Danish-Printer Celebrates Milestone, Business Transformation

Earlier this year, LaserTryk.dk, a Denmark printer founded in 1999, celebrated a landmark event for its fast-evolving business. Based in the country’s second-largest city, Aarhus, the company saw its one-hundred and twenty millionth color print came off its Xerox iGen3 Digital Production Press. Yes, that’s 120,000,000.
The press, which is celebrating its 10^th year in the Lasertryk.dk facility, sits alongside three Xerox iGen4 Digital Presses, two Xerox Color 1000 Presses, and a Xerox 1300 Continuous Feed Printer.
Combined, over 5 million color prints and 12 million black/white prints are produced each month on their Xerox equipment, alone. On a typical day, the company will handle between 700 and 800 jobs, spiking to more than 2,000 jobs a day during peak-season.
But business hasn’t always been this way for one of the largest printing houses in Scandinavia.
Two Friends. One Photocopier
Flashback to the turn of the Millennium. Esben Mols Kabell, a recent university graduate, decided to team with longtime childhood friend, Anders Grønborg, to form an event company. In need of posters and flyers of their own, the duo soon became frustrated with their experience as print buyers, disappointed with what was available in terms of price, quality and speed of delivery.

Taking matters into their own hands, the young partners decided to purchase a photocopier to produce their printed materials, saving time and speeding production in the process.
“We were absolutely shocked when we saw how inexpensive it was to produce our posters, and we couldn’t help but cringe at the thought of how much we were previously spending to have others handle the printing,” recalls Grønborg, CEO of Lasertryk.dk.
It was at that point that the two realized just how lucrative a business opportunity was staring them square in the eyes. It wasn’t long until they had capitalized, selling posters and flyers to a local discotheque, and later, to the club-owner’s girlfriend, who ran a business herself.
From there, things began moving quickly. Starting with a website in 2001, the company began growing at an exponential rate. From 10 employees in 2003, to 25 in 2005, to now well over 200 on the payroll.
“One thing we’ve learned through the years is to look for, and find, opportunities when others might not see them as such. Oftentimes they’re disguised as obstacles or challenges, invisible to most, but identifying them and moving on them gives you a real competitive advantage” says Mols Kabell, now CEO of Lasertryk.dk.
An Unorthodox Entry into Digital Print
As many printers look to replace their legacy offset capabilities with digital print technologies to meet customer demands for shrinking run lengths and heightened customization, Lasertryk.dk took a different approach.

The Denmark printer began their business with digital print technology, adding offset capabilities along the way. For them, digital print provided a means of staying nimble during its infancy – delivering tremendous quality in a small footprint and with fewer resources. As business began to grow, the company added offset to meet its demands for large quantities.
“We’ve been very happy with the Xerox iGen and the quality it’s delivered for us over the years,” says Mols Kabell. “Obviously with over 120 million prints, it’s been a workhorse and producing solid work for our customers. But I think the biggest advantage might be just how easy it is to operate. We have one operator per shift running our six Xerox digital presses, which you just can’t do with offset”
Today, both offset and digital work together inside the Lasertryk.dk facility, providing the flexibility to move jobs based on factors such as run lengths and required turnaround.
This powerful combination has helped the company seize new opportunities.
Capturing Opportunities in the Booming Book Market
Looking to differentiate themselves in a crowded market, Lasertryk.dk saw an opportunity to carve out a niche and create a new business within the publishing industry. By leveraging digital print technology, specifically toner-based continuous feed solutions, Lasertryk.dk has been able to capitalize on the power of print-on-demand.
With this model, Lasertryk.dk can now deliver shorter runs of multiple titles for the same cost as producing a long run of one specific title. Publishers no longer need to order an abundance of a single title to achieve a low per-unit cost, unnecessarily tying up money in warehouse inventory and storage in the process.
As is the case in many industries, speed of delivery is a critical requirement in the publishing space. Fortunately, digital print provides innate advantages that have allowed Lasertryk.dk to successfully meet the rigorous demands of the Scandinavian book market.
Short-run jobs requiring fast processing are printed using the company’s Xerox 1300 Continuous Feed Printer and delivered via next-day shipping. Alternatively, customers who need their orders quicker can pay an added fee of 25€ for same-day shipping, an option that roughly one-third of customers take advantage of.
With offset print processes, achieving this would simply not be possible.
What Does the Future Hold?
Just as they’ve always done, Lasertryk.dk plans to continually push the envelope and seek new opportunities where others see roadblocks.
“It’s been ten years since we first installed the Xerox iGen3 at Lasertryk.dk, and it’s still profitably producing jobs for their customer base, ” says René Møgeltoft Søgaard of X & Co., a Xerox Premium Partner. “It’s been a terrific partnership and we hope to celebrate many more millions of prints into the future.”