Could a 40´´ multi-color press gang run business cards and brochures ordered by thousands of customers daily at Internet portals, their jobs expected with one-day turnaround? Should it?

For VistaPrint, a low-cost online supplier of graphic design services and printed products, the answer is a resounding “Yes!” Promising to print and deliver products within three days, the Devonshire, Bermuda based company coordinates some 300,000 separate jobs per month with proprietary software that automates the entire printing process. It receives more than 10,000 small orders a day from 20 different countries and effectively turns a profit by gang running similar short-run jobs. As proof of its success, the company recently posted net sales of $64.1 million through Q3 of this year and filed for an initial public offering with the Securities & Exchange Commission in June.

To better meet its global demand, VistaPrint opened a 68,000-sq.ft. printing plant in June in Windsor, Ontario, from where it will serve clients in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The Windsor plant is an exact replica of a 54,000-sq.ft. plant in Venlo, the Netherlands, that services markets outside of North America. The company has 400 employees and claims to have serviced more than five million small businesses and consumers around the globe since its founding in 2002.

Typical of VistaPrint customers is Mount Vernon Mortgage Corp., Weymouth, MA. The small firm mails a variety of postcards several times a year and arms its loan officers with four-color business cards. Such an assortment of marketing materials makes the company seem like a large national firm, despite the fact that it operates only two offices with 20 employees.

Sharon Marie Katz, Mount Vernon's marketing director, says she was able to make the company appear large by switching to VistaPrint three years ago. Since then, she says, Mount Vernon has been distributing enviable work all across New England, with notable results. “We may not need to print 5,000 postcards for one loan officer, and we don't have the bank account of a large company to produce high-quality advertising pieces,” Katz says. “But VistaPrint has made options available and given us an opportunity to print full-color pieces at an affordable cost.”

Robert Keane, VistaPrint's president and CEO, created the firm with the intention of serving the graphic design and printing needs of the small business market. Keane, a former small business owner, wanted a printing company that would make the printing process less expensive and less cumbersome for small businesses and individual consumers. With this in mind, he came up with a software that allowed him to automate the entire printing process—from ordering online in one of the company's 16 localized Web sites to delivery in more than 20 countries—and reduce costs for both the consumer and the producer.

VistaPrint automates the gang runs with the help of VistaBridge, a proprietary program that automatically combines similar print jobs from different customers into a single, larger run. The Windsor and Venlo plants are each equipped with a pair of automated 41´´ Roland 700 6-color presses with inline coating and perfecting that were purchased in March.

Craig Fowler, VP operations at VistaPrint, says the 700s were chosen because they integrate well with the company's automated production stream and come with PECOM, MAN's operating and automation system for computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). Client orders that come through VistaBridge flow through PECOM for manufacturing. “The MAN system helps us run extremely high volumes of very short runs,” Fowler says. “It automatically dials in settings for us, eliminating most pre-run press adjustments.” Auto plate loading also helps achieve extra-rapid changeover from job to job with minimal waste. VistaPrint says production labor per order takes as little as 60 seconds, versus an hour or more for most traditional printers.

With its VistaBridge software, VistaPrint is able to automate all aspects of printing, including prepress, platechanging, ink fountain key setting and even assembly, packaging, sorting and shipping of final orders. Products produced in smaller quantities or using special materials, such as holiday cards, invitations, return address labels and magnets, are typically produced on digital presses, although the company says it sometimes prints as few as 50 of a given product on offset presses.

Once printed, individual product orders are separated using computerized robotic cutting systems that cut materials to size and allow finishing. A proprietary software automatically addresses the finalized packages and gets them ready for shipping.

VistaPrint also purchases paper, ink and other supplies in large quantities to get substantial discounts. It runs three shifts a day at its processing facility to keep the four presses working steadily, amortizing the cost of the equipment over a larger number of print jobs and further reducing cost per item.

VistaPrint reduces its internal labor as well by giving customers predesigned templates for a number of products on its website, including business cards, postcards and letterheads.

A software program called Document Wizard guides even casual or one-time customers through every facet of the creation process and provides a variety of options for document design.

For steady clients who like more control or customization of projects, VistaPrint offers VistaStudio. This software gives customers the option to change some of the prepress settings and even upload their own images.

By allowing clients with no formal design experience to craft their own layouts, VistaPrint effectively eliminates the need for a professional graphic designer to work on each print job. This automated method substantially reduces the cost per job, in turn saving its customers a significant amount of money.

VistaPrint's low overhead permits a unique marketing gambit—the ability to offer free business cards as a way to attract more customers. The company is currently offering 250 free, full-color business cards for a $5 delivery charge. Each business card features a small ad for VistaPrint on the back that can be removed for a nominal fee, thus serving as an additional source of revenue and as an advertising tool for the expanding company.

www.manroland.com and www.vistaprint.com