www.nte.fr
www.nte.fr

Compared with Paris or Marseilles, the French town of Roubaix does not attract many tourists. It is in the heart of the northern rust belt, where coal mines and cotton mills used to throb. Today, the mountainous slag heaps are gradually being covered with grass, but the derelict pit heads and factories are not the kind of background most tourists want to take home with them. But the people of this corner of France, who are proud to be nicknamed “Les Cht’is,” have a reputation for hard work and entrepreneurial spirit.

In the days before the First World War, many Polish miners fled to Northern France where working conditions were better (but only just) than in their homeland. One of the descendants of this diaspora was Gérard Wojciekowski, who in 1984 founded Nord Technique Etiquetage (NTE) in Roubaix to produce self-adhesive labels. After 22 years of loyal service to the label industry he handed over the reins to his son-in-law, Thibault Duponchel. The company, which now employs 20 and aims to achieve a turnover of $7 million this year, has always had a reputation as an innovator. A 7-color Gallus press was followed by an investment in an automated plate-washing unit, which improved print quality and increased productivity. In addition, the company has invested in a training program for its employees to improve their skills. “Recruiting qualified or even semi-qualified personnel is one of our biggest headaches,” says Duponchel.

A few years ago, NTE invested in a Mark Andy Digital One. This entry-level toner press, with its inline finishing, produced high-quality work on small-to-medium runs. Chosen for its ease of use, small footprint and low operating cost, the Digital One added flexibility to NTE’s production capacity. However, its slow running speed and high maintenance cost made the company look around for an upgrade, and in the spring of this year, NTE, which already had one Bobst among its five presses, ordered a Bobst Mouvent inkjet line. NTE’s choice to invest in Bobst Mouvent technology was motivated in part by wanting to have a different solution from its competitors, many of whom are equipped with HP Indigo presses.

“Satisfied with the services delivered by Bobst on the existing M4 press, we decided to continue with this supplier,” comments Thibault Duponchel. “The new press has been operating since June and has come up to our expectations, particularly in terms of ease of use.”

He says the Mouvent scores well with its cruising speed of 70 m/m (and top speed of 100 m/m). Combined with a newly acquired ABG Digicon finishing line, this makes it the best choice for many jobs, which NTE previously printed in flexo. The downside has been a technical glitch or two. “Unfortunately that’s to be expected with a new technology” adds Duponchel.

NTE’s specialties include fully dissolvable labels for industrial kitchens, to solve the problem of soggy, used labels clogging up the sinks. Another innovative label of which NTE is justly proud is for an importer of apparel, who needed unique transparent labels for each different size of clothing. The labels had to be attractive and removable without any adhesive residue. The total initial order was for 50 million labels, to be delivered, like, yesterday. NTE took up the challenge, setting up a team of four to handle the logistics, and the labels were designed, printed and delivered in time to meet the customer’s shipping requirements.

Food and agricultural product labeling is one of NTE’s strongest suits and here the “personal touch” has enabled it to gain business. A local producer, worried about foreign competition, wanted to enhance the labels on its products but without increasing the cost. Knowing the potential of the digital press, NTE’s designers were able to personalize each product in the range with a brighter, more attractive label.

NTE also offers customized labeling equipment for applying any and all of the labels it produces. It has designed and produced a range of labelers under the “Getic” brand, one of which helped its customer Richet, a manufacturer of bleach tablets, who wanted to develop its production of solid tablets. For this, it needed a new bottle labeling line. This line had to be able to apply labels of different sizes on cylindrical plastic boxes and to withstand the very corrosive environment of packing bleach. The Getic labeler did the trick, and NTE gained a new customer.

Throughout the European Union, frontiers are virtually non-existent, and as the Belgian frontier runs close to Roubaix, NTE’s business runs freely into the neighboring country. SPA, a leader in mineral water in Belgium, needed to integrate a sixth automatic labeling line, to keep up with production. This new line had to apply labels of different sizes onto various bottles at very high speeds. NTE proposed its automatic label applicator, the Getik 40. Equipped with a plug-and-play system, the Getik 40 automatic labeler can run at different application speeds with up to four dispensing heads, which makes this labeling machine easily adaptable to an increase in production. “It did everything the customer wanted,” Duponchel explains. “But the standard version wasn’t fast enough. So we tweaked it until it could run at Formula One speeds. Result: another happy customer.”

Questioned by L&NW, Duponchel replies frankly: “There’s a lot of M&A activity in the French label sector, and yes, we’ve been approached. There’s no telling the future, but today we’re profitable, and I’m too young to think of retirement. Our order book is full, fuller than this time last year, but the big headache is getting deliveries of our raw materials, particularly labelstock. Prices have jumped 15% since January, with delivery in five weeks if you’re lucky. Much the same is happening with inks. It’s a good job our competitors are all in the same boat.”