When friends Marc de Amicis and Nigel Gainey slipped out for a quiet beer in Florence during a combined family holiday to Italy in 2012, little did they know that the label on a Peroni beer would lead, just 12 months later, to the duo establishing a world-first company – and leading Australia in digital label production.
Art director and prepress specialist Nigel recognised the novelty and potential of digital labels, while Marc, with business nous gained through years of sales and operational management, recognised the business opportunity inherent in taking the lead with new technology. The die, as they might say in an analogue world, was cast. Today, the pair can look back on a decade of partnership, as their business, New Digital Print, continues to grow from strength to strength.
“Launching the country’s first digital label business from scratch was probably a bit ambitious, but we’d seen the rise of local craft and farmers markets and noted the general trend towards short-run, customised labels, and felt the time was right,” Marc recalls, saying the proliferation of niche products like craft beers and gins from micro-distilleries since then has proven the theory correct.
From the start, the two have been ‘early adopters’, with both their initial digital toner press and an inkjet printer they added in 2017, the first of their kinds in the country. A small converter was purchased to support the initial presses, but the installation of the second machine together with business growth soon stretched resources.
“That second press pushed our converting to capacity almost immediately, sending us back out to market for a digital finishing and embellishment solution,” Marc explains, “and after talking to several suppliers, reviewing the latest options and visiting LabelExpo in Brussels in 2019, we settled on the new ABG DigiJet from Currie Group.”
Wayne Quayle, Business Development Manager Labels & Packaging at Currie Group, says the high-speed DigiJet provides the ultimate flexibility in cost-effective high-end finishing – in an easy-to-use machine that integrates seamlessly with most MIS / ERP environments.
“The DigiJet is available in single- or dual-bar configurations and can be used online or offline to apply multiple processes in a single pass using two inkjet heads with UV pinning and UV curing, automated cold-foil throw-off, a shuttle system for waste reduction and chill rollers for sensitive materials and a host of other features,” he says.
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