PrintCo360 expands digital hybrid capacity with Mark Andy Digital Series iQ

PrintCo360 has expanded its digital label production capabilities with the addition of a Mark Andy Digital Series iQ, giving the Rainsville, AL-based converter an inline platform for digital printing, flexographic decoration and converting.

Founded in 2012 by Joey Hicks, PrintCo360 operates four Mark Andy presses and began adding digital production approximately a decade ago. The family-owned converter serves customers throughout the US and Canada, with food and beverage among its fastest-growing markets.

According to Hicks, the decision to invest in the Digital Series iQ was driven largely by the company’s preference for one-pass production. PrintCo360 had considered a standalone digital press but ultimately determined that moving printed rolls to separate diecutting and slitting equipment would create unnecessary production bottlenecks.

“We had been printing and converting inline on flexo presses for years,” Hicks says. “Why would we stop doing that when we went digital?”

PrintCo360’s Digital Series iQ is configured with two flexo stations – one before and one after the digital engine – along with inline diecutting. The configuration allows the converter to combine digital printing with flexographic coatings, spot colors and other processes without moving the web to another press.

The investment also addresses a shift Hicks is seeing toward shorter runs and greater SKU proliferation, particularly among craft beer, spice and other food and beverage customers. Multiple versions can be prepared in prepress and run consecutively without the plate, ink, anilox and ink pan changes required in conventional flexographic production.

“If a customer has a couple thousand labels across ten different SKUs, we can set them all up in prepress and run them through,” Hicks says. “The press never stops. In flexo, that would have taken hours upon hours.”

Hicks says PrintCo360 expects its next major press investment to remain on the digital side of the business as it continues expanding its prime label capabilities. The company’s longer-term goal is to add approximately one press per year while evaluating its customer mix and opportunities for continued growth.