A Three-Plant Book and Fulfillment Printer Moves From Separate Manufacturers to One Production Print Partner
Customer overview
A commercial printer headquartered in California runs three plants. Its California and Kentucky plants specialize in books, and its Colorado plant specializes in fulfillment. It ranked among the top 100 U.S. print shops on Printing Impressions’ 2022 list.
Three Plants, Two Manufacturers, Service That Fell Short
Service from the manufacturer’s direct team fell short, and each plant worked with its own manufacturer for service: Ricoh in California and Kentucky, Konica Minolta in Colorado. The California and Kentucky plants ran two Ricoh Pro C9110 presses, and the Colorado plant ran three Konica Minolta presses and a Duplo DC-616.
The Kentucky plant team also needed to know service would meet its expectations before signing on.
Building Trust Plant by Plant
FlexTG’s production print team met with the printer’s sales and plant leadership, joined by a Ricoh dealer channel executive, and brought a tenured production print specialist and a production technician who had worked on Ricoh’s own direct team. After a walkthrough, the printer trusted FlexTG with its lease and service invoices.
FlexTG proposed Ricoh Pro C9210 presses and followed up every two weeks by email, text and phone. Once the California and Colorado plants gave the green light, a final service call with the Kentucky plant’s leaders made sure their service expectations were met. At the start, FlexTG installed:
- (3) Ricoh Pro C9210 color production presses
- (1) Ricoh IM 9000 black-and-white multifunction printer
- (1) Tru UV coater and (1) Duplo DC-618 slitter/cutter/creaser
FlexTG also took over service of the printer’s other current Ricoh presses.
Ten Presses Across Three Plants
Training and installation ran plant by plant: California first, Colorado second and Kentucky third.
Since then, the printer has added three Ricoh Pro C9500 color presses (one with a banner sheet tray and booklet finisher), a Ricoh Pro C7500 color and a Ricoh Pro 8320 black-and-white press, and two Canon imagePRESS V1350 color presses with saddle finishers and inline sensing units, running a G7-compliant workflow.
Key Benefits
- One production print partner across California, Colorado and Kentucky
- Ten production presses: three at the start, seven added since
- Two direct manufacturer service relationships replaced by one partner
- Plant-by-plant installs with training planned up front
- A UV coater and new finishing alongside the presses
Is your print operation ready for one partner?
Request your complimentary production print assessment.