Trading Up on Press

For almost 10 years, PointOne Graphics has printed for the trade—without outside sales representatives. Fully 100% of the suburban Toronto company's 2007 sales, which exceeded $40 million (USD), was trade printing. This business model has proven successful for the family-owned firm situated in Etobicoke, Ontario, about 90-minutes from Buffalo, NY. Some 25% of its printed work is exported into the U.S., south (really east) of the Canadian border.

“We decided we weren't good at managing salespeople on the road,” says Dennis Low, the second-generation CEO. (His father, C.K., founded the company in 1990 as a quick print shop and evolved it into a service bureau.) PointOne purchased its first 40´´ offset press in 1997 and hired a handful reps to pound the pavement; within 18 months, all five were gone.

“What we are good at,” the younger Low continues, “is production.” To help it compete better, the company has been investing in flexible web-offset equipment and speedy sheetfed technologies. The firm's climate-controlled pressroom features four 40´´ Heidelberg Speedmaster sheetfeds: a 12,000-iph, 8-color 102 convertible, long perfector; two 6-color CD 102s with tower coaters and extended delivery; and a 7-color CD 102 with coater and inline hybrid UV capability. Fourteen months ago, it added a 6-color, 41´´ XL105 with coater. Running at up to 18,000 sph, Low says an improved coating unit is ideally suited for labels and packaging.

The company moved to a 70,000-sq.ft. facility in 2006, nearly tripling its space, and is on the verge of buying another web press, its second in the past 15 months. Last January, MAN Roland delivered a five-unit, 16-page Rotoman heatset web (22.75×38´´) with inline finishing capabilities, including pattern perforating, remoistenable spine gluing and folding/sheeting. The newest web, model to be announced, should arrive some time this quarter.

PointOne uses online spectrophoto-meters to monitor ink densities and control color consistency. It also employs Heidelberg's CIPS3 digital workflow to transfer designated ink values directly to press consoles for fast, accurate set-up. Values are archived to ensure future projects are an exact match.

All of the firm's Speedmaster 102s use a Maratek Blanket Wash/Solvent Recycling System (SRS), which PointOne recently adopted after testing for four months. Designed to distill water-miscible solvents generated from presses equipped with auto (brush) washers with no VOC emissions, SRS uses a vacuum process at low temperatures. The system can be used in a batch or continuous cycle, so solvent chemistry is reused on the press.

“We're disposing of maybe a cupful of sludge per month versus a barrel per day previously,” Low says, noting a switch over to Fuji's Anchor turbo auto wash. He adds that solvent purchases and waste solvent disposal costs have been reduced. The bottom line: ROI is expected within 16 months.

In addition to no longer having outside sales reps, PointOne doesn't have many uninformed customers either. By working with resellers, print marketers and brokers, “There's less hand-holding,” Low notes.

“One broker may have 20 clients,” he says, adding that the lion's share of PointOne's broker/customer/partners are vastly knowledgeable about the print process. Their market range is broad, including manufacturing, financial services, food/beverage, automotive, retail, pharmaceuticals and institutional.

The firm still solicits business from other printers, but also partners with graphic designers, ad agencies and consultants looking to buy print for their clients.

In addition to adding the Maratek systems, PointOne attained FSC chain-of-custody certification last April and, says Low, is considering ISO 14001:2004 environmental management certification for sustainable operations. “We're seeing more and more FSC stock requests,” he notes.

Already ISO 9001:2000 system certified for high quality standards, the trade printer has developed home-grown production-tracking software over the years. It's in the process of implementing MAN Roland's printnet networking and integration tool.

“This big backbone system is one of the first North American, non-newspaper installations,” says Low. It will provide JDF interface throughout the entire plant.

In prepress, PointOne runs two Fuji Luxel 9600 CTP units and a 5600 FinalProof dot system as well as an Epson 10600 color proofer. It manages all the file sources it takes in with a Rampage Systems RIP/preflight workflow. Its full-service bindery includes two saddlestitchers—a Heidelberg Stitchmaster 270 and a new Muller Martini PrimaPlus (shown above).

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