Case Study: CW Print Services

A leap into digital color production printing nearly doubles annual revenue.

About CW Print Services

CW Print Services has served the Austin, Texas market for more than 30 years. The cornerstone of the company's business has been producing weekly professional real estate delivery (PRED) booklets for builders. During the 2012 real estate boom, additional work started flooding in and CW Print Services moved to a larger facility with a new technology infrastructure to accommodate rapid growth.

Challenge

With the Austin, Texas' housing boom in full force, local printer CW Print Services was limited by offset technology. Primarily serving the real estate market, customers were clamoring for higher quality booklets to showcase their newly built neighborhoods and homes. Yet the short-run nature of the jobs came with lengthy setup times and high costs.

The company added entry-level Ricoh digital production printers to improve quality and lower costs. But as demand soared for other products—thicker postcards, business cards, brochures—CW Print Services needed more digital horsepower to meet growing demand and drive higher profit margins.

Solution

Often, a print services operation starts small when they first venture into digital production printing. But as they discover new capabilities and the demand for digital grows, they often take the next step to advance their printing and color capabilities even further. When that time came, Ricoh was right there for CW Print Services—offering the advanced technology and exceptional support they needed to thrive and grow.

Working closely with the Ricoh sales consultant, CW Print Services installed a RICOH Pro C7110X production printer with advanced printing and color capabilities. It was everything CW Print Services was looking for to produce jobs with fewer setup materials, quicker turnaround times and better pricing. The system delivers outstanding features, including:

90 pages-per minute production for faster transitions between jobs
A 5th color station to achieve outstanding image quality
Supports a wide range of substrates including 13" x 19" and 13"x 27.5" banner size
Effortless, precise color matching

After being so pleased with the Pro C7110X, CW Print Services recently added a RICOH Pro C9100 digital production printer to its facility. This system offers even more options for oversized applications, enables the recreation of exceptional images and crisp text and has the ability to print on magnets, synthetics and other substrates in vivid color.

Results

Since expanding its digital color production printing capabilities with Ricoh, CW Print Services has not only been able to produce more visually appealing applications, they are also taking advantage of opportunities to sell higher-margin products. The highlights include:

Approximate 40 percent annual revenue increase
Substantial booklet growth in size and sophistication, with more full-color pages
4,000 booklets produced in just two days—down from four days with offset printing
High-quality oversized applications and engaging invitations printed using the 5th color station

"I don't think there is any way I could have achieved what I have achieved so far if it had not been for the RICOH Pro C7110X and the RICOH Pro C9100. They are simply worry-free on every level," said Phillips.

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