Big Print just got bigger

Cristian FAUR

They call themselves Big Print and they mean it. They do print big and they print a lot. This company had already established a name for itself not long after it was in business because of their dedication and expertise in the field of outdoor advertising solutions, but not only for that. They also have the skills and technology to respond to a whole array of demands for the indoor applications market, as well as decorations, marketing applications and other visual communication instruments. But when it comes to huge outdoor ad solutions, that is when many local and foreign companies that need this type of services already know who to talk to: the specialists from Big Print. The customers know about them since 1998, because they have been one of the first companies in this area that provided such services.
We are talking about a company that has offices in three countries: Austria, Hungary and Romania. Big Print also has production facilities both in Hungary and Romania. The company is big itself too, having around 100 employees in Romania alone. So, we are talking about an already well-known big player on the market, everybody practically knows who they are and what they do, so what is the news? The news is that they have recently become the first company in Central and Eastern Europe to install and run a brand new HP Scitex FB11000 in the production facilities in Bucharest. This means that if until now they used to be heavyweights, from now on they play in a weight division of their own.
Big Print isproud user of digital technology and they know how to use it to the maximum both in the interest of the customer and their own. They are specialists in using the freedom and flexibility that digital machines offer to the printers in order to meet the ever-growing type of demands that today’s complicated market has from them. The new machine that they have now in their production halls gives them new possibilities and also opens new markets for a company that has already delivered its products all over Europe, this time for cardboard applications. But this business, as technical as it may seem, especially for the outsider’s eye, is not all about technology. In this organization’s philosophy, the main investments go into two main areas: technology and people, and for the leadership of the company, both have the same importance. Technology and people are actually two of the main aces upBig Print’s sleeve.
Edit Sánta, General Manager, Big Print Romania, told us in an interview for Print Magazin: “Our biggest advantage is the production capacity. We have solid partnerships in place that ensure very good logistics. Aside from the volume of print we can provide, I can also mention the quality that our high end machines can assure for the jobs (a level of quality that challenges offset up to a point) and our very good response time. I can also add to this list of advantages another one: our team and our professional level for design, production and customer service. Our standards for customer service meet the highest West-European expectations and we worked a lot to achieve them.”

High end digital: win-win solutions for the customer and the provider
“Most clients from the large format printing market, unlike offset or flexo printers, have misconceptions about production costs, and the discussion is most of the times about two factors:the price of the machine and the price of the ink. In fact, what matters is the total cost of ownership and production for a 3 to 5 years and the most decisive element is productivity. Hence, the real value of the investment made by Big Print in Romania (who had already tested this recipe in Hungary). They have now the most productive equipment on the market in their segments, both with FB11000 and with HP Latex 3000. Only by sheer productivity has the HP Scitex FB11000 series managed to have 70% market share worldwide only years after the launch of the first model. If we add to that the level of quality that has evolved from HP Scitex FB7500 (that was developed to replace screen printing with digital, a thing that has already happened) to the level that now rivals offset lithography, we have a clear explanation why today Big Print, in a fair competition, cannot lose any significant contract. There is a lot of good quality equipment on the market, with small or medium productivity. The small ones that function in locations around the country will probably see little effect, as they provide rapid answers to local needs. The companies with medium capacities, with machines costing up to 500.000 Euro, will begin to feel the pressure from those who have chosen to equip themselves with high end models. Very few people have noticed that HP dominates the top in flatbed printers at entry-level, also, in the 50 to 150.000 Euro range. The first entry level model acquired by Big Print a few years ago, HP Scitex FB700, which was used more intensely by them than by any other client in our graphic industry market, although it hasn’t suffered any major technological changes in the last five years, continues to be market leader. That is because it features the highest productivity in its segment. This is truly adequate for the advertising business and even for some packaging operations and it also provides production costs over a period of years of operation that are smaller than what the competition can offer, despite the fact that it doesn’t have the best quality in its segment, nor the high end technologies and innovations so pompously announced by some other producers. Since the 2008 crisis and until the good years of 2013 – 2015, which proved very beneficial for accessing European funds in Romania, nobody has bothered to make TCO or ROI analysis, but everybody has kept on asking us, the providers, post factum, how some printers can offer such a good price on big jobs when they have to. The answer is in what I said above, and the winners usually win before the battle has even started.”– Bogdan Vasilescu, General Manager, Grup Transilvae, Dealer HP and provider of printing machines for Big Print.

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