Mercury Print Productions and Landa Digital Printing Q&A

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For all of those questions from our Members regarding Landa S10P deliveries and capabilities, hopefully, the following Q&A will answer some of them.

Mercury Print Productions and Landa Digital Printing Q&A
By Helene Smith

This August 2019 Q&A explores Mercury Print’s experience with their new Landa S10P Nanographic® Printing Press; and Landa’s progress with their worldwide press roll-out and building the necessary business infrastructure to support its growth.

Speakers: CEO of Landa Digital Printing, Yishai Amir, and the CEO/President of Mercury Print Productions, John Place.

John Place, CEO, Mercury Print Productions:
Q: How has the Landa S10P installation process gone?
A: Integrating the Landa press into our production floor has been easy - it fits in smoothly with all our upstream and downstream processes and wider equipment. Genuinely, the press is living up to even the huge expectations that we had for it, and the range and volume of work we hoped it would be capable of managing.

Almost all the jobs on the Landa press are offset and toner transfers, that can be produced more efficiently and cost effectively on the S10P. Particularly for complex multi-page work, we now save a huge amount of time and money on finishing.

Q: How does the S10P fit within your existing press line-up?
A: It sits between our digital and analogue presses, complementing both technologies. In the future, we see the Landa technology replacing our digital sheetfed toner devices as well as the short run products from our sheetfed offset presses.

With the groundwork our team has done over the past few months, we’re now seeing big demand for Landa’s medium-run capability. We’re delighted to be first to market with this technology in the USA, and we see it as being key to our growth plan.

Q: When do you expect the Landa press to be in full production?
A: As far as we are concerned, the Landa press is running daily sellable jobs for us. Landa is continually working on enhancements to enable us to improve quality and reliability, the press has been included in our regular production scheduling for some months now.

What’s more, we recently ran the Landa press for a full week operating three shifts – this went very, very well. I must also say that during that period, we had amazing support from the Landa team.

Q: When will the S10P be upgraded to perfecting?
A: Our Landa S10P is already in production, printing and delivering great results for customers. In order not to interrupt production, we decided together with Landa, to take advantage of the quieter time in the fall to do the perfector upgrade.

Q: What’s the biggest benefit you’ve seen from this press (biggest advantage over offset)?
A: Production flexibility. Being able to give the customer what they want and need, without technology limitations, has been a breath of fresh air. It reduces our finishing side of the business because every sheet can be different.

Q: What can the press not do that you need it to?
A: Frankly, nothing as yet. The press was integrated into our production planning process within the first month and we’re already relying on it for critical work. What’s more, customers are very happy with print quality, and especially its wide media range and color vibrancy – for us, that’s been the litmus test.

I have to say, we’ve had a lot of experience with beta processes, and we’re very pleased with how it’s going with Landa. Of course, we’re working towards the perfector upgrade, but right now, that will just be the cherry on the cake.

Q: When do you expect to be out of beta?
A: We’re currently on target and progress has been excellent so far. It is of course a planned process, but I’m sure it won’t be long.

Yishai Amir, CEO, Landa Digital Printing:
Q: What’s the current status of Landa NA installs?
A: Well, the Landa S10P that you see here at Mercury, our first press in North America, was installed in January and has been in commercial production since February. We’ve also just finished installing an S10 at Virtual Packaging who are ramping-up production, with another S10 starting production at a leading POS printer later this month. We are shipping more S10 presses to folding carton converters later in H2, with additional presses expected in North America by the end of the year.

Q: Where is Landa in terms of global installations?
A: Presses are already installed and in production around the world, including Germany, Switzerland and Israel. Additional presses are on their way to China, the UK, Germany, France, and other countries.

More specifically, the S10 is already in full production at the German packaging converter, Edelmann Group, who are expected to be out of beta in weeks. Virtual Packaging is our first commercial (non-beta) customer, and we are installing more presses in the USA and around the world this year. As always, our plan is to ramp-up in a responsible way.

For the S10P, 2019 is a big year. Obviously, the installation here at Mercury is a huge landmark for us in North America, but we also have our second EMEA beta press being shipped to RouteOne in the UK right now – a very different type of customer that will deliver a very different set of learnings and experience. More generally, order-taking for S10P presses is exceeding expectations.

Q: Can you share some of the most significant feedback you’ve received, lately?
A: The 7-color presses are producing excellent print and color quality, and as a result we are seeing strong interest from the most demanding brands -- and in the most challenging segments - beauty, healthcare, pharma, confectionery etc.

Q: When do you expect to be in serial production?
A: The Landa S10 is already in serial production. Virtual Packaging is our first commercial (non-beta) customer and will be shortly followed by ZRP in China, with other contracts signed and presses due to be installed later this year. If you visited our production plant today, you would see all these S10 presses in serial production and readied for shipment. The beta for the S10P is going to plan, with excellent progress here at Mercury, and as mentioned, another beta press is shipping to RouteOne in the UK as we speak. We’re moving quickly into the commercial phase with all our presses.

Q: What about general operations around the world to support the global roll-out?
A: Production, logistics, supplies, service and support have been, and continue to be, scaled-up rapidly. In order to serve a large, worldwide customer base, we’ve made huge investment in facilities, people and partnerships around the world to make this happen.

Q: What manufacturing facilities does Landa have?
A: We already have two manufacturing plants in Israel. In addition, we have a dedicated consumables production facility, System Plant 3, under construction and expected to be operational later this year.

Q: What does Landa have planned for Drupa 2020?
A: Drupa 2020 is still a year away. Our focus continues to be on delivering and installing dozens of customer presses around the world. As you know, we love being at Drupa - so stay tuned!
 

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