FP Mercure was the very first printer to use the MGI Jet Varnish 3D Foil digital press to produce packaging. Installed in June 2021 at the company's Saint-Marcellin plant in Isère, France, this press from the French manufacturer can apply selective or non-selective varnish, relief varnish and hot stamping foil.
A great deal of educational work to be done with customers
Frédéric Corbo, head of the 27-strong company, shares: "We like to be pioneers in technology, to be where we're not expected. And this all-digital finishing machine is right in our DNA: we want to democratize access to packaging for as many people as possible, and therefore lower the barriers to entry.
The company manager explains: "With us, a customer can afford 500 or 1000 cases with gilding or selective varnish without being burdened by tooling costs that don't exist with us: this makes the product very attractive for the consumer and affordable for the customer. Customers often thought that these luxurious finishes were out of their reach, so we still have a lot of educating to do. We're a bit like the evangelists of ennoblementâeuros!"
30% of files finished with varnish or gilding
Today, around 30% of files, mainly for spirits and champagne packaging, contain digital finishing, usually 3D selective varnish and gilding, which are regularly combined.
In its desire to offer affordable finishes, the printer has selected six colors of foil stamping. "Customers have a real appetite for 3D selective varnish, because of its tactile quality. It highlights logos, certain texts or images to create material effects" he notes.
Digital multi-references in the right quantities
The major advantage of MGI's digital technology is the ability to produce multi-references, FP Mercure's specialty. "Thanks to this, we save between 25 and 30% compared with sheet-fed offset amalgam production. We produce exactly the quantity needed, whatever the reference configuration."
Always in that pioneering spirit, FP Mercure recently installed a Landa press using nanographic printing technology. "We're now looking at aligning the MGI press to the Landa format, i.e. from the B2 format that corresponds to our HP Indigo press to the B1 format of our new press."
