Rapidly growing Micro-Order Printer adds dynamic cutting & stacking solution to curb bindery bottleneck in its suburban Chicago manufacturing facility.

SOLON, OH – June 7, 2023 – Graphco, one of North America’s leading print & finishing equipment distributors last November delivered a Horizon SmartStacker to Blooming Color’s 30,000-square-foot production plant in Lombard, IL. Operating near-line to keep up with rapidly growing B2-size sheet output, the SmartStacker dynamic cut & stack capabilities eliminate manual sorting and helps the commercial printing firm produce many thousands of shorter-run jobs each workday.

Founded as a Minuteman Press franchise in 1988, approximately 85% of Blooming Color’s work now is printed digitally. The firm also offers wide-format printing services (both flatbed and roll-fed) as well as conventional six-color 40-inch sheetfed-offset for larger volumes, such as the 40,000 catalogs recently produced for a local college.

“On average, we process some 2,000 orders every day,” reports Brian Scott, CEO of Blooming Color. This month, the company adds its third B2-size (20x29”), HP Indigo Digital Press -- a second 100K device -- to its fleet of five Indigos. HP’s 100K model can run at top speeds of up to 6,000 sheets per hour. “During peak [holiday] season, from late October through late December, our number of print orders can jump to over 10,000 daily,” he noted. During those three months, the company doubles staff (to 100) and runs 24 hours per day instead of its usual two shifts.

Much of aforementioned volume comes by way of online print aggregators, such as Canva (canva.com) and Minted LLC (minted.com), explained Scott, adding that his company no longer employs a dedicated sales team. “We pivoted to micro-order printing about five years ago and haven’t looked back since,” he said.

Revenue growth has been rapid: Last year, Blooming Color’s annual sales increased by some 40% to $14 million, up from $10 million in 2021. “We expect to reach $18 million by the end of 2023,” the CEO forecasted. To expedite orders, printed product comes off the highly automated SmartStacker in separate piles. “There is no longer any hand-sorting involved,” Scott observes, ensuring faster job turnaround with less waste and fewer errors: The end result is higher productivity, quality and profitability. “It also saves two full bodies, which helps to pay for the machine,” Scott added.

Smarter stacking

Blooming Color’s book work ranges from quantities as high as 500 and down to 100, 50, 10 and even one single copy, according to Scott. The SmartStacker, which features a feeding capability of up to 4,500 B2 sheets per hour, converts each sheet into up to 28 individual cut sheets with intelligent accumulation, stacking and end-to-end JDF control so job cut characteristics are transferred from pre-press right through finished product. The post press system also features:

• Full bleed trimming: With variable gutter cuts and adjustable edge trimming, the SmartStacker ensures accurate margins for full-bleed images.
• High adaptability: The system can deliver finished products such as posters or postcards, straight or offset stacks, individual sets or book blocks. Or, it can bypass to inline finishing for saddle-stitching, perfect binding, or folding.

“Their guillotine cutters couldn’t keep up with the micro-orders that have taken Blooming Color by storm,” recalls Chris Manley, President of Graphco. During the chaotic, holiday cycle of 2022, “rather than hire more people, Brian and his team took a trip to Andover to look at the Horizon SmartStacker at Standard Finishing’s awesome Technology Center. After doing their due diligence and deciding to make the investment, our Team from SFS and Graphco made a speedy installation and they produced millions of Christmas cards in an extremely short period of time,” Manley shared.  “Graphco has been a Standard Horizon dealer since 1983 so our firms have history, and the teamwork that went into this major installation was fantastic for everyone involved.”

Scott sees the addition of the SmartStacker as a win-win for management and hourly-wage employees. “Having the ability to do more volume without hiring more people is where our business is going,” he pointed out. “Pre-COVID we had five employees working in prepress. Now, there are two, the three others moved to different departments.” So, Blooming Color is producing more product with the same staff while avoiding layoffs of permanent, skilled workers.

”We’ve been ramping up and using the SmartStacker more and more over the past six months,” he continued. “It will be running eight hours per day this summer while we get ready to go to 24/5 throughout our holiday rush.” Scott and his Team have partnered with Ultimate TechnoGraphics for corresponding software programming and file imposition, so jobs flow through Blooming Color’s workflow quickly and accurately.

The SmartStacker purchase represents roughly half of Blooming Color’s more than $1-million investment in automated post press equipment since late 2022, Scott said. With a goal of finishing at least 5,000 books per day, the company is also adding a Standard Horizon BQ-500PUR perfect binder, which can handle up to 1,000 PUR books per hour.  This new unit comes online in June, and pairs up with their a BQ-280PUR model that perfect-binds another 1,500 books daily.  “Partnering with Blooming Color is a real privilege.” states Derek Gordon, Midwest Regional Manager for Graphco.  “Our two companies are growing very quickly and much of our growth is being thrust on us by our customers so we’re all hanging on with both hands.”

 

About Graphco

Graphco is the industry’s leading provider of offset, digital, and print finishing solutions. We proudly represent the finest brands of equipment including RMGT (Ryobi MHI Graphic Technology), Benford LED-UV, Konica Minolta, Standard Horizon, Graphic Whizard, Petratto, Spiel Associates/Sterling, MBM, SD Italy and many more. These brands are only as good as the technical support team that stands behind them and Graphco’s reputation for top-notch service is second to none. Since 1976, Graphco has thrived in an ever-changing marketplace by loyally adhering to the firm’s original model for success: providing best-in-class print production equipment along with reliable and assured technical service. Learn more about Graphco at www.graphco.com, 800-458-2769.

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Derek Gordon reviews the latest products from Standard. The Horizon BQ-270V Perfect Binder and AFV-566FKK Folder.

The BQ-270V single-clamp binder offers high-quality production perfect binding with fully automated operation, push-button simplicity, and on-demand production of variable thickness books.

The Standard Horizon AFV-566/TV-564 Folder is a highly automated and dynamic machine that achieves new levels of production efficiency in folding. Advanced automation reduces set-up time and allows easy operation via color touchscreen. The uniquely designed buckle plate ensures consistent, accurate folds and accommodates a wider range of substrates.

Optional dynamic folding is available to change fold patterns on the fly for variable signatures with no blank sheets in the set. The system also features automatic scoring navigation and double-sheet detection, improved registration and easier sheet loading.

​Need more information?

​We are happy to reach out to you with answers to any of your questions.

The post Check out some cool new finishing solutions from Standard! appeared first on Graphco.

Rebounding Strong to Meet High Customer Demand 

SOLON, OH — May 19, 2020 — On March 5, 2020 Kevin Bennett, President of EZ Mailing, and Gary Greis, Regional Manager of Graphco, flew to Standard Finishing’s demonstration center in Andover, MA for a VIP Demonstration to evaluate Horizon finishing equipment.  In spite of the current economic crisis, what has not changed is Kevin Bennett’s determination to make EZ Mailing the highest quality and most efficient Print and Mail company in the Midwest.  “We never really thought about cancelling the trip to Standard.  We need to improve our efficiency because of all the volume our customers are sending our way. Our first two Horizon machines have been great, so we flew up to Boston for the demo,” states Bennett.

The 13 months leading up to that trip have seen EZ Mailing move into a newly renovated building, acquire and tuck in several businesses. They have added two new Horizon machines, revamp their mailing equipment, and also on-board a new RMGT 920 Series Offset Press with LED-UV curing.  While all of these moves stuck to the vision and strategic plan that Bennett has pursued since buying EZ Mailing back in 2014, the rapid deployment has been thrust upon this entrepreneur’s shoulders by his customer’s demand for high quality and cost-effective direct mail.  “The new press has been the biggest game changer for us since we can print jobs from 500 to 100,000 sheets at selling prices that our customers love. But we couldn’t let finishing all that volume stand in the way of meeting deadlines, so we needed to improve efficiency in bindery as well.”  

While many non-essential businesses were still closed, on May 1, 2020, Bennett agreed to move ahead on the purchase of a new Horizon AFC-566FG Fully Automated Paper Folder. EZ Mailing was already selling jobs that they needed the new faster folder to produce.  “We’ve seen an uptick in quoting and volume at this time. We have had to do more work with less workers and we have staggered our staffing to be compliant with health and safety standards,” says Bennett, “Moving ahead with the new folder was the right move at the right time.  Our folder delivered on May 11^th and Graphco was in here on the 12^th to install and train our people. Our very first job took 3 minutes to set up and then ran at 25,000 sheets per hour, the same job that ran at 9,500 on our old folder.” 

The new Horizon folder (featured here: https://bit.ly/ReadyToRebound) will not only streamline throughput of the work produced on the LED-UV equipped RMGT 9 Series, but also fold short runs coming off the digital equipment as well.  The Horizon AFC-566FG Folder sets up automatically via a 10” color touchscreen that prompts the operator through a complete changeover in less than a minute.  A single sheet placed into the digital caliper triggers automatic roller gap adjustments in all eight-buckle fold positions, and with 17 standard fold patterns built into the system, changeover from one complex job to another takes under a minute.  “Our customers come to us because they expect the highest quality. With all the upgrades we’ve made in the past year, we can meet and exceed their expectations.  I personally couldn’t run the RMGT press, but all three Horizons are easy enough that even I could run them in a pinch.” adds Bennett.

In addition to the new Horizon AFC-566FG folder, EZ Mailing also added a Horizon RD-4055 Rotary Die-Cutter to produce jobs like door-hangers, special shape direct mail pieces and round-corner business cards.   Their Horizon CRF-362 Creaser-Folder provides outstanding results on both digital and offset work that needs to be creased and folded for a perfect finish.  “We get great comments from our customers on how much our quality has improved over the past year.  The gloss and crispness of our LED-UV print off the RMGT blows them away and now our finishing will help us stay productive as our business volume rebounds.”  

“In French, Entrepreneur means risk taker, and as a fellow Entrepreneur I am so proud to be in business with a guy like Kevin who has leaned into this situation from day one,” says Chris Manley, President of Graphco. “EZ Mailing is the perfect example of how essential Print truly is in helping all businesses rebound.  Direct mail marketing has a powerful role to play in the coming recovery and EZ Mailing will be a leader in that effort. Both EZ Mailing and Graphco never shut down, and we have continued to serve our customer’s needs at whatever level that was that day.  I’m looking forward to rebounding together with great people and companies like Kevin and EZ Mailing.”

“I can’t say enough how much respect I have for Kevin’s determination to succeed,” states Gary Greis, Regional Sales Manager, Graphco. “I know his willingness to move ahead in meeting his company’s goals will pay dividends for many years to come.  Graphco and I will be with him every step of the way and I’m proud to have Kevin as both a good customer and a great friend.” 

To find out more about Graphco’s Ready To Rebound Program, please visit: graphco.com/ready

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