Printing Innovation Asia Issue 9 2020
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Combining UV inkjet and dry toner technology perfectly Before he started Premier Markings, Gary Moody gained over 20 years of experience as a label salesperson. He sold labels from his office; production of labels was done by other companies. Premier Markings started in 2008. It started as a digital printing company and that was a deliberate choice. With his expertise, and with the trends in the market of labels, industry veteran Gary realized that if he were to start his manufacturing capability it had to be with digital printing.
to buy a Xeikon 3030 in 2013. Gary comments: “Originally I was going to go for an HP labels press, but when I went to visit the Xeikon office in Chicago, the people there convinced me and gave me the sense that they would help me make it happen. Looking back now they really did!”
There was no place for a flexo press in the concept Gary’s Premier Markings. The company started with a low volume tabletop label printer, ideal for very short run labels of 500 pieces. Soon it became clear that a productive high-quality printing label press was needed to make the company a success. After researching the supplier market thoroughly, Premier Markings decided
From start-up to a reference in digital labels As a small company and a purely digital shop, Premier Markings was able to adapt faster to the changing trends in the market for labels. This gave the company as a newcomer an edge over existing, bigger, flexo-oriented label printers. Gary made another very specific and smart decision: he opted to
hire IT people for his company rather than label savvy people. Gary: “Employees that can work with and understand computers easily are crucial for companies these days. This is even more so for digital label printing companies and I was convinced it was easier to train IT people about labels than the other way around. I’m absolutely sure that helped us a lot.” After a learning curve, demand requests and accelerating productivity measures, Premier Markings realized they needed a second press. This would make them more productive because they would avoid many substrates changes on the press. A second Xeikon 3030 came in. Soon even those presses were nearing capacity so one of the Xeikon 3030 presses was upgraded to a Xeikon 3300, which basically doubled its capacity. Gary further noted, “That is very unique with the Xeikon dry toner series of presses, you can start with an entry level press and then upgrade on site when the business grows and you have extra funds to invest.” The introduction of UV Inkjet In January 2020, the Xeikon PX3000 UV inkjet machine replaced the Xeikon 3030. Gary was considering buying an inkjet press for 2 years. The speed of inkjet was appealing, and the print quality was better than he expected. Gary: “It was a tough decision to choose what type of inkjet press to go for as there are alternatives to the Panther (PX3000) from Xeikon. Eventually, an impressive demo at the Xeikon Chicago Innovation Center as well as knowing the certainty of having the very reliable Xeikon team at hand
