Repeatability and Consistency Critical for Astra Group

The Astra Group is a diverse print company with its foundations in publishing and colour management. 

Astra is New Zealand based and recognised as a CMYK specialist servicing the A1 market for magazines, books and publication work.  The company also manages print production for its Printstop franchise stores.

Production in its A1 division is driven by the Speedmaster 102 8 colour perfector press.  The company also operates a Speedmaster 74 2 colour perfector press, a CD74 5 colour and has a comprehensive bindery for all its publication work. 

"The two colour Speedmaster initially got us into publication work and we still use this press today, but the eight colour perfector is the backbone of our A1 operation," says Symon Yendoll, Operations Director.

The company's Printstop franchise model was launched in 2005 as an extension of Astra's chain of print copy shops.  At present there are 47 Printstop retail franchise outlets from Kaitaia at the top of the North Island down to Invercargill in the South.  The Printstop outlets sell offset print with all production done at Astra's centrally located facility in Wellington.

On a daily basis Astra prints upwards of 200 jobs for these outlets. Production begins with Heidelberg's Prinect Workflow and Suprasetter S105 CtP solution and moves onto the CD74-5 colour press.  Finishing is completed on the Polar 137 XT guillotine. 

With a turnaround time of 24 hours for the Printstop jobs the need for absolute reliability in colour management and delivery is paramount says Symon.

"We produce a range of business stationery products for the Printstop group.  All of this work is printed on our CD74. This press features Access Colour Control which means it performs to the same colour standard all the time, so we get repeatability that is essential with our franchise work."

Symon says consistency is imperative for these jobs.  "We work on an agreed specification contract with our franchises. There are penalties for not meeting print quality and delivery requirements so it is essential to have a reliable, consistent production workflow." 

In conclusion Symon says the company's relationship with Heidelberg is a partnership.  "Our relationship with Heidelberg goes across our entire workflow so it is very important to us that it works. One of the things we value is that they have a diverse support group, a crew in every city so we don't have to wait for people to fly in. When we need them, they are there."