Bagel: making a difference in hot lamination through innovation and global growth
Founded by four managers, disillusioned by the approach taken by big names in the industry, the Spanish company Bagel Systems shows that there is still a lot to tell about hot lamination
Entering a competitive and apparently saturated sector, especially if you have limited financial resources and no entrepreneurial experience, may seem like a risky move. Founded in 2011, Bagel Systems is not an industrial giant, and in terms of innovation, it does not compete with certain Israeli and Northern European startups committed to the development of future technologies. Yet, the Catalan manufacturer has carved out relevant spaces in the field of hot lamination, so much so that its technologies have been adopted with satisfaction by some of the most successful traditional printers, photo labs, and online printers. Its business partners, including the Italian Neopost Graphics (now Quadient), have identified the Digifav, Minilam and iLam laminators as a perfect combination of quality, productivity, and reliability. To discover the special recipe behind these products, we met Bagel Systems’ co-founder and Managing Director, Jordi Marti, together with the company’s young and dynamic team.
The manufacturer lamination was missing
Marti shows us the new 500 m² production site that Bagel Systems shares with its subsidiary Embalitec — an engineering company specialized in industrial automation projects. Upstairs is the technical and commercial office, where the equipment, their electrical components and software are designed. Downstairs, the assembly, testing, quality control and shipping are carried out. The familiarity of the entrepreneur and all of his team members with printing and laminating, uncommon for a start-up, reveals an unexpected familiarity with our market. “After completing my studies in International Trade, I worked in sales and marketing roles for the European branches of important ICT companies, including Acer. Then, in 2004, I started working with a Spanish laminator manufacturer to develop international markets,” says Marti. “There was a strong demand for in-house lamination. More and more offset and digital printers were asking us for compact, easy-to-use machines.”
The manager thus explores the printing market more and more deeply, signs agreements with the most important national distributors, and studies the offerings of his partners and competitors in detail. Finally, he reaches the conclusion that there is a gap to fill and space to grow. But the company he works for is hesitant, and he doesn’t want to miss the chance. “Together with colleagues Gabriel Lozano, Julián Moreno and Iván Valdivia, we understood that it was time to act; that more and better could be done. We knew we didn’t have a reputation, and we knew we couldn’t make it in a market dominated by big brands and established local producers,” continues Marti. “So, we decided to work from behind the scenes, providing technology to one or more OEMs.”
“Many people tell us that we think out of the box, that we are not imitators but innovators. We’re flattered.”
— Jordi Marti, Co-founder & MD of Bagel Systems
The company is founded as a joint venture with the German company Ernst Nagel GmbH, which inspires the name Bagel Systems. A long engagement results, which allows Bagel Systems to verify and guarantee the high degree of automation, quality and reliability of its equipment.
“To stimulate the business, I contacted the dealers I had worked with in the past, but our small size was incompatible with their lightning-fast times,” explains Marti. “So, we’ve narrowed it down to a few big guys who can see our potential and make the most of it in the medium to long term. Neopost in Italy, Duplo in France and Sagam in Belgium were the first to believe in us and to put wings on us.”
A large and demanding market
The growing demand for eco-sustainable solutions in printing and packaging has not stopped the lamination race. For a commercial printer, laminating can result in new and profitable applications, from books-on-demand to catalogs, packaging and apparel labels. In this scenario, Bagel Systems chooses to focus on mid-range industrial equipment, a segment less crowded with Asian suppliers and local producers. From the beginning of 2020, it will also start testing 50% biodegradable and 50% recyclable films, adapting its equipment accordingly. The company is also investing significant resources to acquire media and printing technology skills.
“In offset, film and liquid lamination are widespread, but in digital, compatibility is a crucial issue. Xerox’s toner is different from Konica Minolta’s, and the printing of an HP Indigo reacts to the film differently than the inkjet of a Fujifilm Jet Press. In the field of photo albums, then, every print is different from another,” Jordi points out. “This forced us to perform hundreds of tests to define the temperature and pressure parameters. It has made us experts in printing technology.”
Yes, temperature and pressure. Two variables that, in the presence of heat-sensitive materials and layers of dyestuff (think about toner, for example, which is fixed by melting), can affect the quality of the result or irreparably compromise the product. Not to mention the lead times and start-up waste which, especially in short runs, have a negative impact on the overall production cost.
For this reason, Bagel Systems concentrates efforts and resources in the research and development of technologies that guarantee uniform heat application, as well as measures that allow the operator to set the processing parameters quickly and intuitively.
“Once upon a time, there were specialized services for laminating and painting, while today printers minimize the use of outsourcing. Sometimes they have no idea what lamination is and employ inexperienced operators. But at the same time, they demand fast setup and job changeover times, low energy consumption and impeccable quality results,” continues Marti. “To give them all this, we have replaced the traditional rollers with cylinders filled with diathermic oil. We design the cylinders and electric resistances ourselves, and we develop and implement special pressure self-regulating systems.”
Interconnected, intuitive, easy-to-maintain technologies
Industry 4.0 is also a key theme for Bagel Systems, which uses Omron PLCs and electronics and has the best application developers. The Spanish manufacturer’s equipment is thus able to return production data to a company’s MIS and is prepared for remote connections. “Already today, our technicians are able to connect to more than 200 machines installed worldwide for diagnostics or software updates. But, we are working in the direction of preventive maintenance, remote control, and unmanned production,” explains Marti. A training program aimed at resellers and partners, as well as the option to create special software configurations and customizations, complete the Spanish manufacturer’s value proposition.
A future based on passion, people and skills
For a company of ten people, thinking about a future based on large numbers is still difficult. But that is not the priority for Jordi Marti and his partners. Despite its size, Bagel Systems invests tens of thousands of euros every year in travel, thousands of hours of development, and numerous beta sites to capture and meet the needs of new customers. That, in concert with the small company size, the need to satisfy a constantly growing volume of orders and the desire to innovate, is a daily battle — a challenge that Bagel Systems engages with a team of engineers and technicians recruited from the best universities and technical institutes in Catalonia, able to think freely and without baggage. “Many tell us that we think ‘out of the box,’ that we are not imitators but innovators. We are flattered, but if you produce in Spain, and you compare yourself to Asian competitors, it is not so easy to combine competitiveness and profitability. For this reason, achieving excellence and growing brings even greater satisfaction,” concludes Marti.
