“There is no more favorable time to invest than now,” says Trond Erik Isaksen, founder and general manager of Livonia Print. Isaksen, Norwegian by birth, is considered an authority on the graphic arts industry and a highly successful businessman. In the past three years Livonia managed to increase its turnover 13-fold. Its number of employees rose during the same period from 50 to 250, and it went from having two printing presses to six. The slight decline in the print runs of books printed in Riga has not had a negative impact on Livonia’s profits. “On the contrary, we welcome this development because we are optimally equipped with our modern machine line-up.”

From left: Trond Erik Isaksen (Founder and General Manager of Livonia Print), Jacek Kobylinski (Managing Director of Muller Martini Poland), Bruno Müller (CEO of Muller Martini), Piotr Skarbek-Kozietulski (Sales Manager at Muller Martini Poland) and Viktor Ruh (Sales Manager at Muller Martini).

Livonia has relied on solutions from Muller Martini since it was established in 2007. The company started out in 2007 with an Acoro A5 perfect binder, a Diamant 30 bookline and a Ventura book sewing machine. In 2008 those machines were joined by a VenturaConnect book sewing system with two Venturas. Last year Livonia added a Diamant MC 60 bookline, a casemaker, a Vesta jacketing machine and a second ConnectSystem equipped with a Ventura. And now Livonia is taking the next step into the future together with Muller Martini by investing in the new Alegro perfect binder featuring a 16-station gathering machine, an endsheet feeder, a Solit three-knife trimmer and a CB 18 book stacker.

Shorter Job Processing Times Thanks to Motion Control Technology
A special demonstration at Muller Martini Bookbinding Systems in Felben (Switzerland) played the decisive role in the investment decision, which is prompted by a continuing increase in orders at Livonia. The purchase was officially sealed at drupa. “The demonstration really convinced me. I saw for myself the great benefit of the Alegro with motion control technology. That will enable us to switch even faster between softcover and hardcover production and to reduce job processing times.”

Like the Muller Martini systems installed a year ago, the new Alegro will also be remote-compatible. That means Muller Martini can connect to the machine in Riga online at any time from its plant and quickly resolve faults through the ^MMRemote service module. “That solution is really convenient, especially in the first phase following commissioning because we can save a lot of time if problems occur,” says Trond Erik Isaksen.