Astra Group off to a bright start with ISO certification

Heidelberg ISO accreditation service gives NZ printing company, Astra Group, greater colour control.

The business is the first in the country to achieve Heidelberg’s program, achieving ISO 12647-2 for press and ISO 12647-7 for proofing. Operations manager, Symon Yendoll, believes that these two certifications will take the company forward.

“Having a uniform, wide-spread and easily understood colour management model is very important particularly when you are dealing with the franchise stores,” he said.

“The ISO certification ensures our franchise operators that we are printing to the international standard, which removes any opportunity for dispute over colour.”

Pictured: Symon Yendoll, (left) managing director, with Gary Brown, prepress operator.

The process involved Yendoll and prepress operator working in conjunction with Heidelberg. “They worked with us to help implement changes and get our equipment up to speed,” he added.

Colour management is vital in today’s printing where customers have strong expectations over how the final product should look. Yendoll is confident that this can now be achieved consistently.

“If dot gain wanders a little on any particular colour we can pick it up straight away and fix it before it becomes a problem,” he said. “Being able to measure and compare alerts us to potential issues well before the problem is visible to the human eye.”