Dubai-based flexo pre-press house installs EskoArtwork WebCenter

EskoArtwork has announced the successful installation of Esko WebCenter at leading flexographic pre-press house Namma Int’l Digitec (Digitec) based in Dubai.

Digitec’s roots stem from Arttec, a family business based in Syria which still forms part of the group and focuses on analogue pre-press. Namma Int’l Digitec was created from a joint venture with NESMA holdings and International Partners and has since gone from strength to strength with customers in flexible packaging, label printing and corrugated boxes. The company is also part of International Media Production Zone (IMPZ), an organization sponsored by the Dubai government, seeking to create a unique cluster environment for media production companies from across the industry value chain, and from across the world, to interact and collaborate effectively with a focus on the graphic arts, publishing and packaging sectors.

Digitec’s relationship with EskoArtwork through local distributor Industrial Tools & Media started approximately two years ago when the company invested in its first CDI flexo CTP. At the end of 2006, Digitec became the first pre-press house in the Middle East to invest in second CDI in just over a year. 2006 was also the year when the Esko BackStage workflow was installed.

The company and its customers have been impressed by the quality of the digital flexo plates output by the two CDIs. Vatche Kavlakian, general manager of Digitec, commented: 'Our ability to produce such high quality digital flexo plates has meant that the overall quality of flexo printing has significantly improved and is now competing with offset and gravure, in some cases surpassing the output of these processes. We produce work for most blue-chip consumer brands and we have been delighted with their comments on the quality we are achieving.'

Digitec has already had many requests from customers to move jobs from gravure to flexo. Shahe Kavlakian, production manager, added: 'Due to these advances in quality, we can now achieve 85 percent of gravure jobs with flexo and we hope that mechanical developments in the next 2-3 years will enable us to raise this proportion up to 95 percent. The selection criterion has shifted from one of quality to the actual length of the press run, making flexo perfectly suitable for short runs while clients stick with gravure for longer runs.'

The latest investment in Esko WebCenter has opened a brand new business opportunity for Digitec, allowing it to be based in Dubai while operating in most Middle-Eastern countries including UAE, Bahrain, S.Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait and Qatar. Esko WebCenter has allowed Digitec to offer an online pre-press service.

Digitec’s clients from all over the Middle East are able to upload jobs straight onto Esko WebCenter. The files are then automatically processed in Esko BackStage and are placed back onto Esko WebCenter for approval by the converters. Once approval is granted, Digitec outputs and ships the plates. Vatche Kavlakian remarked: 'The workflow works so well that we are now starting to receive requests for online repro even by some rotogravure customers. Our next plan is to have local plate production in each country so that we can just send the electronic files, and once they have been approved, ship plates 4 to 5 hours later. We feel that this “hub-and-spoke” way of working will further strengthen our position in becoming authorized plate providers for most major brand owners in the Middle East and eventually Europe.'