Webstar

Specializing in high-quality web printing, Webstar produces magazines, catalogs, and other products that get distributed to millions of homes and businesses across New Zealand. Aware of their business's environmental impact, they've invested in measures that improve their sustainability—including several advanced prepress technologies from Kodak.

Webstar is part of Blue Star, New Zealand's largest print group, and operates two state-of-the-art facilities at opposite ends of the country's North Island, in Auckland and Masterton. They primarily produce high-volume, high-quality magazines, catalogs, brochures, and other promotional print. Given the scale and distribution of their work—and in a country known for its eco-awareness—Webstar is conscious of their production footprint and committed to reducing it by implementing more efficient, lower-waste practices. This is especially true at their Auckland site, which goes through roughly 6,000 plates each month to print on several manroland Goss ROTOMAN 16-page web offset presses. In recent years, Webstar began reevaluating their CTP operation, which was laborious, bogged down by plate processing, and waste-producing. They wanted a cleaner, leaner workflow—but without compromising the speed, run lengths, and print quality their customers relied on. Kodak had the answers.

Kodak's prepress solution for Webstar combined multiple technologies. They upgraded their CTPs to several Kodak models: at the Auckland site, a KODAK MAGNUS Q800 Platesetter that images 45 plates per hour X-speed mode, with an automated Single Pallet Loader, plus two KODAK MAGNUS VLF Platesetters at the Masterton facility. The printer also implemented KODAK PRINERGY Workflow Software, installed at Auckland but controlling prepress across both sites. Then in early 2020 at the Auckland site, Webstar fully replaced their conventional wet processed plates with the first generation of KODAK SONORA Process Free Plates. The move immediately made production greener by eliminating not only the water, energy, and chemical consumption of plate processors, but also on-press waste from processing variability. Plus, the plates easily achieved the printer's run requirements of 400,000+ impressions, with no performance concerns.

Webstar's prepress improvements have brought not only sustainability benefits, but also efficiency and tangible cost and labor savings. Switching to SONORA Plates let them get rid of their two plate processors, eliminating not only the resource usage, but also the staff time needed for the machines' cleaning and maintenance. The pallet loader on the MAGNUS Q800 Platesetter gives them several days of automated plate loading, which previously required manual labor several times a day. Managing both sites' plate output from a single PRINERGY Workflow installation saves on IT infrastructure and labor costs. And cutting out the processing step, plus the new CTPs' faster imaging, has speeded up their overall workflow, so plates get to press faster—and Webstar can maximize their job turnover.