For Jet Technologies the recent PacPrint exhibition was a complete validation of its belief that the print and packaging industries offer plenty of opportunity to those prepared to put the effort into developing their companies in what is a rapidly evolving business environment. Standing still is simply not an option.

 

The Jet stand in Melbourne was busy from start to finish of the four day show, with many new and existing clients spending lengthy periods of time on the stand to discuss future opportunities for their businesses.

 

Jack Malki, Director of Jet Technologies says, “Over the years we have and continue to develop products and services that offer our clients advantages to what they presently have. We work with our clients, understanding their business and their needs to find those solutions. Our clients are our partners and seeing so many long-term clients here reinforces our approach to develop mutually beneficial relationships.”.

 

“One of the strongest relationships we have formed in the past decade has been with Screen GP Australia, working on their range of packaging CtP’s and inkjet presses for labels & packaging. The L350UV inkjet press in particular, has been a huge success for us and our clients. After years of hard work to master the press ourselves, our clients who have installed it are all very pleased and many are now looking at a second press.”

 

“We had some of their clients, brand owners, on the stand thanking us for bringing this technology to the market, because they said it gave them the ability to do so much more in a volume market, whereas previous digital solutions were only suited to quite short runs. Those printers that are embracing our digital technology are developing great relationships with their clients, and together they are able to achieve so much more.”

 

 Its partnership with Screen has developed over the past decade, and today Jet Technologies is one of Screen’s premium global partners. Malki says, “We have an excellent relationship with Peter Scott and his team at Screen GP Australia, and with the executives at head office in Japan. It is a relationship that has grown over the years, and continues to be beneficial for the market here.”

 

Malki says, “The Screen digital label press is the core production unit at the new company. Screen label presses do not look like the flashiest machines around, but their performance is unrivalled. Everyone knows that Screen’s engineering is second to none, most CtP units in the world are manufactured by Screen, and that same robust precision engineering goes into their digital label presses.

 

Jack Malki says, “Everyone has been talking about inkjet for the past ten or fifteen years, but now it has become a reality. It operates at a far higher speed than toner presses, it has the quality, and can work on virtually all substrates without priming. The L350UV for instance can print on paper, film, foil, cosmetic tubes, aluminium and a host of substrates. Its instant drying means there is no delay in output. 

 

Jet Technologies has invested a considerable amount in the L350UV, running a demo-centre in Sydney to cater to Australian and NZ clients, making it one of the very few to do so right here in Australia.”

 

Jet Technologies was established as an industry supplier 37 years ago by Albert Malki, and 15 years ago made the strategic decision to focus more on packaging. He says, “Immediately we could see that technology would mean that many printed items would no longer be printed, so we decided to focus on areas where print was functional and with packaging, especially food packaging, that will continue to be a growing sector of the market for years to come.

 

We are all consuming more packaging each year as products become packaged more elaborately to provide improved appearance or function (such as freshness). There is also a shift from bulk packaging to portion packaging, so for example instead of buying 2L of juice, we might buy multiple smaller packs as we consume the juice today whilst it is fresher.”

 

“Labels was a big part of the Jet move into packaging and over the past 15 years we developed numerous product ranges in that market that have become market leaders. For example, right now we have a UV flexo ink range called PureTone FPC and we demonstrated that at PacPrint. We might have been the only ones with real ink at the exhibition but it was a huge success as clients challenged us to show them the benefits and not a single client walked away uninterested. Whilst we have invested heavily in digital technologies, we continue to invest in flexo too as we see that as a print technology that will continue to grow for some time. 

 

Manufactured in the UK PureTone is able to be mixed into spot colours and can be used on any UV flexo press.

 

The high strength formulation allows for lower film weights of ink resulting in reduced inventory and lower ink volume consumption for narrow web printers and provides greater flexibility for printing half-tones and full-tones using just one printing plate.

 

In addition to the mono-pigmented mixing bases, the new PureTone ink series also includes a comprehensive range of process inks to meet the needs of today’s label printer. A combination of the company’s PureTone UV flexo process inks can also allow label printers to achieve ISO compliance. A range of lightfast colours also complements the PureTone process inks and PureTone mono-pigmented mixing bases.”

 

Malki says, “We also launched a range of new celloglazing films that remains a major part of our business, with printers wanting to add elements of touch to their print in order to differentiate it from others. Films such as our Soft Touch continue to be very well received by printers and agencies alike.”

 

“Innovation and constant improvement is not limited to our products. We invest every single year in our IT systems, with our “Jet Live” online ordering and inventory management systems constantly evolving in order to offer a better service to our clients and added support to our own team to help them manage our own supply chain. We remain a family-owned business and we take pride in everything that we do – making sure that our clients are served well is paramount to us and to our long-term growth.”

 

Jet supplies the Australian clients from its warehouses in Sydney Melbourne and Perth. New Zealand is serviced from either Auckland or Christchurch distribution points. Four years ago they also started up Jet Technologies Indonesia, with an ambitious plan to start there and expand through South-East Asia. 

 

Jet moved into Indonesia as part of its growth strategy as they could see some sections of the industry moving away from Australia/NZ towards SE Asia. Malki says, “We could see our clients start to consolidate and become regional and even global clients in many cases. Eventually the same thing has to happen in the supply chain and we would rather be the ones growing than being pushed out.

 

We have some clients such as Pemara and QLM who had already made the move and we made the decision to start in what is probably a very difficult, but potentially rewarding country. It has been a huge learning experience, but after 4 years, we can say that it has been worth it and we can now use our expertise over there, where we are still a little ahead of where others may be. I would urge our clients to also look at opportunities outside of Australia – many clients here are world-class and it would be great to see them have a go with growing their business elsewhere.

 

Malki says, “The company in Indonesia is working heavily in labels, in-mould and shrink packaging, carton packaging and also various flexible packaging fields such as tube printing.”