Björn van Hamond hosted me at RPI Europe last week. He has served on the Dscoop EMEA board for years and has attended many of our events across Europe and the US. RPI Europe is part of US based RPI Print.
RPI was one of the first print service providers I visited when I started at Dscoop 15 years ago. Back then, the company stood out for perfecting a single product line. A conveyor system moved each item from start to finish with precision. Today the operation looks nothing like it did. RPI Eindhoven has grown into a global hub, managing administrative and tax complexity across markets while running production at a scale few companies reach.
Books make up 70 percent of RPI's output. The company built its business around print on demand. Every order moves through a mix of technologies, tied together through integrations built for speed and precision. Sustainability sits at the center of how RPI operates, not an addition on top, for example all packaging leaving the site is paper only. Björn walked me through the production floor, an operation designed end to end, with printing connecting directly to finishing and fulfillment and each area built to support the next.
RPI still prints huge volumes of what the industry used to call photo books, but the term no longer fits. Customers and brands now build these products around design and storytelling, turning them into content-rich products that go well beyond a simple photo collection. What started as photo books has become the next generation of personalized print.
The knowledge exchange between RPI and other Dscoop members runs deeper than a single visit. Björn mentioned, almost as a side note, how often his team meets other members and how much knowledge moves back and forth in these exchanges. The traffic runs both ways: Björn and his team travel to other member sites as often as they host visitors in Eindhoven. Company IP always stays protected, but the exchange of ideas around it moves the entire industry forward.
Two examples brought this to life. RPI is setting up a new finishing line ahead of the coming peak season, and the decisions behind it drew on two sources. The equipment partner brought technical knowledge, and other Dscoop members brought experience from their own similar installations. Custom packaging for one of RPI's brands works the same way. Another Dscoop member coordinates the supply of this packaging, and the two companies meet regularly to exchange experience and refine the product together. The brands RPI serves reach customers across many countries, adding another layer of complexity to every packaging and fulfillment decision. This kind of exchange shows up directly in the business: RPI onboards new e-commerce brands into its systems in a fraction of the time it would take building everything alone.
Peak periods bring their own pressure, and RPI meets this through its people rather than through headcount alone. The core team in Eindhoven brings together many nationalities and cultures, and this strong core makes scaling up during peak far less of a headache than it is for companies without this foundation.
Björn's own path reflects the same pattern found across RPI. Years on the EMEA board and consistent presence at Dscoop events across two continents gave him direct access to peers facing the same problems. This access flows back into RPI, and the business moves faster because of it.
