Labels would not be the first thing that the industry associates with Melbourne-based trade printer – Mediapoint.

But then again this isn’t the first time that Mediapoint has been in the labels category.

Mediapoint was a front runner in its exploration of the labels and stickers market when they entered the category 12 years ago. But at the time, both the printing and the finishing were not delivering the professional outcomes that the market and Mediapoint wanted.

“When we entered the labels and stickers printing market, we encountered the same pain points that our customers had. We kept searching for the technology to overcome these challenges while also using our existing equipment to meet the market’s needs,” Mediapoint sales director Jamie Xuereb said.

“Although it wasn’t as efficient and the quality wasn’t where we wanted it to be, it was the best value-for-money solution at the time. Most of our resell partners and other providers in the market still do the same thing – use their wide format printers, plotters, rulers and Stanley knives to produce these jobs. It’s an inefficient process, especially for volume work,” he said.

So the decision was made to drop out of the label sector, and also become a business purely focusing on trade work and specifically in wide format printing.

“We were doing work for everyone at the beginning and I then realised that 18 of our top 20 clients were trade customers. So, 11 years ago we culled our retail customers and became a business completely focused on trade printing,” Xuereb said.

“We were originally going to re-enter the labels sector in 2020, but Covid put things on ice for us.

“We saw the Tau RSC E at Durst headquarters in Brixen in 2019 and recognised that it was a premium machine that was also upgradable to meet our future needs for additional capacity when the time comes. The capabilities of the Durst Tau during the demonstration were astonishing. The prints at 1200dpi and a two-picolitre drop were the best I had seen and did not expect from an inkjet UV printer. I had not even seen any digital sheetfed prints in the local market that were of that quality. At this point, we knew the print technology was ready for what Mediapoint wanted to achieve.”

As a 330mm-wide advanced solution for digital label printing, the Tau RSC E has a real print speed of 50m/min. It also guarantees that future increased production capacity requirements are covered with a field upgrade available to 80m/min.

“So getting back into the labels and rolls market is a bit like going back to the future. The technology has developed in print as well as the cutting and finishing equipment.

“The quality of the Durst Tau is simply phenomenal – and we are receiving a lot of positive feedback from our customers. In certain conditions, we have been able to print 5mm QR codes which scan and 1pt text, which is legible through a loupe,” Xuereb added.

“We wanted to approach the labels category from a different angle to other converters.

“We wanted to offer outdoor durability on uncoated stock – and the Tau UV inks provide a slight raise which all of our customers love and this is a clear point of difference from using toner based or other UV inkjet technologies.

“We have also introduced white ink, which is a very solid white ink, and the benefit is it does not require lamination.

“Compared to toner-based machines, the Durst Tau delivers no variance from page to page which also assists with the cutting aspect of the job. The biggest advantage is turnaround times and consistency, which allows us to pass on these benefits to our customers.

“We wanted to do to labels what we did to trade wide format. We can offer things that no one else in trade printing can offer – ultra-fast turnaround and dispatch in two business days with unique offerings including custom shapes, custom sizes and custom quantities. The biggest problem faced according to our customers was that other label printers were slow to quote and then took an additional one or two weeks in terms of production time. It is our goal to fix these problems and sort these issues out for our customers and as a result we are seeing some very strong growth.

“The running costs using the Tau UV ink are ultra-low per square metre – compared to the other print we do for the large format sector and the throughput from the machine has been phenomenal since it was installed.

“We believe the diversification and offering a mix in product range for our customers has been very advantageous when it comes to winning work. A lot of our large format customers have equipment of their own, so it is all about finding the gaps to help our customer base. A lot of customers who use our services may not have equipment like the Durst – so it also makes a lot of sense to purchase equipment at the top end to meet their demands and expectations.

Durst Oceania managing director Matt Ashman said the Tau RSC E was the perfect fit for Mediapoint as it caters to all of its needs.

“Durst Oceania has always supported Mediapoint well and as one of our largest users in Australia, it’s great to see the business grow from strength to strength and diversify with new technologies,” Ashman said.

“It is extremely refreshing to work with a company like Mediapoint that is so quick to understand and value of new technology and the opportunities that this can bring to their business and their customers.

“Mediapoint has always been able to simplify their offering to trade customers by making jobs easy to order and quick to turn around. They have also been at the forefront of the onshoring trend which is all about providing reliable local label supply for local Australian businesses.

“This is an interesting case study as Mediapoint has been a long standing and successful wide format Durst customer and they have successfully crossed over into the label converter segment. By achieving this transition and expansion to their operations, it has facilitated more diversification and also strengthened their business for the future.

“Based on the feedback we have received from local printers, these businesses are looking for new areas of growth. As a result, there is a huge amount of interest from large format customers as well as label converters who are looking to cross-diversify in many different directions. At Durst, we see it as part of our job to provide solutions in different market segments.

“We are also observing this trend globally, and this is why you would have seen Durst exhibiting with label presses at the wide format trade fair in Europe and also Printing United in the USA. This is a deliberate strategy and also a very successful strategy from Durst.

“Mediapoint were the first Durst wide format customer in the Oceania region to diversify into labels, but since then several others have followed.

“My advice to printers who are looking to diversify in either direction is to first identify the value of the equipment you are investing in and then the size of the market you are targeting – as you may have the opportunity to unlock millions of dollars in potential extra revenue.”