Spotlight on... Pixartprinting

Established in 1994 by Matteo Rigamonti as a service bureau for traditional printing, Pixartprinting was transformed into an e-commerce printing company in 2000 when the company widened its focus to address the market with its web-to-print formula.  The e-commerce model was successfully implemented across the business and ultimately enabled Pixartprinting to achieve undisputed leadership in its market across Italy.

Pixartprinting offers a wide gamut of print solutions including posters, flags, banners, POP displays, packaging, textiles, business cards and magazines to name but a few.  The company promotes itself as an online one-stop shop for businesses and professionals with any print requirements.

Alessandro Tenderini, CEO of Pixartprinting, explains, “Our objective was to move from a family-owned business to a dynamic company capable of supporting an impressive expansion project.  The funding enabled us to fulfil this business objective and today we are one of the most important European web-to-print companies for professional customers.”

Pixartprinting is a pure web-to-print company.  Its mission is to provide cost-effective, high quality printed products with a quick turnaround.  “We are a key player and â€" as well as being competitive in terms of product range, value for money and service â€" we are also to be innovative in terms of strategy,” adds Tenderini.

In 2011, the company sold 75% of its shares to Alcedo, a leading Italian investment fund.  The capital raised has enabled Pixartprinting to further extend its reach across Europe.  It has also allowed an expansion of the company's Quarto D’Altino, Italy-based HQ from 18,000sqm to 30,000sqm by the end of this year.  From this facility, the company serves customers across Europe.

The company employs around 300 employees working in three shifts, thus guaranteeing a seven-day-week service to approximately 95,000 active customers across Europe.

Tenderini continues, “We address the European market as a multinational business, capable of ‘speaking the language’ of each country, both literally and figuratively.  For this reason, we have created virtual stores â€" with their own individual web domains â€" for each target country with fully customised workflows.”

At present, Pixartprinting has bespoke websites for the Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, Romanian and Dutch marketplaces with a Polish version coming soon.

Approximately 90% of Pixartprinting’s customers are professional operators in the graphic arts sector.  They are primarily print service providers who take advantage of Pixartprinting services for jobs which they are not able to complete on their own â€" either because they do not have the adequate technology or because they don’t have the production capacity to offer deliveries in the extremely short time scales their customers demand.

As for future growth, Tenderini comments, “There is a steady increase in demand for offset printing which is complemented by a surge in demand for large format print and labelling.  We are seeing significant growth in textiles and are currently investing in a new dedicated production department and R&D activity for material development.”

He continues: “Our main objective is to anticipate printing market trends, where experts foresee a gradual disappearance of small operations in favour of new combinations able to be a single source for all printing needs, and ensuring high quality standards both in terms of product and service.  With the constant implementation of new technologies, we continuously improve our extensive product catalogue with the purpose of answering and, if possible, anticipating customer needs, by offering them the possibility to develop, in turn, their business in new sectors.

“There are so many new technologies or more established technologies applied to new products that deserve close attention. But in principle we are moving towards the printing or production of highly personalised short run (or in single copy) work at an acceptable cost that in the past could not be achieved.”

On the success of the company, Tenderini concludes, “There are certain features for which we have always stood out - namely, our highly competitive offering, our price to quality ratio and our unrivalled service.  But what truly makes us stand out from the crowd is our ability to innovate.  We continually renew our product range, offering ever-new solutions capable of meeting printing requirements and even anticipating market trends.  Technological innovation characterises our production and is essential for continuing to improve quality.”

For more information, please visit www.pixartprinting.com

[photo below shows Pixartprinting's headquarters in Italy]