Raal keen to replicate Bolivia success

Argentine converter Artes Gráficas Raal is experiencing strong growth and, after a successful partnership in Bolivia, is keen to extend its regional reach. James Quirk reports

Buenos Aires, Argentina-based label converter Artes Gráficas Raal, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in March, experienced a 40 percent increase in turnover in 2012 and has forecast 50 percent growth this year.

General manager Gustavo Alterman cites the professionalization of its sales force and the acquisition of important new clients as key factors behind Raal’s growth, which comes against a backdrop of economic uncertainty in Argentina, where currency controls are in place and annual inflation is put by some analysts at 25 percent.

Trade restrictions mean that local companies can only import the same volume of goods as they export. Raal, which exports five percent of its production to Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay, has enough ‘credit’ to import the consumables it needs which are not available locally, says Alterman.

The company wants to replace its HP Indigo ws4500 digital press with the more productive WS6600, and has requested permission from the Argentine authorities to import the machine. Despite the increased bureaucracy, Alterman is confident the purchase can be made. Preferring not to sell the ws4500 to local competition, he sees an opportunity to replicate the company’s recent success in Bolivia with another international partnership.

Last year, Raal partnered with Grupo Ravi to create a label printing operation housed on the Bolivian company’s premises in Cochabamba. It’s a blueprint which Alterman would like to replicate in another country, with Paraguay and Peru of particular interest, he says.

In Paraguay, he sees similar advantages to those experienced by Raal in Bolivia: low manufacturing costs; few local competitors; and a landlocked nation with multiple borders (in Paraguay’s case: Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia), which provide potential for export.

In Peru – a country where digital label printing technology has yet to make a firm foothold – Alterman is keen to find a partner who could buy 50 percent of the ws4500 and operate it locally. ‘Ideally we’d like to place the machine with a partner company which already has infrastructure and a client base in place,’ he says. ‘It could be a situation where you set up a trade business which serves local converters who don’t have digital printing capabilities.’

In its local market, Raal is flourishing thanks to the acquisition of new clients and a shift in sales strategy within the company. The professionalization of the sales force began three years ago and is now paying dividends, says Alterman. ‘We’re a family run business, and over time that can lead to a culture of serving only a core group of clients. We’ve changed this philosophy, and are being more proactive when it comes to seeking out new work. No client represents more than five percent of our business, which spreads the risk.’

This new philosophy was evidenced last year when Raal won the business of two large manufacturers of electronic goods – a departure from its core business of pharmaceutical labeling. The firms require complex, high quality labels in both long and short runs. ‘It’s an advantage that we have both flexo and digital technology, which allows us to cater to long and short run work. We are more flexible than most,’ says Alterman. New clients have also been added from the food industry, and Raal is undergoing certification to the direct contact food standard HACCP.

Other developments since L&L’s last visit to Raal – which have also helped the company achieve its impressive current growth – include the installation of a SisPro workflow system and a move to newly built offices above its factory in Buenos Aires. The 350 sqm space includes offices and a canteen.

Three months after implementing the SisPro MIS, Alterman says it has had a tangible impact on Raal’s operations, eliminating errors in data keeping and maximizing production efficiency.

This 1938 picture above shows Roberto Alterman, Gustavo’s father, as a young boy in the offset printing factory owned by Gustavo’s grandfather Raul, who is standing behind him. Roberto Alterman would go on to found Raal aged 32; the company celebrates its 50th anniversary in March.

Raal has been based in the Paternal district of Buenos Aires since 1994. In a remarkable coincidence, unknown to Gustavo Alterman at the time of the move, its premises is located just five blocks away from the site of his grandfather’s factory.

This article was published in Labels & Labeling issue 1, 2013