Beyond Label | 91Beyond Label has spent fve years upgrading from traditional printing equipment to an all-digital print operationBeyond speeds growth with digital strategyBeyond Label has spent fve years upgrading from traditional printing equipment to an all-digital print operation. A key part of this strategy is to fnd new customers on social media platforms and digitize its whole workfow, Yolanda Wang reportseyond Label, located in Heyuan Hi-Tech Development Zone, “The outbreak of Covid-19 did not Guangdong Province, has been focused on the production and manufacturing of short-run, personalized label orders Bgreatly affect Beyond’s business. for nine years. At present, the company has a feet of HP Indigo digital presses: a 6900, 6K and 25K. The company’s machine park Because we are not dependent on is rounded out with several Reborn digital die-cutting machines, a any one sector, this reduced our DMS digital foiling unit and the recently installed Esko pre-press software suite. These investments will equip Beyond Label to business risks during the epidemic. become a digital one-stop service platform.Beyond Label’s annual turnover now exceeds 50m RMB (6.98m Traveling was blocked under the USD), and the company credits digital printing technology as the key to its success.epidemic regulations, which meant From conventional to digitalcustomers’ demands for online Beyond Label offcially entered the package printing feld in 2008 when it established a factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. orders was further stimulated”At that time, it mainly used sheet offset presses for folding cartons. The company moved into label production in 2013. Beyond Label had already eliminated two intermittent offset Zhang Yu’an, general manager of Beyond Label, explains why: presses and the pre-owned HP Indigo WS4500 before purchasing ‘When serving our customers, we gradually found that the label a new HP Indigo WS6900. In 2021, the company acquired an printing industry is growing very fast in the Chinese market, HP Indigo 6K and eliminated its remaining conventional printing although compared to the folding carton sector the overall market equipment. In 2022, it invested in an HP Indigo 25K digital press.volume of labels is much smaller. So, considering the future In addition, Beyond Label invested in Reborn, Vorey, Ritu and development of the company, we chose to transform and focus on other digital die-cutting machines, as well as a DMS 800W UV providing customized, small-run label printing services.’ digital foil machine.Beyond Label invested in four Weigang intermittent offset ‘By upgrading from conventional to digital production printing presses, a Nickel letterpress printing machine and equipment, Beyond Label aims to improve its production strength additional fnishing equipment. In 2017, Beyond Label invested in and fexibility and to adapt to the market needs of personalized, its frst digital press, a pre-owned HP Indigo WS4500. short runs with rapid order turnaround,’ says Zhang Yu ‘an. ‘To be honest, we did not know much about digital printing at Beyond Label offcially changed its name to Beyond Digital that time, so the WS4500 press did not play a major role in our Application Technology Co in 2022.operations. We only used it for some proofng jobs,’ says Zhang Yu. ‘ But through using this equipment, we got frst-hand knowledge Business digitizationabout how digital technology works.’ Digitization is a wider trend across all manufacturing sectors and When its original plant became too small for further expansion, is now profoundly impacting the development of the label printing Beyond Label set up a new factory in Heyuan in 2019 and industry, especially for Beyond.registered as Heyuan Beyond Label. ‘Digitalization has always been the goal of our investment The converter had a long-term plan to upgrade all the equipment strategy,’ says Zhang Yu’an. ‘Our orders are mainly concentrated in the new factory, gradually expanding its digital printing business in the area of short and medium runs, and these customers while reducing the volume of conventional printing equipment. are very scattered and have diversifed needs. In the process of Oct - Dec 2022