no waviness at all, even with high ink coverage.
Also a crucial advantage was the B2+ sheet size offered by the KM-1e, which matched Calveti’s offset print size of 50 x 70 and 70 x 100 and the post-press structure already in place. Other benefits were no wrinkling, no drying time required and high-quality inkjet production, particularly for clear colours in terms of orange and purple that needed to stand out and could be produced on the normal four-colour gamut on the AccurioJet KM-1e. In addition, no special substrates are required on paper weights from 60gsm up to 600 gsm with jobs printed one after the other with all different papers.
Experts from Konica Minolta and Graphax demonstrated high levels of competences including technical feasibility, ROI calculations and commercial considerations. Konica Minolta’s wide-ranging expertise also led to the second investment in its digital production technology – the AccurioPress C14000. Launched less than four years ago, the toner press prints at 140 pages per minute (ppm) and is faster than any other toner-based machine from Konica Minolta. The press has also achieved TÜV Rheinland’s proof criteria for toy testing, as well as INGEDE certification.
Cavelti’s managing director Claudio Cavelti, explains: “Three years ago we took a strategic decision to grow in the digital printing market. We liked the Konica Minolta print samples and were impressed when we visited a number of operations running the systems. The technology also met our needs.” “We wanted to produce periodicals with clear colours in terms of orange and purple and when we printed offset, we needed a fifth colour. With the KM-1 it was possible to print with UV with the usual colour gamut. Important, too, was its wider B2+ sheet size and the fact it matched the post-press infrastructure already in place. The KM-1 delivered in all these areas. The numbers also stacked up and it was good to know the support of Konica Minolta was behind the investment.” He continues: “A big driver as well was the enormous flexibility of the press particularly for substrates from 60gsm to 600gsm. We use of lot of heavyweight stocks and can run one job after another – all with different grades. No drying time is required, wrinkles have been eliminated and finishing has been made easier.” Since its installation Claudio says: “The press has been running very well. It can produce the full range of applications we expected. It is enabling us to efficiently, and effectively, respond to greater demand for more and more short runs. It is allowing us to expand our production capabilities with a greater focus on digital. We have seen a growth of 10% in the last year alone. By 2027 we think digital print could represent up to 40% of our print volume.” He added: “The world of communication is changing rapidly - and Konica Minolta is an important partner as we help our customers to master this challenge.”