Brand owners are more frequently requesting short run and fast delivery without wanting to sacrifice quality or cost. To accommodate that without giving away the margin, the Italian producer of labels for the food and wine market ETICHETTIFICIO D.A.P.O. went looking for a new label press.

We wanted speed and quality, but above all reduced costs

In 2007, the company bought its first digital toner based label printer to serve exactly the demand for short run and fast delivery. But over the years, demand as well as competition has increased, and what previously was a good solution for a modest part of the production was now an inadequate and too costly solution. As late as 2014, the company started looking for an alternative.

”We went looking for a state-of-the-art technology which could improve the print quality and speed, but above all reduce the cost,” says Roberto Porreca.

It was not an easy task, but together with its technology partner Erre.Gi.Elle, ETICHETTIFICIO D.A.P.O. spotted a prototype of the new Trojan2 at LabelExpo in USA in late 2014. Soon after, they visited Trojanlabel in Denmark, and much to their satisfaction, the Trojan2 was exactly what they were looking for.

”The alternatives available in the market were small, table top printers, totally inadequate for professional converters, or big and very expensive digital presses. The Trojan2 press was the golden mean, with performances equal to high-level printers in many aspects and at a very affordable price,” says Roberto Porreca.

Printing directly from the design application

Another thing which satisfies Roberto Porreca is the fact that the printer can be operated directly from a label design application, such as Adobe Illustrator. No need for intermediate software to modify files before printing, which makes file preparation very fast and smooth.

”And there are no ‘gap’ issues between the labels, which allows us to use standard finishing equipment,” adds Roberto Porreca.

Through its partner Erre.Gi.Elle., the firmware is frequently updated, which also allows new features to be implemented free of charge.

Expectations surpassed

According to Roberto Porreca, the Trojan2 is a very good purchase. It does what it is expected to do to perfection and completely covers the need for short run and fast delivery as well as solves urgent problems:

”Just recently, one of our big clients, a famous brand owner, requested a very urgent job. Their production line was on hold, as they had run out of labels. They called us, and from the time they hung up the phone, until they parked outside our door to pick up the labels, we had produced the 1,500 labels they needed. This is only possible with machinery like the Trojan2,” states Roberto Porreca.

The Trojan2 has fully met the expectations from Roberto Porreca and ETICHETTIFICIO D.A.P.O. The machine has reduced the costs significantly, which was the primary goal, and the use of ease and the reduced change-over time has even surprised them a little, giving them the opportunity to solve urgent matters like the one mentioned above.

To Roberto Porreca, digital label printing is the future, and his company will definitely make further investments. Together with its technology partner and Trojanlabel, they will investigate new opportunities as they come along.