Ravi and Raal combine in Bolivia

Ravi and Raal combine in Bolivia

A partnership between Grupo Ravi and Argentine converter Artes Gráficas Raal has created a dedicated label printing operation in Bolivia, as James Quirk reports

Artes Gráficas Raal, a label converter based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has partnered with regional packaging giant Grupo Ravi to open a label printing operation in Cochabamba, Bolivia.  

The partnership combines Artes Gráficas Raal’s expertise in self-adhesive label production and Grupo Ravi’s local infrastructure in Bolivia. It represents Ravi’s first foray into the self-adhesive label printing sector and provides Raal with local presence in a market that is experiencing rapid growth.

The division – called Labels Bolivia – is housed in a dedicated facility within Grupo Ravi’s headquarters in Cochabamba. Grupo Ravi – which is part of Industrias Ravi and has operations in Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and both Buenos Aires and Tierra del Fuego in Argentina – produces a wide array of flexible, rigid and metal packaging products, plastic bags, and metal bottle caps and containers.

Artes Gráficas Raal, meanwhile, has over 45 years of experience in self-adhesive label production. The deal owes much to the ambition and boldness of the Argentine converter’s general manager Gustavo Alterman; as well as to Grupo Ravi’s swift response when presented with an opportunity that allows it to further diversify its product range and take advantage of a growing local market.

Cochabamba

In 2009, Artes Gráficas Raal received an enquiry from YPFB, the Bolivian operation of automotive lubricant manufacturer YPF. Raal began to see the potential in the Bolivian market, and – knowing there was little label production in the country – decided to create a local presence in order to be more competitive with pricing and lower deliver times.

Despite not having a local partnership in place, Raal purchased a Mark Andy flexo press and sent it to Bolivia. The bold move paid off, with an agreement being reached with Target, a manufacturer of telephone cards, to rent a small area of its factory to house the press. With the YPFB contract won, production began and Raal’s label sales manager Romina Morgenstein relocated to Bolivia to oversee operations.

Once the contract with YPFB had been completed, the companies parted ways and Raal needed to find a new facility to house its burgeoning operation. Alterman was put in touch with Grupo Ravi, cited as a company that was interested in moving into the self-adhesive label market, by a mutual contact – Andreas Stuardo, a Chilean who carried out installations for Mark Andy in South America.

Raal, in urgent need of infrastructure support and a location to house the press, met Grupo Ravi’s Jacobo Lichtenfeld. An equal partnership was established that would combine Raal’s expertise in self-adhesive label production and Grupo Ravi’s local infrastructure and sales presence.

Equipped with the 8-color Mark Andy 2200 flexo press with reverse printing capability, as well as finishing and digital photopolymer platemaking equipment, the joint venture – Labels Bolivia – is now producing high quality labels for pharmaceutical, cosmetics and security applications – the areas of Raal’s expertise in Argentina.

‘There is one Chinese character to signify both crisis and opportunity – it’s a sentiment that was appropriate for our situation,’ says Gustavo Alterman. ‘We had to move out of Target’s factory, but it created a great opportunity and it has worked out for the best. Grupo Ravi is well-known in Bolivia, which helps us to gain credibility in the local market.’

With few clients shared between Grupo Ravi and Artes Gráficas Raal, Romina Morgenstein continues to be based in Cochabamba and a dedicated sales team for Labels Bolivia has been established. ‘It is important to have a local presence,’ says Morgenstein, ‘as these are two different companies with different working cultures. But we are lucky to have found excellent people to partner with and to work with us in the factory.’

Morgenstein admits to being surprised at the high quality demands from local brands – reflected in the fact that Labels Bolivia is mainly producing high quality labels for demanding applications.

Grupo Ravi’s Sergio Miranda says that the company was not actively considering a move into the self-adhesive label market prior to being put in touch with Raal. Grupo Ravi does have a wet-glue label operation based in the Dominican Republic, called Labels Caribe, that supplies polypropylene labels to the beverage industry, but the partnership with Raal represents its first foray into self-adhesive label production. ‘It was a project in which we immediately had a great deal of interest,’ says Miranda. ‘It was a natural step for the development of our business and there is a great potential for the label market in Bolivia.’

Given Bolivia’s strategic location within South America – it shares borders with five other countries – there is potential for export in the near future. First, says Miranda, the company is focused on establishing Labels Bolivia within its local market, with export markets likely to be targeted after further investment in capital equipment to increase production capacity.

Miranda describes the Labels Bolivia project as ‘a top priority’ for Grupo Ravi. At a corporate level, the group is looking on with interest – seeing potential for this blueprint to be replicated in other markets in the future.

‘It has been a tremendous advantage to have Raal as a partner,’ he says. ‘It is a company with a great profile in the industry and a long history of expertise in high quality self-adhesive label production.

‘But while Raal has of course been a great help to us in making the transition, Grupo Ravi has a great deal of experience in moving into new sectors and new countries. It is part of the company’s culture, and this too has been an important factor.’

Raal’s Gustavo Alterman echoes the sentiments about exporting. ‘There is much potential for export, given the country’s location and its low manufacturing costs, but for now we are focused on Bolivia. There is also little competition locally, which is an advantage.’

Buenos Aires

Artes Gráficas Raal was founded in 1963 by Gustavo Alterman’s father and grandfather, Raul Alterman, who lent the first two letters of each of his names to give the moniker Raal. It began as a manufacturer of cardboard boxes for shoes and toys, but when clients began asking for the boxes to be identifiable, Raal saw the potential for label production.

Self-adhesive labeling was rising in prominence and offered an easier alternative to glue labeling for this type of application. Labels could also be delivered more easily, taking up less space in transit than cardboard boxes. Beginning with simple labels for school books, Raal installed a 1-color Reprex press in 1970, followed quickly by a second and then an Ibirama letterpress machine. Gustavo Alterman remembers, aged 10, helping out with what was then the company’s biggest order to date – a run of one million labels for a promotional school books campaign.

Production continued at the company’s factory in the Floresta neighborhood of Buenos Aires until 1994, when it was destroyed by a fire. The company lost a great deal, says Alterman – equipment, dies, plates, files. The burned-out remains of a Kopack press, installed just two months previously, was sold to fellow converter Artes Gráficas Modernas which was able to coax the machine back into production, dubbing it the ‘Niki Lauda’ in homage to the Austrian former Formula One driver who was burned in his car – but survived – during the 1976 German Grand Prix. 

The company moved into a new factory in the Paternal district of Buenos Aires four months after the fire. In the intervening period, production was able to continue thanks to support from family friends – the Ibirama press was installed at the factory of one friend, while another allowed them to use his own label printing equipment at night, when production had finished for the day. Suppliers were paid off thanks to the company’s cash reserves. ‘Our suppliers still remember that to this day,’ says Alterman. ‘Not many companies would have been able to do that.’

Settled in the new 1,500 sqm factory where Raal continues to operate to this day, investment began. A 6-color Mark Andy 2200 was installed in 1995, equipped with flat-bed die-cutting that suited Raal’s core work of short runs and later upgraded with two more color units. A 5-color Gallus T-180 semi-rotary letterpress machine quickly followed, equipped with hot stamping, UV varnishing and flat-bed die-cutting, which Alterman says has ‘almost never stopped’ since then, running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In 2002, Raal added a second Gallus letterpress, this time with six colors, also equipped with hot stamping and flat-bed die-cutting. Two years later, the company bought a second Mark Andy – an 8-color 2200. An HP Indigo ws4050 digital press was installed in 2006 – Argentina’s second after Artes Gráficas Modernas – alongside Cartes finishing equipment which provides hot stamping, silkscreen and die-cutting. A third Mark Andy 2200 arrived in December last year, an 8-color fully UV machine.

Four Arpeco machines handle finishing and inspection, alongside a stamping machine from a Chinese manufacturer and two machines for numbering and inspection – one built in-house and the second from China – that are equipped with View Factor vision systems and inkjet heads for coding.

Today the company employs 60 people and has a monthly production rate of 200,000 sqm. Its wide product range includes Braille, in-mold, booklet, security, thermochromic and shrink labels, as well as labels with aromatic inks and with handles. Raal serves a variety of markets – including beverage, food, home care, personal care, promotional, track & trace, nutraceutical, and batteries and lubricants for cars – but 60 percent of clients are in the pharmaceutical sector.

‘We mainly serve clients who require short runs with multiple changes. There is no reliance on any one customer,’ says Alterman. An example of the company’s short run work could be found on the day of L&L’s visit, with a job of 1,000 labels being sent to an important pharmaceutical client in Uruguay. Up to 10 percent of production is exported to Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

An in-house pre-press department, equipped with DuPont Cyrel technology, produces silkscreen plates for the Gallus and Cartes machines, while flexo plates come from a local pre-press company with whom Raal jointly purchased a Kodak Flexcel NX platemaking system. For jobs carried out at Labels Bolivia, files are put together in Buenos Aires that collate information about dies, plates and other specifications and then sent to Cochabamba.

While the pre-press department doesn’t handle design work, the company has helped to educate brand owners through regular breakfast meetings about the capabilities of digital printing. ‘It has been a slow process,’ admits Alterman, ‘but it has been worth it.’ The HP Indigo press, which runs two shifts, now counts for around 17 percent of sales.

The technological synergy between the plants extends to the Aramis RIP system, handling budgeting, orders and stock control, which is operated in both Buenos Aires and Cochabamba. A workflow system from Argentine supplier SisPro – which will automatically feed data from the presses into the Aramis system – is currently being installed in Buenos Aires and is also due to be implemented in Labels Bolivia. The workflow system also includes coding of each pallet for internal traceability, while specifications of some 22,000 jobs are kept on file.

There is a clear focus on synergy and constant communication between Raal and Labels Bolivia. The phone system is even set up so that Gustavo Alterman needs only to dial Romina Morgenstein’s extension to reach her in Bolivia.

Raal has further diversified its offering to the market by establishing a series of distribution agreements, the latest of which sees it represent machines from US-based Allen Datagraph. The company also distributes applicators for US-based Start International and Bolivian company Control Experto.

One of the first ISO:2001 certified label converters in Argentina, Raal uses no solvents – preferring water-based inks from Water Ink – and is working with Avery Dennison in the pilot phase of its liner recycling program that sees waste sent to the labelstock manufacturer’s plant in San Luis, Argentina, for repurpose.

Raal has experienced 50 percent annual growth for each of the last three years, with Alterman citing an increased focus on sales within the company and the arrival of the HP Indigo digital press. A restructuring of the offices was also underway during L&L’s visit, aimed at further increasing productivity.

Its experience with Grupo Ravi in Bolivia has left the company open to similar opportunities in other parts of the region, says Alterman.

Pictured: Gustavo Alterman between Mark Andy presses at Artes Gráficas Raal’s factory in Buenos Aires

This article was published in L&L issue 3, 2012

James Quirk

James Quirk

  • Latin America Correspondent