AB Packaging's experience: five million PVC blisters printed on a MGI Meteor DP8700 XL digital machine
AB Packaging will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. Created by its current president and founder, Serge Cury, this dynamic French company specializes in packaging and packaging services, PVC blister packaging and printing.
It has four production centers: two in France, one in Tunisia and one in China. AB Packaging's consolidated turnover is over 4 million euros. In 2014, AB Packaging produced and delivered a total of more than 20 million blisters in France and Europe.
Serge Cury notes: "AB Packaging acts as the vital link between the industrialist, who delivers their raw products to us, and the large distributors, to whom we serve the planned references, packed and directly at their points of sale."
AB Packaging chose the digital printing machine MGI Meteor to replace a hybrid process that relied on offset machines for packaging printing and an inkjet system for variable data printing. This process generated high costs related to stock surpluses and was not agile enough.
According to Serge Cury: “I have been following the evolution of Meteor machines for a long time, which were pioneers in the field of printing on plastic and PVC. But the format did not match our business needs. Ever since MGI introduced the Meteor DP8700 XL in 330 × 1200mm format, I knew we had the ideal product. With this equipment, we are able to, for example, receive 10,000 products on Monday and re-ship them on Wednesday, packaged and personalized in their thermoformed, printed and sealed blisters.
Jean-Rémy Maillet, CEO of AB France, adds: “Following the commissioning of the MGI Meteor digital printing press and the readjustment of our business strategy, we have doubled our turnover. We are increasingly specialized in sealed HF (high frequency) monomaterial blister. We have managed to capture markets that request numerous replacements. We work with our industrial clients and distributors for the main distribution chains, who trust our company for the packaging of their products. These clients have numerous references with variable quantities and they ask us for weekly or even daily replacements and deliveries… Consequently, we are using the Meteor machine in two shifts, in order to manage the peak demand ».
Jean-Rémy Maillet concludes: "The MGI Meteor DP8700 XL is unanimously appreciated by our customers. Its print quality is comparable to offset on PVC and for certain creations with intensive use of color, the result is even superior to that obtained by traditional processes. We can process small or medium volume replacements and deliver them in three days. We print on PVC plates in 330 × 650 mm, which allows us to make multiple impositions to manage our 200 different blister formats ».
“At the same time, for our customers who request to create a packaging prototype, the Meteor is able to produce a single copy in a few minutes, a virtually identical package to future mass production. This agility gives us an undeniable competitive advantage ”.
After listening to those responsible for the company, the conclusion is clear. If innovation and commercial initiative are added, the limits disappear and it is possible to offer a better response capacity coupled with quality services.
