Growth Despite General Downturn |
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A few years ago the Sikora print shop in Offenburg had to decide whether to continue to run with extremely outdated equipment and hope for the best, or to invest in new machinery and try to hold its own with the competition.
The family business chose to update its equipment and is now thriving. With its latest acquisition, a Eurobind 500 adhesive binder, the company continues its strategy of eliminating outsourcing expenses and offering all services in-house.
Bernd Sikora (57) has been a printer for over 25 years and is as enthusiastic as ever. In the 60s he decided to change careers and began working at a print shop. It was not long before he was printing from his basement and by 1978 he had opened his own shop. Today his company has over 10 employees and a trainee and annual sales of over a million Euro.
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Years ago Bernd Sikora faced an important decision. His machines were outdated and he was not able to remain competitive in either price or quality. Sikora invested in new machines and today he is at the helm of a growing business.
Sikora-Druck now can rightfully claim to be a modern, one-stop print service company. All orders are carried out using computer-to-plate technology. Printing is done with a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52-5 and a Printmaster QM 46-2. In postpress Sikora is well-equipped with the Stahlfolder TD 52 and a POLAR 92 cutter, which features a stack lift, jogger and transomat for edge-precise piling. With this technology Sikora is able to offer everything in the format class that larger print shops offer.
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Perfect postpress/finishing
When an order came in a few months ago, for which perfect adhesive binding was needed, Sikora had to make a decision. His 15-year old adhesive binder could not provide the desired quality, and thus he went on a search for a new one. He chose the Eurobind 500 because “it’s easy to use, can be manually readjusted and thus delivers excellent results,” Sikora explains. The adhesive binder is used for high quality print products like banks’ and corporations’ annual reports, brochures, and documents over 80 pages long. The print runs range from 200 to 2000. “This is an ideal use of the Eurobind 500,” says Bernhard Gansert, Postpress Product Manager at Heidelberg, adding, “This is an optimal machine for small, high-quality runs and thus fits in perfectly to Sikora-Druck’s business plan.”
Simple technology and error-free production
Many of Bernd Sikora’s customers require good adhesion quality. The jogger on the block infeed helps achieve this goal. Two form rollers with controllable gluing lengths for the spine as well as side gluing disks provide for clean gluing and high-quality adhesion. The vacuum cover feeder with integrated double scoring unit ensures a clean spine edge. “Operation is simple, the sheet feed is reliable.”
An important factor in the purchase of new equipment was the market position of the full-service print shop. Thanks to its re-structuring the company is now able to meet the diverse needs of its very different customers. Sikora serves smaller regional clients in different business sectors, but works as well in press runs from anywhere between 100 and 500,000 copies. Its positive experience with Heidelberg, above all in the service sector, was another factor in the decision to buy the Eurobind 500. “Our collaboration, which has been running smoothly for decades now, has now even gotten better, since the new machine was delivered on such short notice and we were able to start work immediately on a very important order,” comments Bernd Sikora.
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Adhesive binding at its best
“Ever since we’ve had this machine we’ve been able to react more quickly and flexibly to our customers’ needs. We can now work independently of suppliers and that means less stress for my team and for me,” Sikora reports. “Despite the difficult economic times last year we achieved a sales increase of 30 percent,” he adds. “This year many companies in our region had to come to terms with enormous sales decreases or even had to close, yet our sales remained even. We’re proud of that and of the fact that our customers come back to us because they value our service and workmanship.”
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Sikora Print Shop
Sikora Druck
Freiburger Straße 24
77652 Offenburg
Tel.: +49 (0)781 75 99 6
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