Perseverance pays off for Mexican label company

Etipress opened its Guadalajara label business in 2006 with Juan Carlos Arroyave and Kenjiro Kobayashi. Arroyave’s father spent four decades in the label industry, so Arroyave knew what he was getting into. 

Arroyave and Kobayashi admit that Etipress initially struggled. The co-owners made the mistakes of many new businesses: they made some wrong choices, they didn’t study the market, and there were inefficiencies in their processes, company structure and costs. For about a decade, Etipress limped along, printing labels on two legacy presses. 

The company relied on support and help from its range of suppliers, but it is Arclad that the pair cites as a major contributor to the fact that they were able to remain open. In 2015, Etipress began to turn things around. In fact, the company was starting to see so much growth, that earlier this year they opted for its first major capital investment in years with a Mark Andy Performance Series P5 press. 

‘We changed our mindset, we changed our processes, and the result of those changes was a new press,’ Arroyave says.

A press blessing 
With the press acquisition, Etipress focused on addressing key problems: a loss of business due to productivity issues and the need to stay cost-competitive. The objective was to find a machine that could output similar results as its legacy printing units but with higher productivity. 

The 8-color Performance Series P5 that Etipress chose is capable of printing 750ft/min (228m/min) with in-line rotary die-cutting. Etipress opted for Mark Andy’s ProLED UV curing over traditional UV curing, and says it is the first printer in the Mexican state of Jalisco with a full LED press – the second in the region.

For Arroyave, the decision to install LED was based on the processes that the team had worked so diligently to streamline. ‘In order to reduce waste, we needed to switch to an ink system that would give us more stability during printing,’ he says. ‘We decided to go with ProLED instead of traditional UV because it’s a sustainable, more efficient technology.’

When the new press was installed in September 2017, it coincided with an 11-year anniversary for Etipress, and the company didn’t let the moment pass without fanfare. ‘With the opening, we wanted to celebrate the anniversary of Etipress. We celebrated with employees and with suppliers who helped Etipress in more difficult times, and we recognized the all partnerships of Etipress,’ Arroyave says.

The company invited a Catholic priest to bless the press and pray for its continued success. 

The P5 prints jobs 24 hours a day, seven days a week and has impacted Etipress’ capability for new business. In the future, Etipress aims to expand into the prime label market, printing jobs for food and beverage as well as the wine and spirits industry.

The company hopes to double their sales from the previous year and in terms of average sales triple their growth overall.