Plockmatic Group celebrates 50 years of successful innovation
Print Solutions Finishing Solutions
Document finishing company Plockmatic Group is celebrating its 50 year milestone, with half a century of innovation and success in the post press market.
Since its formation in Sweden in 1974, Plockmatic has continually evolved and has introduced several groundbreaking technological advancements and solutions. With a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions, Plockmatic has established itself as a leading player in post press document finishing.
Founder Terje Söderberg acquired a patent for a sorting machine and, together with two partners, began building prototypes in a laundry room! The company soon expanded its range with new products such as staplers, folding machines, and various types of picking machines. The business soon expanded to larger premises in Essingen.
By 1976, the business had 30 employees and was looking to expand into international markets.
Today, Plockmatic is best known for its bookletmakers. Its first such product was developed in 1985 and was capable of handling up to 20 sheets in both A4 and A3 formats, opening up a market for organisations needing to produce smaller quantities of booklets.
The collaboration with print engine manufacturers began with Xerox, which took notice of the new bookletmaker. The first machine sold was a standalone off line bookletmaker, but designed to appear as a Xerox product, with its characteristic grey colour.
By the late 1980s discussions had begun with Xerox to create the first in line products. Becoming TQM/TQS certified also began to open new opportunities. Plockmatic was contacted by Ricoh, and soon several other developers of digital printers followed. Today, Plockmatic collaborates with most of the leading printer companies operating in the digital print world.
In 2003, Plockmatic introduced its signature SquareFold Technology in the PL104 SquareFold unit. This gave a stitched booklet the look and feel of a perfect bound document produced with squared spine – a completely new concept in its time. This technology was quickly incorporated into the booklet making range offered by Xerox and is now offered by all the main print engine manufacturers in their in line bookletmakers, and across all the off line systems sold under the Morgana brand.
Another key development came with the 35/50 platform, which allowed these SquareFold books to be produced in up to 200 pages with up to 10 mm thick booklets to further widen the range of applications produced by digital devices.
As production volumes increased the decision was taken to insource assembly, leading to Plockmatic's own factory in Latvia. Parallel to this move, a supply chain organisation was built up with subcontractors in the Baltic region and module assembly in Asia.
In May this year, Plockmatic will move to a new 10,000 square metre purpose built factory in Riga to allow for further growth in production and sales. The new factory is built entirely according to the company’s specifications, enabling continued efficient processes, with sustainability as a guiding principle in its design.
Plockmatic International’s CEO Jan Marstorp has continued to expand the business, together with Salvatore Grimaldi, who acquired the company in 2005. Expansion has taken place through the establishment of its own subsidiaries and through the acquisitions of other existing post press businesses, including UK suppliers Morgana Systems and Watkiss Automation, plus the Italian perfect binder manufacturer KGS. The most recent acquisition of Intec Printing Solutions, based in Poole, is the group’s first steps into labelling and packaging finishing solutions.
Plockmatic has had a presence in the North American market since 2006 but established its own sales and support subsidiary in 2016 to better serve its rapidly expanding customer and dealer base in the US and Canada.
At the start of 2024, Accent Equity acquired 60% of the Plockmatic Group to support and strengthen the growth plans over the coming years. With drupa soon upon us, the company plan to show up to 20 new product developments across the show both on its own stand and with in line solutions for various print engine manufacturers across the show.
Commenting on the 50 year celebrations, Jan Marstorp said, ‘It is great to be celebrating 50 years in this vibrant industry and to be doing it in such a big way at drupa with all these fantastic new product launches. I would like to thank all our staff, customers, dealers, and partners for their continued support of our wide range of products across this industry sector. We are looking forward to drupa and are expecting it to be a fabulous event which will give us a great platform for another strong year in 2024.
‘The move to our new purpose built assembly factory in Riga increases our production capacity as we introduce new product lines and new bookletmaking and feeding solutions to a wider range of digital print engine manufacturers.’
PSQ 7000 with VFX feeder.
The Plockmatic Group will be at drupa in hall 8b, stand A41, where it will be launching several new products, including the new PowerSquare 7000 range of production bookletmakers; the latest in the ubiquitous DigiFold range – the DigiFold Pro Ultra; a completely new range of DigiBook perfect binders; and several new ColorCut digital die cutters from the Intec line up, including a larger format version of the popular SC6500 digital die cutter, the SC7000Pro XL.
