Their production facilities are as Western as their organization values. They have the newest technologies and standards and they are not afraid of competition. Our old friends from the printing house Everest in Bucharest are entering new markets, exploring others and growing steadily by profiting from the quality and quantity possibilities that their machines offer. The company will also make headlines at drupa, as one of the machines on display there has already been acquired by Everest, as we learned from the discussion we had with the General Manager and owner of the organization, mister Dan Abraham.
Cristian FAUR
Over 20 years of experience
For the Romanian readers, especially if they come from the graphic arts industry, it is hard not to know who Everest is. They have been printing since 1994, when the activity began under the supervision of Dan Abraham, a former military map printer. His hands-on style of leading and sense of discipline have always kept the company on alert, ready to answer to orders with speed, quality and success. It has been almost a quarter of a century of continuous growth, although at different rates, for the Bucharest-based organization.
Since its inception, Everest has seen it all. Competitors come and go, economic booms or crisis, political changes, markets growing or shrinking, trends and fashions in printing shifting one way or another. The company, and especially the leader, was never afraid of changes or new challenges, managing to keep growing thanks to the core values on which the company is based. Will to work, dedication and loyalty from the technicians will always be rewarded at Everest, which has always invested in its workforce’s high level of training.
The client always has to be in the center of attention, says a panel that you can see right as you enter the company’s offices and where the visitor or the client can see the list of goals and values that can be found at the core of this printing house’s business philosophy. It is a set of principles established from the beginning of this business and they helped Everest grow ever since.
Let’s talk about tech
“We are a full-service company, we don’t just provide niche services”, says Dan Abraham, the General Manager of the organization. “This is one reason for which we have made the investments of this year in new printing and finishing technology. This year alone, we invested over 2.5 million Euro in our production equipment. Part of the investment was directed towards increasing the space in the production facilities with another 500 sqm. And we have no intention of stopping here. We are thinking seriously about investing another million Euro until winter in finishing machines that can enable us to offer more services that really make a difference today in the market.
We have now a new flexo machine that can handle any weight of paper, including packaging material and new finishing equipment for it in the 70/100 format, so that we can also expand into this segment. We do all this because our declared ambition has always been that when you enter through the gates of Everest it is impossible not to get your demands satisfied. No matter what type of support or thickness, it can all be done under one roof here. We sold two Heidelberg machines and acquired a new one, much more capable, with a capacity 25% bigger than the other two.We didn’t raise the number of machines, we increased our capacity by replacing them with newer, more capable models. We have in this moment 14 active printing units on the 70/100 format, not mentioning other tools like our other new Heidelberg 35/55 four-color waterless UV machine, which we got in here to make sure we can satisfy any type of demand, including special jobs, so that we can really say that we are full-service.”
We are talking about a company that uses over 350 tons of paper each month. The manager tells us that he is sure that this figure will go up to 600 tons per month by September, due to the increase of the use of heavier papers. Everest was already well-known for what it does in markets like books and publishing, where the type of paper is usually thinner. Now that the printing house can handle cardboard and other thicker papers, Dan Abraham estimates that the quantity will be almost double. The company can deliver 900 tons per month right now by using only 2 of its machines, but the 600 tons we mentioned earlier are the calculation of the organization’s leader.
Is export a real option?
There is enough place for everybody in the printing business. That is the opinion of our host at Everest. That makes diversifying easier for everybody. There are enough clients, if you are competitive in price and quality, you find them locally and even abroad. “Our philosophy says that the client has to do as few things as possible, because we handle the rest. All our clients have to do is to send us the documents to print and to respect the payment deadline. The client doesn’t even have to come here, we can receive the order online and we provide IT tools for online proofing and/or we send a physical proof to the client, as requested. And we provide the transport of the prints to the client’s location”, says Dan Abraham.
„When asked why clients from other countries should consider printing in his own, the CEO of Everest pointed out the quality that clients can find here and the differences in price that can influence their decision. We like to import our consumables so we do our best to keep the prices as low as possible and we definitely believe that clients from abroad can get very good offers from us. I think we can compete anytime with Western printers. We use Western technology and consumables, the only things that are local in our production processes are water, electricity and the workforce.”
