SMART DESIGN

96 | L&L
LABELS BOLIVIA is equipped with an 8-color Mark Andy 2200 flexo press ARTES Gráficas Raal installed an HP Indigo ws4050 digital press in 2006
infrastructure and sales presence.
Equipped with the 8-color Mark Andy 2200 flexo press with
reverse printing capability, as well as finishing and digital
photopolymer platemaking equipment, the joint venture – Labels
Bolivia – is now producing high quality labels for pharmaceutical,
cosmetics and security applications – the areas of Raal’s expertise
in Argentina.
‘There is one Chinese character to signify both crisis and
opportunity – it’s a sentiment that was appropriate for our
situation,’ says Gustavo Alterman. ‘We had to move out of Target’s
factory, but it created a great opportunity and it has worked out
for the best. Grupo Ravi is well-known in Bolivia, which helps us to
gain credibility in the local market.’
With few clients shared between Grupo Ravi and Artes
Gráficas Raal, Romina Morgenstein continues to be based in
Cochabamba and a dedicated sales team for Labels Bolivia has
been established. ‘It is important to have a local presence,’ says
Morgenstein, ‘as these are two different companies with different
working cultures. But we are lucky to have found excellent people
to partner with and to work with us in the factory.’
Morgenstein admits to being surprised at the high quality
demands from local brands – reflected in the fact that Labels
Bolivia is mainly producing high quality labels for demanding
applications.
Grupo Ravi’s Sergio Miranda says that the company was not
actively considering a move into the self-adhesive label market
prior to being put in touch with Raal. Grupo Ravi does have a
wet-glue label operation based in the Dominican Republic, called
Labels Caribe, that supplies polypropylene labels to the beverage
industry, but the partnership with Raal represents its first foray
into self-adhesive label production. ‘It was a project in which we
immediately had a great deal of interest,’ says Miranda. ‘It was a
natural step for the development of our business and there is a
great potential for the label market in Bolivia.’
Given Bolivia’s strategic location within South America – it
shares borders with five other countries – there is potential for
export in the near future. First, says Miranda, the company is
focused on establishing Labels Bolivia within its local market, with
export markets likely to be targeted after further investment in
capital equipment to increase production capacity.
Miranda describes the Labels Bolivia project as ‘a top priority’
for Grupo Ravi. At a corporate level, the group is looking on with
interest – seeing potential for this blueprint to be replicated in
other markets in the future.
‘It has been a tremendous advantage to have Raal as a partner,’
he says. ‘It is a company with a great profile in the industry and
a long history of expertise in high quality self-adhesive label
production.
‘But while Raal has of course been a great help to us in making
the transition, Grupo Ravi has a great deal of experience in
moving into new sectors and new countries. It is part of the
LABELS&LABELING
company’s culture, and this too has been an important factor.’
Raal’s Gustavo Alterman echoes the sentiments about
exporting. ‘There is much potential for export, given the
country’s location and its low manufacturing costs, but for
now we are focused on Bolivia. There is also little competition
locally, which is an advantage.’
BUENOS AIRES
Artes Gráficas Raal was founded in 1963 by Gustavo
Alterman’s father and grandfather, Raul Alterman, who lent
the first two letters of each of his names to give the moniker
Raal. It began as a manufacturer of cardboard boxes for shoes
and toys, but when clients began asking for the boxes to be
identifiable, Raal saw the potential for label production.
Self-adhesive labeling was rising in prominence and offered
an easier alternative to glue labeling for this type of application.
Labels could also be delivered more easily, taking up less
space in transit than cardboard boxes. Beginning with simple
labels for school books, Raal installed a 1-color Reprex press
in 1970, followed quickly by a second and then an Ibirama
letterpress machine. Gustavo Alterman remembers, aged 10,
helping out with what was then the company’s biggest order
to date – a run of one million labels for a promotional school
books campaign.
Production continued at the company’s factory in the
Floresta neighborhood of Buenos Aires until 1994, when it
was destroyed by a fire. The company lost a great deal, says
Alterman – equipment, dies, plates, files. The burned-out
remains of a Kopack press, installed just two months
previously, was sold to fellow converter Artes Gráficas
Modernas which was able to coax the machine back into
production, dubbing it the ‘Niki Lauda’ in homage to the
Austrian former Formula One driver who was burned in his car
– but survived – during the 1976 German Grand Prix.
The company moved into a new factory in the Paternal
district of Buenos Aires four months after the fire. In the
intervening period, production was able to continue thanks to
support from family friends – the Ibirama press was installed
at the factory of one friend, while another allowed them to use
his own label printing equipment at night, when production
had finished for the day. Suppliers were paid off thanks to the
company’s cash reserves. ‘Our suppliers still remember that
to this day,’ says Alterman. ‘Not many companies would have
been able to do that.’
Settled in the new 1,500 sqm factory where Raal continues
to operate to this day, investment began. A 6-color Mark Andy
2200 was installed in 1995, equipped with flat-bed die-cutting
that suited Raal’s core work of short runs and later upgraded
with two more color units. A 5-color Gallus T-180 semi-rotary
letterpress machine quickly followed, equipped with hot
stamping, UV varnishing and flat-bed die-cutting, which