Garino Hermanos combats small local market

Uruguayan converter Garino Hermanos, founded in 1920 in the capital Montevideo, embarked on a flurry of investment late last year which saw it install a fourth Nilpeter press, a HP Indigo ws4600 and a Prati inspection rewinder with inkjet printing capabilities.

Directors Guillermo Garino and Jorge Garrido – cousins whose grandfather was one of two founding owners of the company, which remains family-owned to this day – believe the new machinery will increase production by 30 percent this year, as well as allowing the company further opportunities to expand its already wide-ranging product line.

Based in a local market of only 3.3 million people, diversification has been a key facet of Garino Hermanos’ history since its foundation in 1920 as a printer of basic sheetfed products. Originally named Schmidt & Garino – after the man who founded the company with his brother-in-law Guillermo Garino, the grandfather of the current directors – the company installed Uruguay’s first business forms press in 1949 thanks to a partnership with UK-based Lamson Paragon (later acquired by Moore Business Forms in 1975).

In 1952, Garino bought out Schmidt and renamed the company Garino Hermanos. It continued to focus on business forms and sheetfed products before branching out into security printing with checks and tickets in the 1980s. Seeing the business forms market in decline, the company moved into label printing in 1998 with the installation of a Nilpeter FA 2400 flexo press, two more of which followed over the next eight years. The machines can handle short runs down to 200 linear meters.

Today, the company is split between two divisions which each represent an equal share of the overall business: Information Services, opened 20 years ago, handles transpromo work, software development, document digitalization, cross media and electronic billing. The second division, Graphic Arts Services, produces security documents and business forms on four Muller Martini web offset presses; and tickets, labels and promotional products including scratch-off cards on its one HP Indigo and four Nilpeter presses.