Japan’s Yoshimura-Packaging has upgraded its digital package printing capability with the installation of an HP Indigo 6K narrow web digital press.

Yoshimura-Packaging was founded in 1932, celebrating its 90-year anniversary next July. In 2008, the company installed its first HP Indigo WS6000 digital press, introducing short runs to its packaging production mix through a new division, Esprit. The company now operates four HP Indigo digital presses, with digital printing exceeding gravure printing in terms of volume.

Tetsuya Yoshimura, representative director and vice president at Yoshimura-Packaging, commented, ‘Since the introduction of the first machine, Esprit, our service using digital press has continued to grow, and the HP Indigo digital presses are now our main production machines.’

The company produces a variety of food packaging, although mainly serves the Japanese tea market. According to a survey on green tea drinking conducted by Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan in the fall of 2020, people aged 18-29 were noted to have increased the frequency of drinking green tea using tea leaves, as they spent more time at home. To respond faster to such changes in market and further strength its capability and productivity, Yoshimura-Printing decided to replace the 2008 HP Indigo WS6000 model with the newer HP Indigo 6K. The press has been installed at the company’s factory in Shizuoka Prefecture.

With the HP Indigo 6K, Yoshimura-Packaging is seeking to further stabilise the quality of its and improve operational efficiency by utilising the HP Spot Master system to automate spot colour matching. In addition, the enhanced data processing speed greatly reduces the time from data transmission to completion of printing when print variable designs.

Mr Yoshimura continued, ‘In order to realise the idea to become a partner to create the future by wrapping its thoughts, it is indispensable to provide a variety of high-quality packages in small lots, short delivery time and high quality. Therefore, we decided to replace the first machine with the latest model. In the future, we plan to gradually replace the old models with the latest models, and we would like to further develop our business partnership with HP and realize services that exceed customer expectations.’