Gulmen Engineering

"The purpose of my trip was two-fold," explained Stéphane. "We'd signed an agreement with Eddie and the Gulmen team about 12 months ago and I felt it was important to come here and support them and to see their facilities. Over the past year, we've installed 10 projects together and I wanted to visit the customers where these machines are installed.

"So the trip was more to meet with Eddie and Ali, to provide them with additional training, plus, we are installing a demo machine at their facility and I wanted to make sure that all went well. So it was about cementing our co-operation and for me personally, to get a close feel of the market."

Stéphane said he had undertaken a lot of investigation and visits "downunder" to Gulmen, when they were assessing the market and that it is crucial to understand the market and what customers want. "We are in a position to assure customers and say to them, that SMAG is not just providing brochures to Gulmen Engineering, but now we have a unit running in Australia, they can physically see and feel. We see the relationship between SMAG and Gulmen as a partnership, with both companies working together to meet customer needs."

Stéphane said the Australian market was very receptive to SMAG's slitter/rewinders and digital converting equipment. "These are products we have been giving a lot of support to in this market and it is a growing market for us. We have a wide range of equipment suitable for Australia and we are focusing our attention on developing that."/p>

SMAG has two top-selling machines he said, the Digital Galaxie, the most advanced model, offering a lot of optional needs, like screen, foil and embossing, and the company believes it is  state-of-the-art when it  comes to digital converting. More than 80 lines are running in the world. "The Digital Galaxie has been developed on the Galaxie press base with more than 200 units installed," said Stéphane, "but adapted to the digital printing mode. It has five key areas: Modularity: which means it can be used to solve your current problems and offers the possibility of being extended according to future markets. Added Value: through silkscreen technology, you have the choice of matte inks, tactile effects, thermo-chromatic effects, all of which open new markets, and Differentiation: this machine will set you apart from others in the market.

"We also have an entry-level digital finishing line that we call the E-CUTT 330, which is a compact flexo machine, with a short web path. It satisfies 60% of the needs of printers and in terms of sales volume, is the machine we sell the most of. The other popular machine in this market is our Venus slitter/rewinder, a semi-automatic turret rewinder.

"Customers I have spoken to in Australia, are very happy with the support Gulmen is giving them and this is a very important aspect for us, because we are a long way away - 20 hours flying time," Stéphane grimaced. "We cannot sell our equipment without the support of a good local company. Service is the key today in our industry, especially in the digital business. They are catering to short-term orders, so the machine needs to be always available, reliable. As a supplier, you can say that your equipment is quality, but things can happen and Gulmen's proven record of strong local service support, was the reason I chose to work with Eddie. The service support they are able to supply, is also one of key decisions customers choose SMAG, because they know they have back-up support."

Stéphane also said SMAG will be at Labelexpo Americas 2012 showing-off the E-CUTT model.

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