buysite Gets Creative and Enters New Markets with KODAK Digital Technology

For Basel-based buysite AG, digital color printing remains a constant focus amidst a continually evolving print landscape. And key to the company's digital philosophy are its Kodak NexPress Digital Production Color Presses. Peter Fischli, co-founder and Managing Director of buysite, says the Swiss company operates in a highly dynamic niche.

"We're not looking for jobs in the low-quality segment, copy shop services and the anonymity of web to print. Our concentration on short runs, variability and flexible finishing sets us apart from offset," said Fischli. "We really come into our own when a client wants an original, customized solution. We do the things that many others would consider too complicated. We're also committed to formulating new approaches, and regularly present agencies and their customers with creative options for unusual products, which we can produce cost-effectively on our digital equipment."

Approximately 60 percent of buysite's turnover comes from clients in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, with exhibition suppliers, ad agencies, retail firms, and industrial enterprises accounting for the remaining revenue.

According to Fischli, digital printing is increasingly popular because of the fast-turnaround times it affords. 70 percent of all jobs handled by the NexPress Presses on any given day are submitted to buysite less than 24 hours previously.

"Each job spends an average of just one day at our facility before being delivered to the client or fed to the next step in the production chain," said Fischli.

buysite also specializes in data processing and optimization, and database management. Apart from rudimentary post-press processing, everything else is left to the company's finishing and bookbinding partners.

buysite uses a NexPress 2100 and a NexPress 2500 Press. The systems' great versatility regarding substrates and gram weights fits perfectly with buysite's strategy for making the unusual possible. Aside from uncoated, coated, and glossy or self-adhesive and special, metalized papers, the company also prints on compatible carton materials on a large scale.

buysite began collaborating with Balcart AG on short-run folding carton jobs and personalized packaging, which together account for 10 percent of the company's total sales.

"The partnership helped us venture into the carton sector," said Fischli. "We develop packaging solutions in short runs—sometimes very short runs—and in doing so have created a new market for ourselves. Customers often come to us with just a rough idea, which we then transform into finished packaging."

Added value on five channels

The Kodak Digital Presses, with their five imaging units, are designed for more than just 4/4-color production. Various Kodak NexPress Fifth Imaging Unit Solutions help buysite realize unconventional products to meet customers' exacting demands. In view of the focus on short runs—600 A3 sheets with perfecting are the absolute maximum—the fact that the Kodak systems can be set up quickly and easily as in-line production steps is a huge advantage. In addition to color gamut expansion with red, green or blue as the fifth color, buysite also offers full or partial satin 'coatings' with transparent Dry Ink.

Giving the customers what they want—high gloss...

In combination with the Kodak NexPress Glossing Unit, color prints coated with transparent Dry Ink can be given a striking high-gloss finish—either the full size or selected areas only. Spot glossing produces a particularly attractive matte-gloss finish on matte-coated paper and carton materials.