In the past months, Onlineprinters has invested around five million euros in its production facilities at the headquarters in Neustadt an der Aisch, Germany. The major portion was used to purchase new printing machines. The e-commerce company has been consolidating its market position as the biggest print provider in Europe to print sheets in the 3b format (approx. 70 x 100 cm). In the UK, the Onlineprinters group operates under the brand names "Onlineprinters" and "Solopress". In Germany, the online print shop trades under the name "diedruckerei.de" and in the other European countries under "Onlineprinters". The company has 900 employees in total.

Acquisition trends strengthen online printing

These investments were made to accommodate the further rise in orders of the online print shop. Dr. Michael Fries, CEO of Onlineprinters, comments on the acquisitions: "There are two powerful trends in the purchasing of printed business supplies: The need for short print runs and the request for fast delivery. This applies to flyers, brochures and exhibition supplies alike. We are catering to this demand. A lot of our products are already available with the same day print and express delivery option." Demand for rapid delivery increases year after year. Therefore, quick turnover is becoming an increasingly important factor when investing in additional printing facilities.

Print technology made by HP and Heidelberg

After purchasing another HP Indigo 12000 digital printing press to expand the short-run and express production capacity and buying various processing machines, a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106-8-P 18K was acquired to expand the offset printing capacity. It has the highest level of automation currently available in the market for offset printing presses. The specific configuration comes with fully automated, simultaneous plate changes and spectrophotometric inline control of the colour during production. The high-performance Prinect Press Center XL 2 control station is designed for maximum productivity. Fully automated job changes from the last to the first good sheet right up until production starts provide for extra efficiency.

Time lapse video:

Installation of the new Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106-8-P 18K at the Onlineprinters site in Neustadt an der Aisch took three weeks. The time lapse video shows how the machine is installed at the production site.