Wera boosts efficiency with a move to fully digital production

The marketing services provider WERA AS, located in Porsgrunn, Norway, was founded in 2005 when the companies Rasmussen and Wergeland Grafisk merged – the name WERA comes from the first two letters of the names of the original companies. Previously two printing companies with a rich history going back to the early 1900s, they decided to merge after recognising the potential of combining their existing graphic design departments.

With 17 employees, WERA AS provides design, content and website development services, as well as a large range of printed applications, to customers all over Norway. The majority of their customers are large companies in the travel and real estate industries and public sector organisations. What differentiates them from their competitors is that they are a marketing services provider rather than purely a print service provider – they offer a full end-to-end production process involving strategic advertising, communications consultancy and graphic design, as well as printing.

When asked about WERA’s decision to move from a mix of digital and offset, owner and board member Dag Brekke-Rasmussen whose great-great grandfather founded Oluf Rasmussen AS in 1902, explains, “For many years, print run lengths have been decreasing and our offset machine was quite old, so when we moved to our new location in Porsgrunn, it became obvious to invest in digital print only.”

Having decided to go fully digital to tie in with the move to its brand new office in Porsgrunn in 2021, WERA looked at a number of digital presses from different suppliers. However, very satisfied with Canon’s products and service and the relationship with Canon that goes back to 2006, WERA decided to invest in two further Canon presses, the imagePRESS C10010VP and the imagePRESS C10000VP, at the same time, to meet their changing business requirements. To increase the automation within their workflow and free up staff time for other work, WERA also invested in Canon’s PRISMAsync and PRISMAprepare software.

Brekke-Rasmussen comments, “While we were very impressed with the quality of the new Canon digital cutsheet presses, the relationship between WERA and Canon has always been very good and the excellent service we’ve received from them for many years also played a decisive role in choosing to invest in the additional technology. We really appreciate that Canon’s consultants think creatively and are concerned about our development – and it also helps that their service personnel are located not too far from our offices!”

Two of the main reasons WERA decided to invest in further Canon equipment were the high quality of the printed output and the functionality of the presses. “We have been very impressed with the media range of the imagePRESS models, which has allowed us to print on thick paper and expand our application offerings. They have also significantly reduced our turnaround time so what used to take us one to two weeks to print on offset can now be produced in two to three days on the imagePRESS printers,” explains Brekke-Rasmussen. The proven value of these two presses led to WERA making an additional investment — to replace the imagePRESS C10000VP — in an imagePRESS V1000, which was quickly installed on their premises in September 2022.

For WERA as a company, sustainability is a strong focus, as is highlighted by its use of climate neutral paper, locally sourced materials and solar panels on the roof of its office. “Sustainability is very important to us and it’s something our customers look for and that we actively promote in our practices. We are actively engaged in a project here in Norway called ‘Printed in Norway’, an initiative against print jobs being outsourced overseas due to cheap labour costs. These print jobs are then shipped back to Norway with huge implications for the environment and rising CO2 emissions, so we’re very proud to be advocates for this project,” says Brekke-Rasmussen. “It’s therefore great to know that the Canon imagePRESS models also offer benefits that support our company in advancing our sustainability efforts further.

Looking to the future, Brekke- Rasmussen sees a need for greater automation in the company’s print workflow: “We’ve automated our workflows to a certain extent and Canon’s PRISMAsync and PRISMAprepare software are working well and are very easy to use. But we know that our processes can benefit further from increased automation and are confident that, through Canon’s continued support and guidance, we’ll achieve that goal.”