Litografía Romero

Headquartered in Arafo on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, Litografía A. Romero S.L. is dedicated to packaging and commercial printing, with a focus on packaging and labels for food and tobacco products. Founded in 1880, the company employs around 100 people and generates an annual revenue of approximately 18 million euros.

Litografía Romero operates two production facilities, utilizing offset, flexo, and gravure printing. Offset litho is primarily used for commercial print products, including magazines, brochures, postcards, and books, as well as for packaging such as food trays and folding cartons. The company has three B1 sheetfed offset presses in 5-, 6-, and 8-color configurations, along with a 16-page web offset press.

In 2024, Litografía Romero identified a need to modernize its offset platemaking. The printer's CTP systems were getting on in years and had become technologically outdated. "We need a CTP process that runs smoothly and ensures a reliable supply of plates to our presses. Therefore, we wanted to upgrade our equipment and automate and streamline our plate room workflow," explains Mercedes Fernández, Production Manager.

In addition, the printing company sought to switch to a more eco-friendly yet high-performance alternative to traditional wet processed offset printing plates.

After thoroughly evaluating the offerings of modern 8-up CTP solutions, the company's management opted for Kodak. The investment included a KODAK MAGNUS Q800 Platesetter with X speed, capable of outputting up to 45 plates per hour, and an automatic two-segment Multi-Pallet Loader (MPL) for two pallets with a total capacity of 3,000 plates.

KODAK SQUARESPOT Imaging Technology was a key reason for Litografía Romero's investment decision. "Technology plays a fundamental role in packaging, a sector that is particularly demanding in terms of final product quality and characterized by increasingly complex designs. To meet these high customer expectations, we consistently seek to use the best products available. In this context, SQUARESPOT offers all the benefits we expect from a modern CTP solution: ultimate resolution, precision, and stability,” explains the Production Manager. “In addition, the MPL automation enables the platesetter to operate autonomously for extended periods without manual intervention."

The decision-makers at Litografía Romero also found it compelling to combine the new CTP equipment with advanced printing plate technology and to switch from traditional wet processed plates to process-free plates. This move promised to eliminate the previously required plate processing equipment and its associated consumption of energy, water, and chemicals, while improving the company's sustainability profile. "We chose to pursue a process-free approach because of our commitment to the environment and the need to minimize or eliminate waste. At the same time, working with a process-free plate simplifies production steps and enhances overall efficiency," comments Mercedes Fernández. Litografía Romero switched to the KODAK SONORA Ultra Process Free Plate and uses it in both sheetfed and web offset printing.

The new Kodak CTP equipment replaced the two old CTP devices in March 2025. "After a year, we can say that the MAGNUS Q800 and MPL form a high-performance team that has maximized our prepress automation and that we can rely on. This improvement has not only optimized our workflow but has also enabled our platemaking staff to take on additional tasks," emphasizes Mercedes Fernández.

SONORA Ultra, which offers a run length stability of up to 400,000 impressions for web offset and up to 250,000 for sheetfed applications, demonstrated convincing on-press performance – also regarding the high demands of the printer and its customers on print quality. Another reason for the high satisfaction of Litografía Romero's press operators with SONORA Ultra is that makeready is comparable to their experience with the previously used KODAK ELECTRA XD Thermal Plates.

"For us, working with Kodak represents a long-term investment. Our new CTP and process-free technology from Kodak have enabled us to fundamentally transform our prepress process. This move has also helped us optimize our offset printing to meet today’s industry and customer requirements," Mercedes Fernández concludes.