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50 years printing in Spain

The beginning of the story:

Already 50 years ago the company that is now known as impress Design Iberia was founded by Mr. Passani, when he was commissioned by Masa Decor on the 19th of December 1969.

Although this 50th anniversary is celebrated by the end of this year, which is the company’s founding date, the actual printing activities began the following year. Therefore, a great celebration event in 2021 will be organized, where there will be an open day event for all our employees and their families to visit our facilities.

Main entrance to the office building and production hall.

impress Spain has not always been part of the impress Group. The company was founded under the name Masa Decor SA and has undergone some changes throughout its history. During 1970, the first printing machine “Masa 4” was installed. Due to the type of activity and the novelty that it entailed, this caused a stir in our area. It is therefore important to mention that the factory is located in a small town on the outskirts of Barcelona, in Sant Pere de Vilamajor. During that time, the town had little more than 500 inhabitants. Additionally, it is believed that the magic of this small village and the fact that Mr. Passani noticed a fig tree in the garden of a farmhouse that had previously been a factory of water and dolls, made him opt for this place. As a result, the company has opted to give priority in hiring people who lived in the same town or nearby area. This has always caused the work environment to be very familiar.

In 1977 there were about 20 people working in the company and even some still remember the name of the first client, Vikalita, from Valencia. As anecdotes of this environment, on the last day of the year, the physical inventory was made in which absolutely everyone was put to count everything, to finish as soon as possible and start with the Christmas party.

Production:

As for production, the DM04 printed at that time about 100 m/min and the maximum width capability to reach was 1270 cm. In the absence of the automated processes as we have available today, the effective printing time was 25% of the day. Despite all this, they were able to print almost 3 million square meters per year. The following machines did not arrive until the 80s, specifically in 1986, when the DM01 and the DM03 were installed. In 1990 the foundations for the DM11 and the DM14 were made and in 1997 the DM05 arrived. The last machine to be installed was the DM06 in 2005, one year before the company was sold.

Currently the plant has 4 production machines running at full capacity that allow printing capacity of approximately 140 million sqm per year.

One of the printing machines at Impress Iberia.

Looking outside:

One of the key components of the company’s survival has been the high export volume it has had throughout its trajectory. The various Managing Directors that have pass through, have always opted for the internationalization of products, making it possible to open markets in America and the rest of the world. This strong outsourcing process led Masa Decor SA to create Masa Decor Brazil in 1998. This foreign sale has been noticed especially in moments or years of hard crisis, which allowed to maintain the majority of the workforce, production and investment from Germany.

Nor can we forget the ink factory. Tabercolor was born as a partner division and its main mission was to supply the printing plant with the necessary ink during the production process. In this way, it was intended to reduce costs, have the possibility of a rapid reaction to any change and even expand the business with sales to third parties. Tabercolor became very strong during the following years and led to get separated from Masa Decor SA in the year 2000 and also to create Tabercolor Brazil in 2004. Finally, impress Diseño Iberia and Tabercolor merged again in 2014, becoming part of impress Group.

Inks production factory.

Finally, our Managing Director, Albert Llovet and the Finance & Administration Manager Genís Pont, attended the official gala of the Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona on the 23rd of October to receive the award of recognition to impress Diseño Iberia for its 50 years of experience. The Head of the Department of Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Àngels Chacón, delivered the award.

Albert Llovet, Managing Director of Impress Iberia, receiving the award.

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