Midtown Printing Co., Inc., a long-established family business owned by the Claudio family and managed by the Atega family in Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines, recently invested in a new Speedmaster CX 92 Push to Stop model, equipped with a full Prinect Production Manager software suite.
Founded in 1967 by Bayani and Advincula Claudio, parents of the Claudio siblings including Mrs. Marissa Atega, Midtown today employs 185 people. The company started with commercial print jobs and later, under the leadership of their son Leonilo, began printing school yearbooks and other educational publications. Since 1987, under the leadership of Mr. and Mrs. Atega, Midtown has been producing school yearbooks and publications for most of the major schools and universities in the Philippines.
Located in the growing city of Davao (population 1.7 million), Midtown has earned a strong reputation in the high-quality publication printing market. It was the first printer in the Philippines to receive ISO 12647-2:2013 certification from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG—certified in both 2014 and 2018.
Over the years, Midtown has grown significantly, acquiring multiple HEIDELBERG presses starting in 1996, including GTOs, a Printmaster, Speedmaster SX 74-4, and the Versafire EV digital systems. These are supported by a full range of HEIDELBERG prepress and postpress equipment. The new Speedmaster CX 92 is the latest addition to their pressroom.
"We wanted to be the first commercial print house in the Philippines to take the step into the new HEIDELBERG features of Push to stop, giving us a market leadership with the latest, high production technology,” explained Mr. Gabriel Atega, President and General Manager.
“For us, the selection of the Speedmaster CX 92 was a perfect fit for our business. We produce short-run, high-quality school yearbooks, and the format size was ideal for this. Due to rising raw material costs, the plate savings offered as standard by the new CX 92 format were also highly appealing to us. Combined with the potential paper waste savings through the Prinect color measuring system—fully integrated with the Prinect Production Manager software—we are now able to implement a leaner production setup, which of course saves costs. When we learned that the new Speedmaster CX 92 press came with the latest Push to Stop features, we knew it would fit our current and future requirements exactly,” says Mr. Alpha Atega, VP for Production at Midtown Printing.
Being located on the more remote southern island of Mindanao, approximately 1,000 km from the HEIDELBERG Philippines office in Manila, raises questions about service and support in case of unforeseen issues.
“Since we started buying HEIDELBERG presses in 1996, we have experienced their full support. The HEIDELBERG Philippines Service Team, together with the support team in Germany, has quickly resolved any issues we've faced,” Mr. Atega explained.
The press is connected to the HEIDELBERG Cloud, providing full remote access and diagnostics for electronics and sensors.
“This means everything is monitored and issues can be resolved online, often within minutes. This was also a decisive factor in our investment. Only HEIDELBERG Philippines can offer this kind of support,” says Mr. Atega.
The Speedmaster CX 92 is manufactured at the state-of-the-art HEIDELBERG production site in Shanghai, China. Midtown is the first user of the Speedmaster CX 92 in the Philippines, joining a global community of users.
Looking ahead, Midtown Printing is also preparing to enter the folding carton segment, marking a new chapter in their growth—confirmed by Mr. Alpha Atega.
