Desmedt, a Mark Andy partner, was recently featured in a “Companies To Watch” spotlight by Label & Narrow Web. The mid-sized print business was acknowledged for its strategic investment strategy that has delivered a competitive advantage and a greener net impact on the environment.

Interviewed in the piece was Henri Köhler, General Manager, Desmedt who provides interesting commentary on his perception of the digital market, automation, and pressroom productivity.

Desmedt is based outside of Brussels, Belgium- a city known to many as the home base for Labelexpo Europe. The operation was an early adopter in the initial digital-era, investing heavily in the late 1990’s in traditional digital process. Initially a smart decision, with the evolution of Desmedt’s business model and customer requests it proved sub-optimal, paving the way to identify other viable capital investments.

Click charges and robust maintenance, and lengthy set-up requirements made the investment in straight digital an ill-fit to their operation and job mix which was still relatively driven by flexo practices. These shortfalls of legacy digital process were taken into consideration when developing our digital hybrid portfolio, stemming from the successful Performance Series platform which revolutionized short-run productivity for flexography.

To bridge gaps in legacy flexo capability, Köhler visited top flexo press manufacturers in search of change. The General Manager was blown away by the Performance Series P7’s capabilities during his visit to the Mark Andy European Demo center. Test jobs run at the Warsaw facility included self-adhesive work, multi-layer labels, and screen applications that were usual suspects in Desmedt’s daily workflow.