Redacción Alabrent
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. Due to historically established business relationships and the limited size of the market on the archipelago, Litografía Romero is heavily involved in international business, serving renowned brand owners and other clients across numerous European countries.Litografía Romero operates a production facility on the Canary Islands, utilizing offset, flexo, and gravure printing. Offset printing 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 8-color configurations, along with a web offset press. For many years, the team used two 8-up CTP systems to image printing plates for the presses.
“In 2024, we identified a need to modernize our offset platemaking. Our CTPs were getting on in years and had become technologically outdated,” says Mercedes Fernández, Production Manager. “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.”
SQUARESPOT is the name of the game for Litografía Romero
After thoroughly evaluating the offerings of modern 8-up CTP solutions at drupa 2024, 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.
In addition to Kodak's decades of experience as a CTP manufacturer, 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. All that is required is to load full pallets into the MPL from time to time. This not only reduces the workload for our plate room staff but also minimizes the risk of damage to the plates due to human handling errors.”
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 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 Process Free Plates streamline platemaking and boost sustainability
The decision-makers at Litografía Romero found it compelling to combine the new CTP line with advanced printing plate technology and to switch from traditional 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. In the Canary Islands, waste and chemical management also incurs additional costs due to our geographical position. Consequently, both we and the majority of our customers are seeking more eco-friendly solutions. 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, which represents the pinnacle of Kodak's innovative process-free technology and uses it in both sheetfed and web offset printing.
Impressive on-press performance
Nazario Hernández, Technical Director, adds: “Considering the types of printing we do—maximum definition, highly abrasive metallic inks—we need a printing plate that offers stability and durability”.
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 performance. 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.