L’Etiquette Adhésive, a privately owned label converter in Pau, South-West France, is reporting significant productivity gains from a Mark Andy Digital Series HD (DSHD) press installed in 2024. It is the company’s first Mark Andy press at the plant. The hybrid press was acquired to handle growing demand for more SKUs in shorter run lengths more economically.
Stéphane Clavier began looking to acquire a B2B company in 2019 and found L’Etiquette Adhésive suited his aim of growing a business outside the retail sector. The Covid-19 pandemic followed the next year. “It actually increased demand for labels to a level that has largely been sustained ever since,” said Clavier.
The move to a new and larger building in 2019 also provided space for a planned investment program that continues to this day. Clavier inherited a machine line-up that included flexo and digital toner presses as well as offline converting equipment. However, the growth in demand for more SKUs in shorter run lengths was proving a challenge to handle economically, and he began scanning the market for a solution.
“I knew of hybrid presses, but coming from a non-print background, I was unaware of what benefits the technology could offer us. So, I began asking the well-known press manufacturers if they could show me one of their hybrid presses in commercial operation at a converter producing similar work to ours. Only Mark Andy was able to do this, and the demonstration was so convincing that within a month we had placed the order for the press,” he explained.
The DSHD has a 430 mm web width and is based on the Performance Series flexo platform. A five-color (CMYK+W) UV-inkjet digital engine is located between the flexo print stations – two before and three after the digital engine. These stations allow additional colors to be printed, a lacquer to be added, or cold-foil to be applied.
The press also has turn bars, a double unwind for two-web insetting, two Gizmos (web translators for multi-layer coupon labels) and a semi-rotary die cut station. An overhead extraction unit is fitted to handle the removal of complex waste matrix. Together, these features allow single-pass operation from blank roll to finished label.
As labels become more complex and brand owners specify more expensive substrates, waste material becomes a major issue and cost center. Make-ready time and material waste on the flexo presses mean all but longer jobs are uneconomical to produce. The running speeds of the toner presses and offline finishing equipment also point toward the hybrid having an efficiency advantage.
“Despite having flexo and digital capability already, I must admit there was a learning curve with the hybrid, purely in terms of synchronizing the digital and flexo print with the converting elements. It required a new way of thinking, but the Mark Andy, which was working double-day shifts, is now on three-shift operation, and is very productive,” he added.
The DSHD has allowed Clavier to move work from both his flexo and digital lines, freeing up capacity for the jobs to which those lines are better suited.
Around 90% of work at the Pau plant is printed and converted using filmic materials. One major customer has recently changed its requirement to all PP, and the opacity of the digital white on the Mark Andy has quickly filled capacity on the press. Most of the work produced by L’Etiquette Adhésive is supplied to customers within the local region, and turnover is set to grow from Euro 7.8 m this year to Euro 8.4 in 2027.
Speaking for Mark Andy, Stéphane Rateau, newly appointed sales agent for France, said, “L’Etiquette Adhésive is an excellent case study of how to develop a label converting business by strategic investment and embracing the latest technology, with a delivery performance rating of more than 98%. I can promise that Mark Andy is fully committed to ensuring the Digital Series HD press maintains this level of excellence.”