In house printing ...

Hello,

This is going to be a rather unusual post, as has been most of the tasks we've undergone in the development of our factory.

Also, for the sake of corporate secrecy, I'm going to omit certain details regarding our business, in the event that Google indexes these forum posts and our competition stumbles upon these posts.

We're transitioning away from our Chinese manufacturers and building our own factory in SE Asia. As the factory is being built in a developing nation, we've really got to be self-sufficient with regard to all our ancillary manufacturing needs. Mostly because suppliers in-country are non-existent or substandard.

In short we need to setup an in-house print shop to handle all our product labeling and packaging.

While I'm not a "printer" by trade and have never operated a print shop, I've worked with enough print shops to have a general understanding of what equipment we'll need.

At minimum, we'll need a 4-colour offset printing press, something to add a gloss UV coating, a machine to make the plates and a paper cutter.

Additionally, I'd like to have a 5-colour press to add metallic inks to our labels, as well as a machine to add laser/holographic films.

We would also need the ability to attach our prints to corrugated cardboard, that would be die-cut into boxes, folded and glued. I assume there's a machine(s) that can handle this as well.

We would need the equipment to handle a paper size of A1, though A0 would be best.

I would like as much automation as possible, but I assume that automation equals greater cost.

With regard to the cost, we anticipate buying Chinese made equipment, as I assume brand names will cost too much. However, I can find very little pricing info or equipment reviews online.

If you all could give me some feedback on my current plan, as well as any recommendations as to what equipment to buy, it would be most appreciated.