The printing presses at Sanoma’s Manu plant in Tampere run almost around the clock, day in, day out. With a yearly consumption of 650,000 offset plates, the Finnish newspaper printer relies heavily on its prepress solutions from ECO3 for peace of mind.
Originally established in 2010 as Alma Manu Oy, Sanoma Manu Oy is today the printing arm of Sanoma Media Finland. Around 100 different newspapers are produced at the Tampere newspaper plant each week, in sizes from 8 to 64 pages and print runs ranging from 1000 to over 1 million copies. The company operates two shifts from morning to night on weekdays and one weekend shift.
We consume around 650,000 offset printing plates each year. On average, that’s equivalent to 12,500 plates every week or 1,800 daily, but at busy times, we need as much as 4000 plates per day.
Jussi Pekkarinen, Quality and Materials Manager - Sanoma Manu
Sanoma Manu utilizes plates, plate setters, software and support services from ECO3. Importantly, the team knows that they can expect an immediate response to any potential disruptions to the workflow.
"Any errors in page transfer or in the plate-making system are reported to ECO3, either directly from our Print Service Centre or by ICT. Assistance has always been received quickly, and investigations continue until the issue is identified. At the same time, corrective action has been implemented to prevent it from happening again. The local service team plays a vital role for us, and we know each of them well because we’ve been using ECO3 plates for decades," explains Jussi Pekkarinen.
The Manu printing house has chosen ECO3’s N95-VCF plate for its printing presses. They have found that the features and quality of this chemistry-free violet plate are particularly well suited to their needs.
“The accuracy and linearity of the dot reproduction are at the right level for us, and the wear resistance is also very good. In addition, the amount of maintenance required for the plate-making equipment is minimized thanks to the use of efficient plate materials and excellent equipment development.”
Jussi Pekkarinen
In fact, the entire prepress operation at Sanoma Manu is built on ECO3’s high-quality solutions, going back many years. The plate setter is an Advantage violet CtP system in combination with Arkitex, the versatile software solution specifically developed for newspaper production. The long experience of ECO3 (and previously Agfa) in this sector is critical to Sanoma Manu.
Sanoma Manu Oy has been part of Sanoma Media Finland since 2020, when Sanoma Group acquired the regional news media business and printing operations of Alma Media. The Manu printing plant in Tampere works closely with Sanomala Oy, its sister printing house in Vantaa, using the brand name Sanomapaino. Recently ISO 14001-certified, its service offering includes modern digital data management, traditional newspaper production and distribution.
Sanoma Group is Finland’s largest learning and media group, with over 5000 people employed across the business. Active in 12 European countries, it publishes a range of magazines and newspapers, including the Helsingin Sanomat, the leading subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries.
ECO3’s continued development ambitions and the long-term partnership with its team members make a real difference, according to Production Manager Jukka Ojanen, who agrees with Jussi’s positive experience of working with the supplier.
Local and service-oriented support is particularly important to us, and with ECO3, both these crucial aspects are covered. We’re very happy with the cooperation.
Jukka Ojanen, Production Manager - Sanoma Manu
This article was originally published in Print & Media
Sanomapaino website
N95-VCF
N95-VCF violet chemistry-free offset printing plates for newspapers combine great print quality with convenience, durability and eco-friendliness
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