Pioneering Sydney photo book printer Momento says a newly installed Mitabook hard case binder is in full production in time for the Christmas rush.
“The installation service two weeks ago was sensational and went beyond anything we’ve experienced before,” said Geoff Hunt, MD and co-founder of Momento. “It’s a Swiss company with a German factory and they sent a technician all the way out here to avoid any teething problems that you can often run into. Tom Ralph from Graph-Pak was the local agent and he helped to drive the whole thing through. The new machine is a fairly complex beast but we’re up and running and in full production, which is good timing for our Christmas rush, so we’re very happy and the staff are loving it.”
Multi-award winning Momento, established 14 years ago, employs 35 staff at its plant in the inner-city suburb of Chippendale. The company specialises in the on-demand photo book market, producing photo books for many of Australia’s top photographers as well as art books and catalogues for art openings.
“Most of our jobs range from 1-250 copies and we rarely go over that but we have some wild variations so we needed a machine that was flexible enough to handle different shapes and sizes," Hunt said. "There were not a lot of products out there that suited our particular needs. We chose the Mitabook because of its excellent reputation with a number of international suppliers that we spoke with. It’s not going to automate all of our book casing work but it will cover about 80%, with some of the premium jobs still being done by hand.
“We also recently upgraded our HP Indigo 7600 to the 7800 with a noticeable improvement in the colour accuracy and consistency. And our customers are really loving the ability to do single copy or short runs of section-sewn books via our Smyth F1088.
“Business is good and we’re on track to match if not beat last year’s result. Christmas is always the best time for us.”