Canada based digital printing company Premier Markings started its journey in 2008 by Gary Moody who had over 20 years of experience as a label salesperson. His expertise and the market trend led this industry veteran to start his manufacturing with digital printing.
The company started with a low volume tabletop label printer but soon after it became clear that to make the company successful a productive high-quality label printing press was needed.
After researching the supplier market thoroughly, Premier Markings bought a Xeikon 3030 in 2013. According to Gary, “Xeikon office in Chicago convinced me and gave me the sense that they would help me make it happen. Looking back now they really did!”
Soon after installing the second Xeikon 3030, to cope up with the demand requests and accelerating productivity, Premier Markings upgraded to a Xeikon 3300 which basically doubled its capacity. It was very unique with Xeicon dry toner series of presses.
In January 2020, Premier Markings replaced the Xeikon 3030 with the Xeicon PX3000 UV inkjet machine. The speed of inkjet press and the print quality was better than Gary’s expectation.
Gary said, “It is an invaluable tool in our business to make the most of digital printing and the fact that all our presses are driven by that same front-end is a big advantage. So today Premier Markings is running a Xeikon 3300 and a Xeikon PX 3000.”
As per Gary, both dry toner and UV inject have their benefits. According to him dry tonner is a very consistent machine but requires more maintenance. The inject press needs less maintenance but is more vulnerable. Each technology has its forte in terms of printing quality and the labels look different.
Some substrates only work properly on dry toners, such as estate or wine label stock, stocks that have a structural surface. Matte BOPP is another substrate that Premier Markings drives only on dry toner. Other substrates simply work better on inkjet such as PP based chrome substrate.
Premier Markings is a prime example of a shop being very successful in label printing by being agile, innovative, and knowing when the trends shift – doing it the right way. It is a purely digital label printing shop with 11 employees. Since its start, the company has experienced double-digit growth every year. It perfectly combines dry toner EP technology and UV inkjet technology.
