L to R: Frank Sanchez, Albert Bramona, Agda Galve, Enric Galve
By Ed Avis
Message to North American reprographics firms: We are not alone! The challenges and opportunities that IRgA members face are quite similar to those faced by reprographics firms in Europe, ranging from a changing marketplace to employment problems.
My wife and I were in Barcelona last month, and I took the opportunity to meet with the owners of two large-format print businesses while I was there. At the meeting were Enric Galve, founder of EGM Laboratories, a highly sophisticated large-format graphics and content producer; and Albert Bramona, second-generation owner of Bramona Impresión Digital, which has its roots in a more traditional reprographics firm. Also joining us were Agda Galve Besalduch, Enric’s daughter and heir apparent, and Frank Sanchez, EGM’s director of production.
This interview has been significantly edited for length and clarity.
Ed Avis: Tell me a little about your businesses.
Enric Galve: We are dedicated to printing, above all, in large format. EGM was founded with slide and negative developing. And later, with the digital transformation, now we are in digital printing. We also are in digital content, with 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, Maya, etc.
Albert Bramona: We come from reprographics. My parents founded it as a copy shop, reprographics at the time. But we have evolved. Now we do digital printing in a smaller format and some large format. We do up to 1.6 meters.
Enric Galve: Let’s say that between them and us we do a little bit at every level of everything that is printing, right?
I don’t know if we can help your members or provide any kind of service here in Spain for them, but this is what we do. We have always tried to produce the highest quality printing. You’ll see when you take a tour (see photos below) what equipment we have, but it ranges from the SwissQPrint, a flatbed for rigid materials, to large HP and Epson printers.
We work mainly for the art world, for art galleries, all of that. Then we also work for the retail world. For shops, for fashion. And for a variety of large clients. Sometimes if they ask us for very large quantities and we can’t meet them, we outsource it, because there are people who work with faster machines and the quality is very good.
And we take more care of the customer, so to speak, right?
The company is now fifty-five years old, and we’re going through a generational evolution. Agda, my daughter, is moving it forward. Well accompanied by other young people.
Ed Avis: Is there a reprographics association in Spain?
Albert Bramona: Well, at a national level in Spain, there was, especially back in the ‘90s. At one point it became very big, but it gradually split up. Nowadays I know that there is an association of fairly large reprographers at the national level. But there is more or less one in each province. And they work as a purchasing center and help each other, they exchange work.
It’s also true that here in Catalonia there is the Graphic Arts Guild. But, at least in my experience, they don’t really get involved in the day-to-day. It’s mostly if you need advice, you know, on payroll, or on taxes, or...
Frank Sanchez: The Graphic Arts Guild is very generic. More focused on offset, on packaging.
Frank Sanchez
Albert Bramona: As I said, I come from reprography or the copy shop, but I hardly do that now.
Ed Avis: But do you have clients like architects?
Albert Bramona: Yes, and 20 years ago 90 percent of my production was in architecture. And now, I don’t think it reaches 5 percent.
Ed Avis: So how do architects make their copies? Their big copies.
Albert Bramona: Well, they don’t normally make them. Everything is digital. I mean, before they were obliged to present the projects on paper, and they made several sets of copies. Now they are not obliged to do that, and when they do need a print, they do it themselves in the office. Every architect’s office has a plotter.
Ed Avis: But do you do other work for architects?
Albert Bramona: Yes. But to a much lesser extent. What we do more for architects is books with all of their work, like portfolios, to present to their potential clients.
Ed Avis: Some of our members have a good business managing digital files. And in many cases scanning old plans and putting them into archives. They earn a monthly fee for managing that.
Albert Bramona: Yes, we have done this, but it was a few years ago, for several architects who wanted to digitize the plans because they wanted to throw away the plans because they took up space.
Ed Avis: And how many reprographics firms remain in Spain?
Albert Bramona: Well, I imagine there are fewer than 10 years ago. I mean, I think they’ve evolved, too. They’ve all been changing. I mean, we don’t even say we’re a reprographics company anymore. We are now a printing center. For many years we were Copistería Bramona, but now we are Bramona Impresión Digital.
Frank Sanchez: The word “reprography” itself has been lost. It even sounds old-fashioned.
Ed Avis: Yes, it’s an interesting thing. Our name is International Reprographic Association, but about 10 years ago we changed it to something more modern. But members said no, they preferred the old name. So six years later, finally, we changed it back to IRgA! The word reprographics is, yes, old. But it is what differentiates our members from other printers like screen printers, or offset printers, or, sign makers. They don’t do reprographics.
Enric Galve: Yes, it’s very good to be able to keep that name, as much as possible. Yes, yes, yes.
Ed Avis: Are there business areas that are growing for you?
Enric Galve: For me it’s the digital world. Of content, precisely. It’s being reproduced more and more on screens, in shops, everywhere. So digitizing, making digital montages, digital content, is growing a lot.
Within the world of printing, I think that large-format digital printing is going to continue to be very rich. There is more and more sophistication, more machines, more finesse in digital printing.
Albert Bramona: What I notice is the whole world of packaging is growing for us – printing and die cutting packages, boxes, cartons, all this is moving quite a lot.
Regarding digital printing, it is growing but the volume of copies is getting smaller and smaller. In other words, people are ordering more and more things in smaller and smaller quantities, right?
I often come across clients who say “I need five little books like this, a hundred sheets of letter paper and a poster, and a box that I can put it all in.” And everything personalized and with increasingly complicated finishes.
In other words, each time there are going to be much smaller print runs, but there are more products that have to be made. And, therefore, more complications, right?
Enric Galve: I would agree with what Albert is saying, that personalization is very normal.
Albert Bramona: This morning I got a call from a customer at half past eight in the morning. We weren’t open yet, but I was in the shop. And he called and said, “I have 140 accreditations that I need by 11. And they’re personalized. And you have to bring them to me by 11.” And he got them by ten to eleven, right? I mean, just to show you how jobs often work here.
Ed Avis: Is there a lot of competition in this area, in this market?
Albert Bramona: Yes, quite a lot, and prices go down. But the client this morning didn’t ask me for a price. I mean, did he need it right away? Of course he needed it right away. And, of course, how many other printers can do it for him right away?
Ed Avis: Do you have fewer employees now than you did 10 years ago?
Enric Galve: Well, it’s complex to reduce staff. It’s something we’re all interested in. Trying to reduce staff as much as possible to be more profitable. But it’s quite complicated. Because every day there are new things, new techniques that you have to learn. One of the things that I personally dislike and bothers me a lot is that today we have to watch so many webinars about so many things … and if we start watching the webinars, who works?
Staff is one of the most expensive things in any company. Or the most expensive. And if they’re very good, they can get other offers from here, there, everywhere. So, keeping good staff means that it’s expensive staff.
But the product has to be cheaper every day. It’s a complex war.
I think everyone is going through this. But we’re all going to try. You have more automation. You have a system that will help you. Now artificial intelligence will help you.
But another important problem is to make sure that this worker doesn’t get burned out. We have very good workers, they have a lot of skills, but you see that the client puts so much pressure on them that they have a level of stress that you have to watch out for. It’s scary, because if they get burned out, they’re gone.
Ed’s note: After this meeting, we toured EGM, which occupies several buildings in a charming neighborhood in Barcelona. In the photos below you can see some of the equipment EGM uses. Of particular interest, notice the cartons in the shipping room photo -- they are destined for Guatemala and Congo, among other places. This is because EGM has large clients who ask them to print promotional material and ship it to retailers around the world. If any IRgA member has need of service in Spain, or otherwise wants an introduction to EGM or Bramona Impresión Digital, please reach out to me and I’ll gladly make the connection.
