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Adare redefines flexible packaging with Esko's
Equinox color solution
End-to-end optimization and color consistency ensure customer
engagement and long-term growth
Ghent (Belgium), September 28, 2015 – Consistent, high-quality color and the ability to manipulate
images for vibrant results are just some of the benefits Adare is enjoying after investing in Esko’s
Equinox color solution. “Everyone talks about creating punchier, more brilliant images, and Equinox
extends the color gamut to achieve just that,” states Daragh Whelan, Adare’s Technical Director.
“With a wider gamut, we can now achieve more colors and accurately reproduce specific imagery
such as green eyes or a red flash. It gives us and our customers the artistic license to do something
extra – and that is great because it provides us with a point of difference.”
For over 35 years, Adare Advantage’s core manufacturing has been pressure sensitive labels, and
their experience in this area ensures they provide innovative solutions. Today, Adare is part of the
Adare Group and delivers end-to-end design and packaging solutions that protect and promote its
clients products while enhancing their brand. Their client focused investments have enabled them to
provide cost effective short-to-medium run flexible packaging, at exceptional print quality to rival the
gravure process.
In addition to Equinox, Adare invested in a raft of Esko’s software solutions including Automation
Engine connected their MIS system, Color Engine, DeskPack, Imaging Engine and Plato. It creates
flexo plates on an Esko CDI Spark 4835 imager with HD Flexo, while the printing is done on Bobst
(former Nuova Gidue) flexible packaging presses. Having a finely tuned and automated workflow
enabled by Esko Automation Engine in combination with seven-color fixed ink palette printing
(Equinox) on the largely automated presses, Adare managed to reduce its production and lead time
drastically. In addition, they streamlined the entire production flow from initial design, to plate, to
finished printed product.
Brand quality and consistency
“We aim to deliver customers what they want in an efficient and sustainable way,” continues Whelan.
“We have highly automated systems and a lot of our unique selling points are based around brand
quality and brand consistency, speed-to-market, faster lead times and shorter print runs. Our customers
and their needs are what drive us. For them, consistency is a number one priority. High quality printing
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is also high on the list, and something we focused on. Thanks to our investments, we produce 223lpi
compared to the majority in the market who print at150lpi or 133lpi. We push as hard we can to be the
best we can.”
Make-ready in minutes
Whelan continues: “We have invested heavily in the past couple of years and that is now paying off.
The fact we can print 223lpi now, as standard, enables us to earn new work. We have been able to
move from self-adhesive labels to flexible packaging, which helped us add new customers and
brands. An automated workflow has allowed us to deliver laminated flexible packaging within 3 days
from receipt of new artwork. We can make ready in in a shorter time frame, compared to two or three
hours before, allowing the company to drive its sales growth into new customers and markets offering
unique USP’s. Equinox has been the icing on the cake on top of everything else we have done. First,
we made sure we had a stable platform to produce high quality flexo print, including automatic plate
mounting, optimized anilox rollers, and optimized ink, and then we improved quality even further with
Equinox."
There is not much point to being able to change plates very quickly if you have to spend extra time
washing the units and replacing different spot color inks. A fixed inkset can avoid the need to change
ink colors in-between jobs. This is similar to the challenge that any company faces with increasing
demand for shorter packaging runs. The unique fixed inkset color technology – that also delivers an
expanded gamut printing – reduces production costs and eliminates press downtime and ink changes,
while making it possible to reproduce a spot color and maintain visual brand identity.
“Equinox gives us the opportunity to print more – and better – than we did before,” comments Whelan.
“No doubt we are quicker and more consistent because we never have to change an ink unit.
However, at the same time Equinox offers something different. It puts artistic license back into the
process. With a wider gamut we are able to reproduce more brilliant color that pops off the shelf. We
also have a process that can consistently reproduce a wide range of brand colors, every time.”
The REVO Project Team
Adare looked at digital but last year choose to work with the REVO Project team, an alliance formed
by Adare with Apex International, AVT, DuPont, Esko, Flint Group, Bobst Firenze (former Nuova
Gidue) and UPM Raflatac. REVO aims to optimize flexo by “digitalizing” the complete
manufacturing process, combining the strengths of every partner to create a plug & play concept that
expands the possibilities for flexo converters. The results include high quality print, increased
efficiency, higher productivity and improved sustainability. Whelan says, “Rather than having one very
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specific solution, we all worked together and, as a result, have created something that makes Equinox
work very well.”
By implementing optimized and automated workflows, seven-color ink separation both in the prepress
department and on the press, and by using nearly 100% full automated presses, coupled with
investment in the latest printing machines, Adare has managed to reduce the number of its presses
from eleven to six, while producing even more jobs than before at a very high quality standard
competing with gravure.
“We love it and our customers love it,” Whelan concludes. “I do believe it is the future. Customers’
expectations of quality and turnaround times have increased. They know what is available elsewhere,
so we must and will continue to push digital automation and control everything.”
About Adare (www.adare.com)
Adare collaborates with organizations and leverage its core competences to provide end-to-end
design and packaging solutions that protect and promote their products and services and enhance
their Brands. As part of the Adare Group, Adare Advantage continues to innovate and develop its
products enabling it to meet its client’s needs whilst staying ahead of the competition.
The Adare Group is a leading provider of global Marketing and Secure Communication solutions. The
group, with a £170m turnover, 900 employees and 30 locations around the globe, is made up of five
specialist businesses: Adare International, Adare Limited, Adare Advantage, Kalamazoo Secure
Solutions and the Purple Agency. Its blue-chip clients include many of the world's best-known brands.
Adare helps them change the way they communicate with their audiences, win new customers and
grow existing relationships via its inspired, integrated and customer-centric communication strategies.
About Esko (www.esko.com)
Esko is a global supplier of integrated solutions for the packaging and labels, sign and display,
commercial printing and publishing industries. Esko products and services drive profitability in the
packaging and printing supply chain by reducing time-to-market and raising productivity.
Portfolio
The Esko product portfolio supports and manages the packaging and print processes at brand owners,
retailers, designers, packaging manufacturers and print service providers. For 9 out of 10 retail packages,
Esko solutions are used in packaging management, asset management, artwork creation, structural
design, prepress, 3D visualization, plate making, workflow automation, quality assurance, samplemaking, palletization, supply chain collaboration and the production of signage and displays.
The Esko solutions consist of an extensive suite of software and two hardware product lines: CDI flexo
computer-to-plate imagers and Kongsberg digital cutting systems, complemented with professional
services, training and consultancy.
Enfocus, with its suite of automation solutions and PDF quality control tools for printers, publishers, and
graphic designers, is part of Esko. MediaBeacon, with its digital asset management (DAM) solutions is
also part of Esko.
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Facts & numbers
Esko employs around 1500 people worldwide. Its direct sales and service organization covers Europe,
Middle East and Africa, the Americas and the Asia Pacific, Japan and China regions and is
complemented by a network of distribution partners in more than 50 countries.
Esko is headquartered in Gent, Belgium, and has R&D and manufacturing facilities in five European
countries, the United States, China and India. Esko is a Danaher company (www.danaher.com).
Follow Esko on
P.R. agencies
Corporate and EMEA
Nancy Vermeulen
duomedia
Tel: +32 2 560 21 50
nancy.v@duomedia.com
. For more information, visit www.esko.com or contact:
Esko
Corporate
Jef Stoffels
Director Corporate Marketing
Tel: +32 9 216 90 32
jef.stoffels@esko.com
EMEA
Bruno Vermeulen
EMEA Marketing Manager
Tel: +32 9 216 93 09
bruno.vermeulen@esko.com
All press releases, as well as corresponding product pictures, are available at the press section
at www.esko.com.
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