Alexir was one of the first UK carton printers to install a digital press. And as the majority of the dozen or so competitors that followed suite have now given up, it is one of the few that continues with the technology.
It has not been plain sailing, the company, like others, considered digital to be the same as litho but for short runs, or else that they would be producing highly personalised printed cartons. That market did not in reality exist Alexir lost money. Until it changed the approach and now Alexir Digital is thriving. “We lost a lot of money to start with,” says Jeremy Keable. “We needed to find a market for it and since we have done that, the business has grown year over year.”
It is housed on the floor above the main factory with a Xerox iGen5 in line to a Tresu coater with a Kama ProCut die cutter and Signature Boomerang folder gluer as the production tools. A Kongsberg XN cutting table adds to the set up to handle the shortest runs where it is not cost effective to have the necessary dies built. It is also used to cut the coating blankets that are needed by the Rapida and Lithrone presses and has been used to produce mock ups for Alexir Creative before it gained its own Zund cutting table.
The first press was an iGen3. It is now an iGen5, one of the last to be made. “It was a natural progression for us to stay with the iGen and to stay with toner for our customers,” says Ruth Lusher who heads Alexir Digital.
Those customers are the reason for the turnaround in fortunes. They are generally small businesses that have grown in many cases to the kinds of orders that are handled by mainstream litho printing. “They have grown as businesses and we have had a part to play in that,” says Lusher.
The unit remains small with each partner able to operate any of the equipment and produce any of the cartons required. The Tresu enables flood varnishes, with a water based or UV gloss varnish as standard and a soft touch varnish joining the menu.
The Kama is simply for die cutting, any foiling is sent out and with the small format and shorter runs, there is no need for automated blanking. The Boomerang can deliver both crash lock and straight line cartons. It can run a double glue line to enable the set up to cope with whatever is thrown at it. “We really do not have a standard product type,” says Lusher. Nor is there a standard customer.
There are existing customers of the business wanting to produce limited edition versions of their packaging. Others are new companies with a great idea and a need to buy cartons in small quantities until they become established. Many are new to print altogether and are invited in to get a better idea of the process involved as well as the investment that Alexir has made. The digital division therefore sits behind glass and has a comfortable seating area to make them welcome when they do.
These visitors are not the only ones who have no experience of print. Neither did Lusher. She had joined Alexir in a sales role, became part of the training scheme and was put in charge of the Digital operation in 2020. “I love problem solving,” she says.
And there were plenty to solve. Among the first steps was analysing the spreadsheets on the business to see the costs, the margins and where money was being made or not.
“That was really important to do and I really enjoyed that, putting in the changes needed,” she says. “And now I’m a packaging geek.”
Alexir Digital gets its board from the same sources as the litho businesses albeit that the sheet format is somewhat smaller than the B1 sheets it buys by the tonne for litho printing. It tries to limit choice to three board types which works well for the customer base.
However, it is also willing to push the boundaries. It is currently looking at printing on uncoated boards for a tea business that wants an organic look and feel she explains.
Inevitably there is some crossover between Digital and Packaging with work going one way or the other depending on loadings, or as sometimes happens production needs to happen overnight or in a very tight window that litho cannot manage. “We help each other out,” says Andrew Crack, head of Alexir Packaging.
Where this happens, the colour for a job is approved on the digital press which only has four-colour process. “It is easier to match litho to digital than the other way around,” she says.
