Based in the town of Reutlingen in Baden-Württemberg, south-west Germany, BruderhausDiakonie has a long and proud history. In the mid-19th century, theologian Gustav Werner and his wife created one of Germany’s first Christian charities, the Gustav Werner Foundation. On the banks of the river Echaz they formed numerous rescue facilities, schools and factories. Now, almost 200 years later, the Gustav Werner Foundation has merged with the Haus am Berg Foundation to become BruderhausDiakonie, a non-profit Christian diaconal organisation that offers a wide network of jobs and workshops for the disabled and those with mental health challenges in Baden-Württemberg. As part of its wide offering, the organisation has a graphics workshop which delivers a huge range of digitally printed products, which are produced on a toner system and now on Fujifilm’s Jet Press 750S.
“BruderhausDiakonie is a social organisation with tradition,” says Andreas Bauer, head of the social affairs at BruderhausDiakonie. “Our late founder Gustav Werner’s motto was: ‘what does not become an act has no value’, and that holds true with us today – we work hard to ensure our facilities are appealing, family-friendly environments, and we provide our employees with extensive training. We have around 5,000 staff across various sites in Baden-Württemberg, all with the aim of helping people to participate in work and education.”
The company’s graphics workshop produces a wide range of fully serviced printed products, including brochures, magazines, posters, greeting cards and calendars. “Our graphic workshop offers the highest quality in printing,” continues Bauer. “With the digital printing solutions we have on site, we can provide our customers with brilliantly detailed products. Combining our modern printing techniques with a professional service has been essential to our success within various industries, organisations, authorities and church communities for over 30 years.”
BruderhausDiakonie’s graphics workshop had been using offset printing for many of its products over its three-decade existence, but that all changed when the company installed Fujifilm’s Jet Press 750S. “We had been using offset for many years, but we knew a shift to digital was going to be required if we were going to stay competitive,” says Bauer. “We could see a decline in volume of existing jobs and an increase in demand for short-run, highly personalised printed products. We then spoke to other printers in the area about their experiences with digital printing and the name that kept coming up was the Jet Press.
“We first encountered the Jet Press itself at drupa 2016, when the Jet Press 720S was in operation. We were already remarkably impressed by the quality and productivity of the machine and by the time we had decided to invest in it, the newer Jet Press 750S was available. Seeing its production stability, coupled with superior productivity and extremely high print quality, it ticked all the right boxes for us.”
Bauer is clear on the benefits the Jet Press 750S has provided the graphics workshop of BruderhausDiakonie: “For small and medium run work, it is excellent. Our clients want the best, high-quality products – for years they got that via our offset solutions – but now they’re seeing even better print results and they have acknowledged the improvements in the proofs we have sent to them. Quite simply, the quality of the products we provide has increased, the production time has significantly reduced, and our product portfolio has expanded thanks to the capabilities of the Jet Press – we can now offer our customers products we couldn’t before. The very high colour stability, especially on uncoated substates, has allowed us to win new business too.
“What’s more, the Jet Press has allowed us to considerably reduce our make-ready times and wastage, and its highly automated operated has freed up personnel capacity for other work. Production has become so much more flexible – our investment in the Jet Press has made just-in-time jobs possible when they were previously unthinkable.”
The environmental aspects of the Jet Press 750S have also impressed the business: “The aim here at BruderhausDiakonie is for our production to become CO2 neutral by 2021. Sustainability and resource conservation are integral to our philosophy as a business and we’re delighted that the Jet Press fits in effortlessly with this – its water based ink makes the recycling of products easy for our customers and with low chemical emissions it is a safe machine for all of our workers to be around. We’re hoping to get people who have disabilities using the Jet Press 750S very soon too – its ease of use should make this a seamless operation.”
Bauer also has high praise for Fujifilm’s sales and technical teams: “From the very beginning, they have been transparent and trustworthy. We visited their Advanced Print Technology Centre in Brussels in advance of investing in the Jet Press 750S – we had a very good feeling then and following that the installation and operator training was excellent. Service and maintenance teams have always been on hand to help us if required – we are more than satisfied with the service provided by Fujifilm.
“We see great potential in inkjet technology and investing in the Jet Press 750S is without doubt one of the best decisions the graphic arts workshop has ever made. We look forward to seeing Fujifilm’s next innovation.”
Peter Schopen, Product & Marketing Manager for Digital Press Solutions at Fujifilm Graphic Systems says: “BruderhausDiakonie prides itself on its brilliant history of being a socially supportive business. The remarkable work they’ve done over the years has created unexpected opportunities for so many people and we at Fujifilm are delighted to be partnering with the team at BruderhausDiakonie, and we are very pleased with the success they have with the Jet Press 750S.”
