MailDruck today, what does the company actually look like?

Stefan Mail: "At MailDruck & Medien, the customer is the center of everything. For nearly 100 years we've been here in Bünde, and over that time we've grown into one of the technology leaders for roll labels in Germany.

But we didn't stop at one company. Today the Mail Group is three parts. MailDruck & Medien handles production. Mail The Label Company is the next step in that journey. And then there's Lehwald & Partner PriPress Systeme — that's our IT partner, fully part of the group, and the team that has programmed our fully automated processes. Honestly, none of this works without Lehwald.

We work with a clear philosophy, the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and social. Our team matters as much as our technology. Today we have 18 people running the operation, and we want to keep that team culture strong as we grow."

How would you describe your partnership with Flint Group Digital Xeikon today?

Stefan Mail: "It isn't a vendor-supplier relationship — it's co-development. We chose Xeikon because the technology is fully digital, end to end, and the X800 RIP gives us a platform we can actually integrate into our automated workflows. That's not something every press vendor can offer.

What we appreciate most is that FGD Xeikon doesn't just drop a machine and walk away. When we bring them an application challenge — security printing, food-safe toner, validation-grade color stability, robotics-driven finishing — they sit down with our team and our IT partner Lehwald and build the application with us.

And the technology itself lines up with what our customers demand. The Xeikon toners are food-contact safe, recyclable and deinkable. That matters because the EU regulatory environment keeps tightening, and our brand customers need to know their labels can stay both safe and compliant throughout their product lifecycle."

Where does application development really come into play for MailDruck?

Stefan Mail: "Application development is the heart of how we work — and not only with our own IT partner. The X800 RIP from Xeikon is the platform that lets us integrate the press into a fully automated workflow. We don't run a press with operators hovering over color bars all day. The RIP, the workflow, and our internal scheduling AI are connected, and that connection is what we keep investing in.

Three examples really show the depth.

Security printing. Brand protection isn't always visible at first glance, but it's a massive challenge for our customers. Using Xeikon technology combined with Kurz metallization, we can deliver anti-counterfeit labels fully integrated into our line, without it becoming a separate manual job.

Validation Print–certified output. We are PSD certified (Process Standard Digital Printing) — and that isn't enough for us. Our Xeikon output is also Validation Print certified, meaning the press output effectively meets proof quality. That's our house standard. Setting that bar takes close application-level work with FGD Xeikon on color stability and RIP calibration.

The new Xeikon TX500 and the next-generation Xeikon platform technology. The newest platform brings genuinely dramatic improvements in setup time and color stability. The machine essentially sets itself up in the shortest possible time, color matches, and the new metering holds color consistently across long runs. That means one roll is no longer one job, we print many jobs on a single roll, often different shapes, sizes and quantities side by side, on shared lanes. Our AI-controlled workflow does the scheduling, and the new Xeikon platform makes the production possible."

100.000 orders a year with 18 people, what's the real story behind that number?

Stefan Mail: "The headline is the right one: 18 people, about 100,000 orders a year. But the better story is what makes it possible.

We run integrated laser cutting systems, fully automated, fully controlled. Our collation is automated. The Xeikon presses feed directly into an inline, AI-scheduled workflow. And the system is built to scale — we can take on significantly more volume without proportionally growing headcount, because the bottleneck isn't people; it's how well the press, the RIP, the workflow and the finishing are integrated as one application.

Quality matters as much as throughput: 1,200 dpi, steady across the run. Validation Print certified, not just PSD. Scratch-resistant toner that means we no longer need to run V-lag. And because the machine holds color automatically, we throw away almost no makulatur between jobs — which fits squarely into our environmental philosophy. That's the combination: scale, quality, and sustainability in one system."

What's next for MailDruck and where does the partnership go from here?

Stefan Mail: "We just installed another Xeikon, the TX500, for exactly those reasons: scratch-resistant toner (we can drop V-lag entirely), full integration with Kurz metallization for automated finishing, and big gains in setup time and color stability.

Looking further, the next-generation Xeikon platform technology opens up even more. It gives us the best possible foundation in production for what we already do today, and the runway to add new applications over time. Combined with our AI workflow and our continuous work with Lehwald on the IT side, the partnership with FGD Xeikon is what allows us to keep taking on more complexity, more volume and more ambitious jobs — without losing the three-pillar sustainability foundation that defines us.

For us, this isn't an end state. Every new application is another chance to build something together."