Text and images: Knud Wassermann, Graphische Revue

Printing company Thurnher from Rankweil in Vorarlberg invested in a new HP Indigo digital half-sheet press at the beginning of February 2025. We spoke to Managing Director Johannes Thurnher about the market, his product portfolio and the resulting machinery. One of the key statements is: "The half-sheet format of the HP Indigo 18K clearly sets us apart from the competition."

"The market for printed matter is in a state of flux, and as a company you simply have to face up to the associated challenges," emphasizes Johannes Thurnher, Managing Director of Druckerei Thurnher. This has actually always been the case, but the speed and the number of issues and questions that need to be addressed today have increased significantly. In this context, Thurnher highlights issues such as employees, training, the market, sales, but also digitalization, technology and networking. He attaches great importance to the order in which they are listed, because without his team, the success story of recent years would not have come to fruition. This is also underlined by the average length of employment at the Vorarlberg print shop, which is 9.5 years.

The technology mix makes the difference Digital printing — The management team: from left to right Martin Köck, Johannes Thurnher, Gabi Thurnher, Bernd Feuerstein

Portfolio expanded

In recent years, the company has systematically expanded its product portfolio, most recently in 2023 with the acquisition of the printing and calendar divisions of Sedlmayr. With this step, the company brought machine calendar production in-house. In the course of the takeover, synergies in production were leveraged and the division was further expanded; today, 300,000 calendars with a Wire-O binding are produced each year.

Another area that is becoming increasingly important for Druckerei Thurnher is books. The company currently produces 200,000 soft and hardcover books a year. Brochures and catalogs account for a large proportion of commercial printing, with more than eight million copies of all types leaving the company each year. The mailing segment is also one of the stable pillars of production printing. "Printed mailings still work very well. However, the high postage costs are always putting a damper on printed mailings," emphasizes the Managing Director. For many years, he has been of the opinion that "printing alone is not enough". Accordingly, the range of services has been massively expanded to include consulting, graphic design, warehousing, dispatch and delivery, which the market also appreciates. In the meantime, Druckerei Thurnher has also set up its own online store (store.dth.at), where customers can order standard print products such as calendars, brochures and posters quickly and easily.

Almost unlimited possibilities

In order to cover the breadth of the product portfolio described above, the Rankweiler print shop has been relying on a technology mix of classic offset printing and digital printing for years. In 2021, a hybrid 8-color offset printing press was put into operation, which can work with both vegetable oil-based printing inks and LED UV printing inks. This allows coated and uncoated papers to be printed without compromising on quality. This offers customers unlimited design freedom across all paper and cardboard qualities.

A wealth of experience in digital printing

Thurnher Druckerei entered the world of digital printing at a very early stage in order to be able to produce short runs and personalized printed matter efficiently. In particular, the company recognized its entry into the HP Indigo digital printing world in 2017 as an opportunity to set itself apart from the competition - both in terms of format (50 x 70 cm) and quality. Based on the positive experience with the HP Indigo 12000, Thurnher Druckerei installed the HP Indigo 18K - a digital half-sheet press - at the end of the first quarter of 2025. With the latest generation, HP Indigo has succeeded in raising the quality level even further, emphasizes Johannes Thurner. This can be seen, among other things, in large-scale color areas that convey an absolutely harmonious impression, even on uncoated papers, which are currently very much in vogue.

"We achieve a quality on the HP Indigo that is absolutely comparable to offset printing. This is a key requirement of our customers. For example, the preliminary print run can be produced in digital printing and then later the larger print run in offset printing. Another example is language mutations, which are produced in parallel in offset or digital printing depending on the print run. In this way, we can ensure CI-compliant coloring across all printing processes." The HP Indigo also offers the option of expanding the color space in the desired direction with so-called spot colors such as green, violet or orange. Quality assurance in the HP Indigo 18K is handled by an AI-based control system, which is equipped with an automated reprint function. Both have proven themselves in practice.

Expansion of the portfolio

In addition to quality, HP Indigo has focused on optimizing sheet travel, thus ensuring stable production - especially at higher grammages. At the same time, the substrate thickness was also increased to 600µm in perfecting printing. On the one hand, this is an asset in calendar printing and, on the other, it enables Thurnher Druckerei to enter into the production of packaging in short runs. "A promising addition to our existing portfolio". The company is only at the beginning here, but the first customers have already taken notice and have already placed their first packaging orders. With the half-sheet format of the HP Indigo 18K, the company entered the run length range in digital printing eight years ago. Johannes Thurnher does not want to commit himself to a break-even point in offset printing, as it simply depends too much on the respective application.

"The half-sheet format clearly sets us apart from the competition - both in terms of application and productivity. Signature-compliant production in particular, in which the pages are printed in the correct order, allows work steps such as folding to be skipped. This is an advantage that is particularly useful for calendar and book production. With the HP Indigo 18K, we were able to expand our capacities, which helped us to absorb production peaks for calendars and books, for example," says Johannes Thurnher.

Heinrich Maag from Chromos, who is overseeing the project on the sales side, emphasizes that digital printing has been taken to a whole new level with the HP Indigo. This can be seen in the following points, among others: "The 18K processes substrates from 70 to 600 µm and automatically adjusts the print thickness for each individual sheet. This means that different materials in one and the same job are no longer a problem. What's more, it prints in seven colors, which means that any Pantone color can be printed." Maag is also very positive about the AI support provided by the operator throughout the entire printing process. The AI provides specific operating instructions, continuously optimizes the settings and thus ensures consistent production.

Returning to the strengths of print

Johannes Thurnher also emphasizes the problem-free integration of the HP Indigo press into the existing Prinect workflow, from which both the complete offset and digital printing are controlled. At this point, the Managing Director refers to the trusting cooperation with the entire CHROMOS Group AG team. This was once again demonstrated in the consultation, the installation, which was an absolute precision landing, and in the training. The CHROMOS Group has already demonstrated this quality of service over the last eight years.

With the commissioning of the new HP Indigo, the print shop is now very well positioned in all areas of production. With the existing team and his son joining the company, Johannes Thurnher is optimistic about the future despite all the challenges - especially as he is seeing a return to the strengths of print in the communications mix among individual customers.

This article was published in June 2025 in the trade journal Graphische Revue