How the Revoria Press™ PC1120 is helping Graphic Partners fortify its equipment portfolio
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For the past 100 years, Graphic Partners has delivered quality printing products and services to the greater Chicago area. Driven by its attentive, customer-focused service and innovative solutions, the Graphic Partners team continues to help their customers drive costs down via a wealth of solutions, including digital and offset printing, wide format printing, turnkey customer services, and a host of fulfillment and mailing services.
The Challenge
It was time. That was Kirk Larsen’s sentiment following the pandemic, as Graphic Partners (GP) was trying to make heads and tails of what the commercial print industry would look like
moving forward. Not unlike other printers, GP was caught up in the mix of business and supply chain uncertainty in 2020 and 2021—a crisis brought on by unprecedented disruptions and volatility caused by the pandemic.
The challenges ended up causing huge spikes and declines in order patterns from customers, and GP and others had to navigate their new reality with the uncertainty of everything from raw materials, toner and parts, labor, etc. With an already strong direct mail business, especially variable data postcards, the Graphic Partners team wanted to keep their momentum pushing forward. In his 35-plus years in the business, more than 22 as a partner with GP, Larsen admits to never having experienced anything like the free-for-all that impacted the print industry.
“What we needed (mostly toner and parts) just wasn’t available,” Larsen recalls. “There just wasn’t enough supplies in the pipeline. Everything was either depleted or diminished.”
The Solution
Coming out of the pandemic, Graphic Partners knew it was time to make some changes. One of those changes involved finding another digital toner press that could complement the work of its other machine. A different machine from a different manufacturer with a different supply chain was the option Larsen and his team knew would help sidestep the issue if it were ever to occur again. “We just didn’t want to be in that situation again. There were no secrets. Everyone knew what was happening and was trying to talk through it.”
With its decision made, Graphic Partners reached out to several different vendors, including its current one, to see what the market offered in the way of digital toner presses. At the time, Fujifilm, which was already a strategic partner and located in Graphic Partners’ backyard, had just launched the Revoria Press PC1120 in the North American market. Larsen and his team set up a demo. “We already had a strong relationship and experience with Fujifilm’s offset printing plates and wide format equipment,” Larsen says. “Our salesperson was top notch. He listened to what
we needed and came back with some really great solutions—ones that were going not only meet our clients’ expectations, but exceed them.
The Results
Reliability. Consistency. Service. For a printer that relies heavily on variable data printing, Fujifilm and the Revoria has helped Graphic Partners’ customers build and execute their highly personalized direct mail campaigns.
In the research the GP team put into finding the right complementary piece of equipment, Fujifilm and the Revoria checked every box, something that Larsen says is impressive in today’s competitive digital toner market. “Right now, the color, consistency and reliability the Revoria offers are the characteristics we were looking for. We needed another workhorse in our portfolio to keep up with demand and rise to the challenges of the day, and the Revoria delivered.”
More importantly, Larsen says the customer service Fujifilm provides is a win-win, especially coming on the heels of the industry’s supply chain challenges. “Being able to pick up the phone and get someone to help you right away is key. When we look back at when we were scrambling for toner and parts and not knowing what to do next, having a partner in your backyard who is committed to be there is huge.”
Last fall, Graphic Partners completed a project that solidified the investment it made in the Revoria PC1120. The project, which included more than 800,000 postcards and 10 images per postcard, was one Larsen and his team were glad they had Fujifilm and the Revoria to count on.