CPI Buchbücher.de Prints on the ColorStream 10000 Flex

Océ, an international leader in digital document management and delivery, has announced that Buchbücher.de GmbH, one of the leading book-on-demand providers in Germany and part of the CPI group, produces soft- and hardcover books in small runs on Océ ColorStream 10000 Flex and Océ VarioPrint 6160 Ultra.

"A beautiful book is the ideal proposition of content and form." – With this claim, the German CPI Group – consisting of the printers Clausen&Bosse in Leck, Ebner&Spiegel in Ulm, Moravia Books in Pohorelice (Czech Republic) and buchbücher.de in Birkach – serves over 600 customers in publishing and in industry. The spectrum of products ranges from hardcover titles to paperbacks, from single copies for bibliophiles to simple brochures in large numbers. Reduced set-up times, no printing plates and integrated binding guarantee efficient book production – even for small runs.

The small-run segment in the CPI Group is covered by buchbücher.de, located in the Franconian town of Birkach. Buchbücher was one of the first service providers in the market to place its faith in producing books using digital printing technology. "When we presented our printing-on-demand concept at the Frankfurt book fair in 1998, the publishing houses were astonished," remembers Robert Höllein, Partner in, and CEO of, buchbücher.de GmbH. "In the meantime we're one of the leading on-demand printers in Germany. With a staff of 30, we produce around 500,000 hard- and softcover books a year in the segments fiction, non-fiction, STMA and photo books – in runs of between 1 and 800 copies."

Minimized risks for publishers

At the same time, buchbücher.de produces not only niche titles that are essentially low volume: "The establishment of the printing-on-demand business led to a rethink on the part of publishing houses," explains Höllein. "Distribution risks are minimized by keeping the initial runs low, the titles simply being reproduced as needed. Thanks to high-productivity digital printing, this has become both technically and economically possible."

"The life of content or entire titles is being reduced continuously, impelling publishers to change content and print updated editions at short notice," describes Sebastian Landesberger, Executive Vice President, Océ Production Printing. "More titles are produced, year by year, yet unit volumes are staying the same – meaning the lengths of individual runs are getting shorter. With their decision for on-demand book production, buchbücher.de just hit the mark."