For four years, Poligrāfijas grupa Mūkusala has been reaping the rewards of Fujifilm’s online job submission and soft-proofing tool – and in lockdown its benefits have been particularly pronounced.
Based in the Latvian capital of Riga, Poligrāfijas grupa Mūkusala is one of Latvia’s most recognised printing houses. Nestled on the riverbank of the Daugava, the company offers a variety of print services, including magazines, newspapers, catalogues and advertising collateral, both within Latvia and in eleven other European countries. Its 20+ years of experience has allowed for substantial business growth, with Mūkusala now boasting a range of modern technologies, highly skilled personnel and long-term relationships with various trusted suppliers. As one of those suppliers, Fujifilm has been providing its XMF Remote service (via local distributor KTA Graphic Systems) to Mūkusala for four years now, with impressive results.
“We pride ourselves on being an environmentally and technologically progressive company providing the highest quality print services,” says Visvaldis Trokša, Chairman of Mūkusala. “Customer satisfaction and ethics are important to how we function as a business – we strive for high quality output while ensuring we remain an environmentally friendly enterprise. In fact, we have received many acknowledgements for our efforts in this area – one being the JSC Latvenergo certificate, which was awarded to us for using at least 70% renewable energy sources to power our production facilities.”
The business has built up a large customer base over its two decade history. With a turnover of €17.2m recorded in 2019, and seeing growth year on year, Mūkusala is looking to continue its expansion and export its services to other countries. It is reliant on its highly skilled staff and advanced printing equipment – both of which Trokša is very proud of: “We offer high quality, professional printing services at very competitive prices,” he continues, “and because of this, we have opened up many customer relationships. Each one is special to us and they all get the same attention and professionalism from our staff. Successful cooperation is key to our development, and this is also true of the technology we use: it all has to work together fluidly.”
Among the digital printers, offset presses, binders, saddle stitchers and other finishing equipment which help to deliver such a wide variety of products, pre-press technology plays a crucial role. Fujifilm’s XMF Remote, providing powerful web browser-based online job submission and reviewing tools, has helped the company add tremendous value to its offering. “Knowing how our customers work, a system like XMF Remote is crucial for us to deliver the best quality products in the fastest time,” says Trokša. “It is easy for our staff and clients to use; it is user-friendly, gives an accurate soft proof of how their work is going to appear when printed and on-line mark-ups make managing changes quick and simple. Our customers love it – especially during this time of uncertainty, where remote working is essential for businesses to function – they can trust us to get the work done. Staff have found the process enjoyable too – all the work comes into one place, allowing for quick correction and turnaround no matter what time of day.
“Our pre-press manager is actually working from home at the moment, but it is so easy for him to speak with our customers and visualise the work they require through XMF Remote. They can upload the job via our website, and through Fujifilm’s pre-press software, we immediately decide the next steps. It has been a vital part to keep our production at a consistent level. Without it, I do not see how we would cope with the amount of work coming through from all over Europe.”
Mūkusala, which also has a Fujifilm platesetter amongst its pre-press equipment, tested XMF against competitor systems before making the investment four years ago. Trokša adds: “We had looked at a few other remote software services, but XMF Remote produced the best results; it was, and of course still is, easy to use and connects really well with our printing equipment – it’s become a vital part of our production. Fujifilm’s distributor in Latvia, KTA Graphic Systems, has been very helpful too – from the initial set up to the present day, they are there for us whenever we need them.”
John Davies, Workflow Product Management & Support Manager for Fujifilm Graphic Systems Europe says: “Poligrāfijas grupa Mūkusala takes on a lot of print jobs day in and day out, so it’s vital they have the equipment and tools to help them deliver high quality, timely products. We are delighted that XMF Remote has been assisting them so well these past few years, and especially during this difficult period. We’re sure it will help them in their quest to expand ever further in years to come, and Fujifilm is excited to continue this journey with them.”
