UPM_News_2016

Alma Manu gets with coldset CREATIVE

Text and photos: Saara Töyssy

We take a peek behind the scenes at Alma Manu, a leading Finnish printing house that is growing its business by developing new services tailored to the diverse needs of advertisers. A lma Manu printing house in Tampere, Finland is home to Aamulehti , the country’s sec-

Print gets the company close to the customer, into their homes and hearts. It says: ‘We are here, and we’re here to stay,” says Matti Käki, Director of Alma Manu.

Creating a great user experience

employs around 1,000 people, 850 of whom are postal carriers. Due to long distances in Finland, the most practi- cal solution is to deliver daily newspa- pers straight from the printing houses to subscriber’s letterboxes. The printing house runs in three shifts, with about twenty people working each shift. During its first two years in opera- tion, the new printing house focused on honing its operations and in-house printing, including the 20 different newspaper titles owned by Alma Me- dia, the company that produces Aamu­ lehti . When all was running smoothly by early 2015 – at which point Mat- ti Käki joined the team as director – Alma Manu made the strategic decision to increase printing advertisements and external titles. “Our Manroland ColormanAutoprint printing press has three folders which enable us to print three newspapers at the same time. We print six daily news- papers in prime time and run at full ca- pacity at night. But during the day we have capacity to service advertisers and other customers,” Käki explains. Now, in September 2016, most of the printed titles are for external clients. Through active sales work, the propor- tion is expected grow each year. “We offer services no one else can offer. It is possible to put out as many as twelve supplements at once, some of which can be advertising supplements. Although Alma Manu has a clear com- petitive edge on other smaller printing houses, winning contracts for special services has required constant research and development, actively listening to the customers’ needs and picking up the phone when necessary,” says Käki.

A leading role in Alma Manu’s R&D is played by Jussi Pekkarinen , Manag- er for Quality and Environment. After 31 years at the printing house, his cur- rent main responsibilities are research and development, quality management and environmental issues. “We have actively taken part in dif- ferent collaborative research pro- grammes in the paper and printing busi- nesses over the years, with UPM as one of our partners. Taking part in industry discussions has enabled us to develop our services to better meet customers’ needs. We are proactive in creating the best possible print user experience for the end-customer. A useful service can be anything from a rain-proof cover for a track betting magazine to a quick lead time for a sports publication,” Pekkari- nen explains. The future looks promising for Alma Manu, especially with further improve- ments awaited in coldest offset printing thanks to innovations such as UPM Im- presse Plus C, which – as confirmed in recent test runs – delivers a more mag- azine-like feel to coldset printing prod- ucts. “A printing house has to find a bal- ance between giving the customer what they need for a successful mar- keting campaigns and finding a paper that offers a suitable price-quality ratio. Our customers have been surprised at what coldset printing can accomplish: high-quality print at lower cost, along with a flexible service model and ex- cellent opportunities for effective audi- ence targeting,” concludes Käki.

ond largest daily newspaper founded in 1881. Faced with the slow but steady decline of printed newspaper circula- tions and the rapid rise of digital read- ing, the printing house is taking a cre- ative approach to drumming up new business in advertising and magazine publishing. Recent improvements in the quali- ty of coldset offset printing have ena- bled the printing house to better serve the special needs of many advertisers. A large printing house of Alma Manu’s size can furthermore offer service models that smaller businesses cannot, such as effortless printing of advertis- ing supplements for as many as 60 dif- ferent newspaper titles. “It is clearly visible to us that print generally and especially supplements have a special place in the advertis- ing palette of large companies. A print- ed advertising supplement is a mark of presence. Whenever a bigger company enters the Finnish market, they choose print to make an impression. XXL, Gi- gantti and Lidl are good examples. New customers: this way! A new printing house was built alongside Alma Manu’s exist- ing facility in the industrial area of Sarankulma in Tampere in 2013. Alma Manu

UPM NEWS 6