Ertem now provides a one-stop turnkey operation under one roof for clients worldwide, including blue chip publishers such as National Geographic, Cambridge University Press, Walker Books, and Klett Publishing. The bulk of its workload comprises top-quality books for children's leisure and education, university publishing, fiction and nonfiction books, catalogues and newsprint.
This year Ertem made a mega investment in two Komori System 38S 16-page web presses. Their first two Komori machines were installed simultaneously at its purpose-built facility in Turkey's capital, Ankara, where it employs over 350 personnel.
Founder Mustafa Ertem explains the rationale behind the move to heat-set web and the selection of two Komori 16-page presses, purchasing both in the same timeframe: "It was initially a customer-driven investment. The Ministry of Education in Turkey decided to produce its educational books on coated paper. Several other customers followed suit, including those who sell educational books to private schools."
"We checked on all the suitable commercial heat-set webs, which is new territory for us. The combined benefits of Komori's reputation and reliability in this field and our long-standing excellent business relationship with Aras Grup, who have always supplied us with great service, put the System 38S at the top of the list. Aras and Komori provided us with the opportunity to take a very close look at a similar Komori 16-page web in Brazil, where we were able to put our own work on the machine. The results confirmed that the System 38S was right for us. We believe Japanese technology is the most advanced in the world, with even the smallest details considered to ensure that the machine and print quality are as close to perfection as possible. And that's certainly true of the System 38S," he adds.

"Our desire is to produce high quality books for students, and the Komori System 38S webs give us the quality and capacity to extend our educational print business even further afield internationally. Educational book production tends to be seasonal, but outside the peak times, our new production facilities will enable us to produce more insert and brochure print for the advertising and promotional markets, where very fast turnaround time and high quality are of paramount importance," Ertem says.

Ertem Printing was founded in 1986 by Mustafa Ertem who, after working part-time as a typesetter to help finance his university studies, bought a Gestetner duplicating machine to print small jobs for his clients — and has enjoyed continued growth for 32 years since then.