It is the morning of November 21, 2022, a cloudy, gray day in the Zurich Oberland. At the Huebstock station, an unusual passenger gets off the bus of line 842 and looks around in amazement.
This morning he had woken up in the metropolis of London, packed his seven things and now, a few hours later, had landed in the manageable town of Mönchaltorf. “Everything much smaller, but somehow also nice,” he thinks to himself and sets off for Bookfactory. That’s more or less how he knows where to go.
After the first bend in the road, he is already standing in front of the delivery ramp and looks at the large poster on the facade and the logo lettering. “This is definitely the right place – but I’d better take the main entrance and not sneak in from the back.”
No sooner said than done. On the way to the main entrance, the unusual visitor is then impressed all over again. So much glass and the beautiful architecture – it reminds him again of London with its impressive skyscrapers and remarkable buildings.
After a few more meters, he is suddenly standing in the warm.
At the reception he is greeted by Mary and Claudia, who have of course been expecting him and are visibly pleased about his visit. The many kind words are almost too much for him. They chat a bit about the trip and the weather – which is not inferior to London – and then the first important meeting is already announced.
In conference room 1, the extraordinary guest introduces himself under the four pairs of eyes of the management and now we finally learn his name.
Bu is the name of the little oddball who originally comes from London and was penned by Mireille Burkhardt. The sister of CEO Christian Burkhardt runs the advertising agency BOB Design and in this role is responsible for the branding of bubu and Bookfactory. In the last few months, she has been involved in the further development of the Bookfactory brand and in the process, little Bu was born… “And then she sent me to you in Switzerland to give you a hand. I am very happy to be here now and to meet all of you”, with these words he ends his introduction. All the excitement before had been totally unnecessary. Monika, Tom, Thomas and Christian (he had remembered all their names, he was very proud of that) were very nice to him and had welcomed him just as warmly as Claudia and Mary from the reception.
He had also already received his first assignment. He was to spend the whole day wandering through the various departments and taking a look at one or the other work step. “We are in the middle of the high season and can use every helping hand”. With that, Tom Ballaman, industrial production manager, had Bu off on his tour.
The first stop on his tour of the bindery takes Bu to digital production.
On the short way there, he passes through the open-plan office and picks up a term again and again. Many of the employees here talk about the “Indigo”. As soon as he has been introduced and greeted by the head of department Roland Schiess, it bubbles out of him: “What is the “Indigo”?”, he is dying to know.
Past the large cutting machine and the high shelves full of paper, Roland leads him to the two Indigos. The large digital presses make a big impression on the small Bu. 1200 of the large sheets of paper can be printed double-sided per hour and that with 7 colors!
Past the mountains of paper, Bu stumbles onto the brand-new Renz wire-o machine. He is particularly taken with the large wire roll! He has to take a closer look and finds out from a bird’s eye view that the wire is used to bind the photo calendars and economy books. Fortunately, everything is secured with Plexiglas so that no one can get hurt while working – and Bu doesn’t just fall in and get wired himself. That’s all there is to it!
Moving on to the craft department, from here on, master bookbinder Rahel Scheufele takes charge of Bu. She shows him her colorful department, where the paper is no longer just white and leather, ribbons and different colored thread are also used. The employees here have so many different work stations and steps that Bu gets quite dizzy.
Completely amazed, he looks over Kim’s shoulder as she makes the “blankets”. The printed envelopes that have just come out of the Indigo get their stability here, he learns. With high pressure, the matching cardboard for the spine and the front and back covers are placed and pressed on. Bu is so amazed that he almost gets caught in the glue roller – it’s better to move on quickly, Rahel thinks, and shows Bu in the next room how text embossing is done for the Professional photo books. Bu keeps enough distance as the individual letters are set and then pressed back onto the cover. He learns that this is the reason there are only two fonts to choose from on the books – everything is done by hand and so not all fonts can just be offered. He better make a note of that.
A few meters further on, he meets Susanne. She puts folded sheets of paper into a kind of sewing machine and then gets something like a book. Bu is amazed, as he always thought that books had to be glued with glue to make them last. The sewing machine is actually a thread-stitching machine, he learns. So the pages are held together by the thread – that’s even more durable than glue bindings!
Rahel tells Bu that there are similar machines on the upper floor, in the industrial production area. However, they are much bigger and newer, but actually do exactly the same thing only with more noise. “I want to see that,” Bu says, jumping off the window ledge and running back through digital production the way he came.
He runs right into Tom, who takes him upstairs to the 1st floor. A huge room lies before Bu – full of large machines, mountains of paper and people scurrying around everywhere in between. It is much louder than downstairs, it smells of glue and the floor vibrates very slightly. Bu loves it here!
Tom shows him the Vareo, the heart of production. Books can be glued and cut here fully automatically from run 1, without any manual intervention! Tom would like to tell him a lot more, but little Bu knows nothing better than to jump onto the assembly line and take a spin on the Vareo! Of course, that’s not possible at all, but since there’s no book going through at the moment anyway, everyone lets him get away with it. At another time he will come back to the specifications, numbers and details, but now Bu’s attention is waning, so better keep going. Past folding, embossing and thread-stitching machines, pallets full of printed sheets and finished books, the two arrive at the book line in the front section of production.
“That really looks like a street, as long as this machine is!” exclaims Bu, having already climbed to his vantage point. From up here he can see the whole extent and asks, “What’s being produced here?”
Tom explains, unlike the Vareo, where perfect bound books are produced, thread sewn book blocks come into the book line. They are glued down, go into the 15-meter-long drying tower, are then trimmed on three sides, maybe get a headband and bookmarks, and are then inserted into the cover. This production line measures a whole 108 meters!
“So! Now I’m afraid I have to move on and ask you to continue your tour downstairs. Why don’t you take a look around quality control and shipping?” Tom says to him and accompanies the little oddball to the stairs.
At the top of the stairs, Bu remembers passing a mail truck full of packages. He goes through one of the thick production doors and is glad that it is open. He wouldn’t have brought it up on his own!
“There you are at last!” A deep, masculine voice startles Bu. When he turns around, Yusuf from shipping is looking at him kindly. “We’re just checking the finished books and doing the final cleaning – you can watch and learn right now! We’ll be glad for your assistance in our shipping department in the coming weeks.” Yes, Bu had heard that a few times today. It’s busy because of Christmas – so many people are giving their loved ones a photo book. I wonder if maybe he should do that too? He would have plenty of time for that thought later. Now, first of all, let’s see what it’s made of in quality control!
Each book is flipped through and “examined” for pages that stick together or print stains. Then the cover is cleaned – gloss lamination with methylated spirits, matt lamination with nitro. Luckily, Bu thinks, it’s written on the bottles again. Somehow Bu gets all woozy. He must have been standing too close to the bottles with the cleaning fluids for too long. A little nap on the packages ready for shipment is just what Bu needs right now!
No one will hold it against him – on the first day and with so many new impressions, it’s okay to be exhausted.
At some point, Bu hears his name in his half-sleep – someone is calling him. It’s probably time to get up, the little one thinks to himself, and follows the call. He ends up back in the big office from the beginning. Here he meets Verena and Mike, his future teammates. Claudia is actually also one of them, but he has already met her. If everything works out and he is allowed to stay, he will soon be working in the marketing team.
But for now, there’s the last big introduction. “I think it will go well for me if everyone is introduced to me,” Bu thinks to himself and enjoys the attention from the VID, the sales and office staff of Bubu to the fullest. Some are skeptical, others curious, but all agree that the little guy makes a likeable impression. After a few questions and a bit of small talk, it’s back to work for the office staff. Bu, however, still has the most important meeting of the day ahead of him…
Together with Verena he makes the short way to Bindorama. Here, where the most beautiful, extraordinary and important books of Bubu and Bookfactory are exhibited, Christian, the manager, is waiting for him. He exchanges a few words with Verena, then she disappears back to her workplace.
“Do you actually know why your name is Bu?” With this question, Christian opens the conversation with Bu. “I’ll tell you: your name is in a line with the short names of the Burkhardt men. My grandfather and founder Albert Burkhardt was BU and Hans Burkhardt, my father still signs his mails with bu. I myself go by Bubu in private, as do both my ancestors.”
Bu is mighty proud and doesn’t really know what to say right now.
Christian continues, “So now you’re part of the Family of Books and you’re staying with us. Is that okay with you?”
Of course Bu agrees – this is exactly what he had wanted since he got off the bus a few hours ago and met all the great people!
We are very happy that Bu is now part of our Family of Books! Starting next year, he will be taking over the world along with our new logo and other new additions. So stay tuned to see what else is to come.
Verena Fischer, Marketing
