What is your USP?
We specialise in printing in high volumes for newspaper inserts, national door-drops as well as catalogues and brochures. All presses are configured to run at high speeds with the ability to spine glue or stitch and then fold and trim on press. 80% of our presses have new energy efficient ovens, helping to keep gas consumption as low as possible.
But who are Em De Jong?
We’re a family owned print business that dates back to 1906. Based in Baarle-Nassau on the border of Belgium and The Netherlands. With 1,200 staff across six sites, five in Benelux and one in Germany, we process over 400,000 tonnes of paper annually. My role is to find new business and manage our existing UK clients supported by a great team of English speaking colleagues behind me. I have been selling into this sector for 20 years.
How easy is it for a UK client trading with a European supplier post Brexit?
Very! Our clients deal with our UK office. We manage all import paperwork, our clients don’t have to worry about a thing. We have established relationships with a select group of haulage companies and can even deliver a job to the UK within 24 hours of it leaving our presses. Transport is expensive so the closer to the UK the better of course and our Brugge factory is only a one-hour drive from Calais.
Remember, most printing paper for the UK market is produced in Europe so we are just putting ink on it, before it reaches the UK!
Royal Printing House, Em de Jong’s head office in The Netherlands
Who are your clients?
Retailers of all types, including supermarkets and mail order companies across the Benelux, Germany, France and, of course, the UK.
What firepower do you have?
We have 26 web offset presses ranging from 8pp to 120pp machines of which eight are short grain, including two 96pp presses with the ability to run long or short grain. This offers our clients flexibility unmatched anywhere else in Europe. Flying imprint is also available on our 8pp, 16pp and 24pp machines, which offers a very economical way to produce high numbers of versions, without stopping the press to change plates.
What does the future hold for the group?
As a financially sound company in a market subject to seemingly never-ending consolidation, we expect to continue to grow the business as the market leader for leaflet production in Europe by sticking to our path of continual investment.
On that, what is your most recent investment?
An additional 80pp press at Mercator, our site near Brugge, where we print a lot of our UK work. It features a wider than normal reel width of 2,250mm that allows us to print 80 A4 pages in one revolution, and this along with a specially fitted short grain folder means this machine will offer UK clients huge paper savings and reduced press time on a 280x200mm format jobs, for example.
The new 80pp web at Mercator is now running
Last year we also installed a Landa S10P Nanographic B1 digital press, which complements our newly replaced Heidelberg sheetfed presses for our POS offering where we have 50 staff picking and packing items for the supermarkets across the Benelux region.
What about M&A, is the group active in that arena too?
Absolutely. Our most recent acquisition was Bek, a printer based in The Netherlands that specialises in print for retail including sheetfed, POS and display units – offering our clients additional abilities. Paqt is another recent addition, that business specialises in loyalty schemes based on paper products, again for retailers.
In 2018 we bought a large German printer called Jungfer Druckerei und Verlag which specialises in press finished products. It runs seven presses, several large machines including three 80pp and a 96pp configuration, all printing high-volume leaflets.
We want UK print buyers to see what efficiencies we can offer with our larger printing presses, helping to reduce costs by producing more copies per revolution and with short grain paper savings. Our 96pp machines can reach volumes normally only competitive for gravure presses. We have the added advantage of being able to print on grades gravure machines cannot, such as improved newsprint. You can then get offset quality and flexibility along with cheaper versions through plate changes, on the paper grades you want.
For more information on how Em de Jong can support your business, contact:
Craig Hall
Tel 0121 630 3920
Mobile 07734 297785
Email craig-hall@emdejong.nl
Website www.emdejong.nl
