Printmaster GTO 52 - User Report: Tanner & Bosshardt AG

The print shop Tanner & Bosshardt AG in Basel, Switzerland, is a small family business with six employees. "Our staff is the basis, the foundation of our company", says Tobias Stocker, Owner and Manager of the print shop. Much importance is attached to teamwork and a future-oriented approach, because "they are the strengths of a small company and make us flexible." The regular customers, most of whom are private persons, know the entire Tanner & Bosshardt team on account of its holistic and comprehensive consultancy and service. "We are a general contractor, so to say", as Stocker sums it up. Next year, the print shop will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the company name "Tanner und Bosshardt AG". In addition to its popularity, that was one of the reasons why the name was not changed when the company was taken over.

Since May 2006, the two employees in the production department have been working with one two and one four-color Printmaster GTO 52 press, which were purchased as a set. Along with two platens, one cylinder, and a SORM, they produce, finish and deliver mainly four-color printed matters with volumes from 500 to 5,000 sheets every day, and the stock spectrum ranges from carbonless forms to coated paper.

Demanding tasks like printing tracing paper, using metallic inks, or certain die cutting jobs prove the high quality level of the commercial print shop.

The advantages of the two new Printmaster GTO 52 presses such as "reliability as well as simple and flexible operation" were already known, because the two presses replaced three GTO presses that were almost twenty-five years old. Stocker says: "These two models enable us to achieve the optimum quality for our needs."

Especially when it comes to printing envelopes, the advantages of the two Printmaster presses make themselves felt, and that is an important mainstay of Tanner & Bosshardt: up to one million envelopes are printed per year, including four-color jobs. Stocker is pleased: "Thanks to the short makeready times when printing envelopes, we are perfectly able to meet our customers' tight delivery deadlines."
 
In 2002, Tanner & Bosshardt also took up digital printing, which has now become another important business field. Together with three partners, the print shop is a member of the "buysite" pool which uses a Nexpress with a finishing unit and offers inexpensive print-on-demand products with short delivery periods. "Here, we make use of synergies and enhance reliability by processing jobs jointly", says Tobias Stocker.

In the near future, the company intends to offer CtP in-house solutions. Today, it mainly works with CTF or film assembly. "That is the next logical step after we have updated our machinery by purchasing the two GTO presses", says Stocker.