Pierre Lenzlinger SA. Neuchâtel is one of the most beautiful cities in Switzerland: a fantastic lakeside location, a picturesque old town, savoir vivre mixed with the rugged charm of the Jura. Neuchâtel is also home to the label printing company P. Lenzlinger SA. The business model: printing services for print shops. And the company is a digital printing pioneer: it has been working with Indigo systems for almost 25 years, the latest acquisition being an HP Indigo 6K web digital printing press.
Rue des Noyers 11, Neuchâtel. P. Lenzlinger SA is located at this address in a factory building. Today it is an impressive family business with 30 employees, equipped with state-of-the-art technology. But the beginnings were very modest. In 1975, company founder Pierre Lenzlinger set up a graphic design business. A "one man" show. Even then, he was looking for a niche. Name labels were very popular and production was still based on letterpress printing. Pierre Lenzlinger: "The label market was very different back then than it is today. We concentrated on all the little things that nobody else wanted to do." He is explicitly referring to other label printers. He explains: "My basic philosophy was always to be a label printer for other label printers. Short runs that no one else could or wanted to produce economically. A flexibility for "quick fixes". We were able to absorb production peaks that other label printers could no longer cope with. That was and still is our business model." Everything as usual in Neuchâtel? Not at all: over 20 years ago, Pierre Lenzlinger seized an opportunity that would change his company forever and catapult it to the top of the Swiss label printing industry.
The fascination of digital printing
Thanks to his specific focus, Pierre Lenzlinger was always on the lookout for new possibilities. When Indigo and Xeikon introduced industrial digital printing machines in the mid-1990s that were capable of much more than the previously known copying systems, he was electrified. What is "cold coffee" today was truly revolutionary back then. Pierre Lenzlinger: "I was fascinated from the very first moment by the fact that in digital printing, the print image is recreated each time a sheet or a section of a roll is printed. I immediately saw the potential of this technology for label printing. Be it for short runs, for many type changes or particularly ingenious: the personalization or individualization of each printed product."
When Indigo presented a system developed for label printing in partnership with Omnius, Pierre Lenzlinger seized the opportunity: the digital printing era began at P. Lenzlinger SA in 1999. The company founder continues: "We were the first label printing company in Switzerland to work with a digital web printing system. With the HP Omnius Webstream, we were able to produce in top quality. Digital printing and top quality were still considered a vision at the time. But we were the first to fully realize this vision!" Pierre Lenzlinger does not hide the fact that the first few years as a pioneer were hard work. "We had a lot to learn and also had setbacks, but over time we got to grips with things more and more." The company developed very dynamically, and for several years P. Lenzlinger SA was the only provider of digital web printing labels in Switzerland. Enough money was generated for further investments. In 2011, the company invested in three HP Indigo WS4000 systems. These were replaced by two HP Indigo WS6600s in 2016.
He began working with Indigo Omnius systems 25 years ago as an absolute pioneer.
One of these has now been replaced by the brand new HP Indigo 6K. Of course, P. Lenzlinger SA is no longer the only label printing company in Switzerland that works with web digital printing systems. Many of the partner companies that Pierre Lenzlinger supplies with label printing jobs also rely on HP Indigo technology. In addition to the two HP Indigos, an inkjet web system is also in use, as well as a toner web system that was acquired as part of a company takeover. But Pierre Lenzlinger has always remained true to himself in one respect: since 1999, the company has worked exclusively with digital printing systems. The company has long since said "Goodbye!" to analog printing technology.
Staying ahead
As more and more label printers invested in digital printing technology themselves, one of the company's specific USPs was lost. But this was and is not a problem - quite the opposite. Pierre Lenzlinger explains: "We continue to build on the strengths that we have always specialized in: very broad expertise, specialization in quality and flexibility, reliability and customer protection. In recent years, we have also increasingly focused on added value by adding new product categories to our range." By customer protection, Pierre Lenzlinger means loyalty to his print shop customers. He explains: "Our customers can absolutely rely on the fact that we don't go "backwards" on their end customers. That's a behavior that can no longer be taken for granted today."
Pierre Lenzlinger SA primarily invests in the ongoing development of the company - this keeps it ahead of the competition. Pierre Lenzlinger says: "We are still one of the most flexible label printing companies in Switzerland. But this is only possible if you have the right operational know-how and highly qualified and motivated employees. If everyone is working with the same technology, we simply have to get more out of it than anyone else." At the same time, he emphasizes: "Some people associate short production runs or total flexibility with 'tinkering'. But that's not the case. We are a highly industrialized, well-structured company that focuses on maximum efficiency.
It is therefore very important that we have two Indigos, without them we would not have the necessary flexibility." However, this also requires corresponding investment behavior. In addition to the now "normal" digital printing, it is above all the various special applications that have been the focus of attention in recent years. For example, the company has invested in a high-performance laser die-cutting system, which is a specialty in terms of performance and productivity. In addition to the further development of the company, Pierre Lenzlinger was able to get another important topic "on track": his succession. His daughter Laura Lenzlinger is now working as a customer advisor and her father's right-hand woman and is thus becoming more and more familiar with the business. Pierre Lenzlinger is satisfied: "Today I can happily and proudly declare that my Laura wants to and will continue to run the business!"
The HP Indigo 6K
While HP Indigo is one of many suppliers in the commercial printing sector, the company is certainly the "reference for digital label printing" in the global digital printing market - HP Indigo itself makes this statement. An estimated 50 percent of all label digital printing systems installed worldwide come from HP Indigo. It is therefore probably no coincidence that the first machine of the new Generation 6, the HP Indigo V12, with the completely new "Belt" technology, was first developed for the label market. For the time being, customers in Switzerland are still "making do" with the 6K.
The system is not a "revolution" but, like the other K models, benefits from numerous detailed improvements and the associated clear increases in productivity. The most important innovations: the HP Indigo DFE Production Pro with, according to HP Indigo, up to five times faster computer performance compared to the previous technology: the HP Print OSX workflow solution, which enables end-to-end automation from order acceptance to picking. Another new feature is the HP Indigo Spot Master technology, which makes it possible to hit the right color tone even faster. This point in particular was an important criterion in the procurement of the new HP Indigo 6K.
Pierre Lenzlinger: "With the high productivity we have, our systems have to be replaced approximately every five to seven years. However, I could have worked with the existing machinery for a little longer. The higher productivity and, above all, the possibilities of Spot Master technology convinced me to make the investment now!" The performance of the new HP Indigo 6K (it is a roller system): 30 m/min in four-color printing, 40 m/min in Enhanced Productivity mode, up to 60 m/min in one- or two-color printing. The machine at P. Lenzlinger SA is a seven-color configuration. CMYK and opaque white are used as standard, with spot colors changing as required. Pierre Lenzlinger: "The gold, silver and metallic simulations are particularly important for us.
HP Indigo has put a lot of development work into this in recent years, which enables us to make our print offering much more attractive, as we can print certain jobs completely "inline"." At the same time, however, he cautions: "We shouldn't draw the wrong conclusions from this. The Swiss market, with its many changes of type and short runs, is not a market for high-performance complete inline configurations. We continue to produce the majority of our orders offline on a wide variety of units.
In Pierre Lenzlinger's eyes, what speaks in favor of HP Indigo digital label printing systems? His answer: "Firstly, the print quality, which is quite simply the best available on the label printing market. But also the printing technology itself: the "E-Ink". As already mentioned, we use an inkjet and a toner system. E-Ink technology is the most versatile of all digital printing technologies on the market. It can be used to process a very wide range of jobs, including the food sector. Until a few years ago, this was an argument for using toner systems, but HP Indigo has long since closed this gap. The speed of inkjet systems is still an argument in their favor. And this is also where we use our system. But in terms of job variability, I am more limited with inkjet than with an "e-ink".
And there is another factor in favor of HP Indigo systems: Adrian Meyer from Chromos Group AG, who has been supporting P. Lenzlinger SA for a number of years, describes it as follows: "The fundamental advantages of printing technology are one factor. However, people often don't realize that HP Indigo has been active in the digital label printing market for over 25 years. They have learned a lot and built up unparalleled expertise. No other supplier in the digital printing market has a name as illustrious as HP Indigo and comes close to this level of experience. HP Indigo is the benchmark in the digital label printing market.
Doing very well
The 18 months of the Covid 19 pandemic have been a "good" time for P. Lenzlinger SA. Pierre Lenzlinger: "People consumed more and packaged more, which is why demand for labels also increased. While other print providers unfortunately suffered from the effects, we benefited. But regardless of this event, the market is changing in our favor. Individualized branding is becoming increasingly important and this is naturally a driver for the label printing market. A concrete example: We now have over 2,100 beers in Switzerland! An extraordinary boom. And now, all of a sudden, there's also the boom in gin. Many of these suppliers are small and micro providers and want to stand out from the competition with a good branding presence. Gin suppliers in particular are outbidding each other in a kind of competition for ever more unusual labels. We are ideally positioned for this with our systems and production facilities. And what applies to beers or gin can be seen throughout the consumer goods sector."
Pierre Lenzlinger is therefore very optimistic about the future: "The market trend in label printing is similar to that in other printing markets. Print runs are falling, but printing is becoming more frequent. And as the label market is closely interlinked with the consumer goods market, we are still seeing volume growth. But not for providers that specialize in large print runs. Growth is taking place where we are at home! And HP Indigo digital printing technology is the ideal way to participate in this growth.
