Reprographics 101

(more than you ever wanted to know about the reprographics industry)

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  • Mergers & Acquisitions Manager Sought

    Looks like a fun job, IF YOU WANT TO LIVE IN HOUSTON !!!

    Consolidated Graphics – Houston, Texas Area

    Job Description

    Consolidated Graphics, Inc., a $1 billion + commercial printing company with headquarters in Houston, TX and 70 operating companies throughout North America and central Europe is seeking an experienced Mergers & Acquisitions Manager.

    This position reports directly to the Executive VP of Mergers & Acquisitions and is responsible for performing detailed financial and strategic analysis as well as overseeing due diligence and post-closing integration procedures. Also responsible for leading the financial audit of prospective acquisitions. High level financial modeling skills are also required as is detailed knowledge of financial accounting rules. You may present to and interact with the senior executive management team as part of your responsibilities.

    Requirements

    • Analyze acquisition opportunities under direction of Executive VP of M&A.

    • Perform detailed financial analysis leading to specific recommendations.

    • Financial modeling.

    • Lead due diligence investigation and oversee multidisciplinary internal groups.

    • Perform financial audit/financial due diligence of targets.

    • Help source new acquisitions and call target companies to solicit interest.

    • Plan and participate in post-closing integration efforts.

    • Analyze disclosure schedules relating to acquisition agreements.

    • Contract review in the context of acquisition due diligence.

    • Some travel required.

    Desired Skills & Experience

    • CPA

    • Audit experience

    • Strong analytical, research and financial modeling (i.e., excel) skills

    • Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously

    • Strong written and verbal communication skills

    Company Description

    Consolidated Graphics (CGX), headquartered in Houston, Texas, is one of North America’s leading general commercial printing companies. With a network of 70 companies strategically located across 27 states and in Canada, CGX offers an unmatched geographic footprint with extensive capabilities supported by an unparalleled level of convenience, efficiency and service. CGX has the largest and most technologically advanced sheetfed printing capabilities in North America, a sizeable and strategically important web printing capability, industry-leading digital printing services, a rapidly growing number of fulfillment centers and proprietary Internet-based technology solutions. CGX offers the unique service ability to respond to all printing-related needs no matter how large, small, specialized or complex. With locations in or near virtually every major U.S. market plus Toronto, CGX offers highly responsive service and convenient access to a vast capabilities network through a single point of contact at the local level.

  • Gartner places OCE in the Challengers Quadrant for Managed Print Services (MPS)

    Océ Positioned in Challengers Quadrant of Leading Analyst Firm’s Managed Print Services Report
    New York, N.Y. (November 2, 2011) Océ, an international leader in digital document management and delivery, announced today that the company has been placed by Gartner, Inc. in the Challengers Quadrant of the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Print Services (MPS) Worldwide.*

    MPS comprises an integrated bundle of services, consulting and equipment for managing an organization’s complete print/copy output process. Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, issues the MPS Magic Quadrant report as a valuable starting point for organizations to identify and assess MPS providers. The MPS Magic Quadrant graphically represents the MPS marketplace and depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for the marketplace, as defined by Gartner.

    MPS providers in the Challengers Quadrant, according to Gartner, “are capable of delivering services required by most enterprises and may have a long MPS track record.”

    “Organizations that manage their printer, copier and fax fleets can save between 10 percent and 30 percent of their print costs,” according to the 2011 Magic Quadrant MPS report. “This is something organizations can do on their own if they know exactly how to proceed and have the resources to do so. If not – as is often the case – then an MPS provider can help.”

    Océ’s MPS Offering

    Océ’s MPS offering, Océ MPS, helps enterprises optimize utilization of their document output equipment, achieve better control of total document output costs and improve operating efficiency. Océ MPS provides organizations with a single, accountable source for their document output. This includes copiers, printers, scanners, fax, and wide format printers, regardless of brand, service provider and ownership status. Océ MPS is an integrated managed document output service. The offering includes in-depth quantitative and qualitative assessment, pro-active maintenance, call center support, and remote monitoring via Océ’s print infrastructure management tools.

    About Gartner’s Magic Quadrant The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2011 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

  • Image Access – Wide-Tek Scanners

    While attending the vendor exhibits at last week’s Eastern (Regional) Reprographics Association convention, I stopped at the booth of “Image Access”, a company that offers wide-format scanners and software, and chatted for a while with Stephen Andrikut, who is their “Wide Format Business Development Manager.” Stephen was formerly with OCE’s wide-format division in the U.S.

    Wide-Tek scanners are manufactured in Germany. I’ve purchased imaging equipment from German manufacturers in the past, and I never had a German-manufactured piece of equipment that wasn’t well-built. And, so, I suspect that Wide-Tek scanners are precision scanners and that they are very well constructed.

    Steve demonstrated the model he had in his booth. Remarkably fast – for wide-format color scanning, Steve says that the scanner scans in color at up to 5x faster than the TC4 scanner bundled into OCE TCS color systems. Scan at up to 1200 dpi!

    While Steve was demonstrating the scanner, he pointed to the control panel on the scanner and said that, “if you wanted to, you could scan drawings directly into an e-planroom” – he pointed across the aisle (at ReproConnect, another vendor exhibiting at the trade show and one that offers e-planrooms for reprographers) and said, “for example, you could have a “ReproConnect” button on your scanner control panel and press it to scan drawings directly to your ReproConnect planroom.” I suspect that one could do the same to other e-planrooms.

    Recently, Xante announced that it would soon be introducing a “Memjet-enabled” wide-format color ink-jet printer to the U.S. market. (Expected sometime in the late Spring.) Memjet printers print very, very, very fast. Memjet-enabled printers do not have scanners. So, if you wanted to use a Xante wide-format Memjet-enabled printer to print A/E/C plans, you could print directly from “digital files” but not from “hard-copy”, unless you had a scanner to scan hard copy to files.

    If I was in the process of setting up a new A/E/C reprographics business from scratch (I know, I know, I’d have to have my head examined), would I not want to consider starting that new business with 2 or 3 Xante Memjet-enabled wide-format ink-jet printers, and 1 Wide-Tek color scanner? Add an e-planroom, and I’m ready to go! But, in order to make this work well, I’m going to need the printer to be able to do set printing (i.e., plans collated automatically by the software), I’m going to need the printer to have a stacker on the back side. I’d want to be able to offer A/E/C documents in color in order to differentiate my business, somewhat, from reprographers who are offering mostly plan-printing in black & white

    If I’m recalling this correctly, our first wide-format “color scanner” cost us around $50,000. And, our first “display-graphics” wide-format ink-jet printer cost us around $30,000. And, our first HP “color” CAD ink-jet printer cost us around $15,000. But, those wide-format printers were ultra slow. The word “snail” comes to mind. Bundle a Wide-Tek scanner with a couple of memjet-enabled wide-format ink-jet printers, and you’ll have a “reprographics system” that’s very, very fast. Unfortunately, Xante has not yet announced pricing. The Wide-Tek scanner that was demo’d to me, sells for around $10,000.

    Contact Information:

    Image Access GmbH

    Dunedin, FL

    Steve.andrikut@imageaccess.de

    www.imageaccess.us

    www.scan2net.de

  • This brings to mind the statement – Truth in Advertising

    This post certainly has nothing to do with “reprographics”, but it is remotely related to “reproduction” ….. and is funny, so I thought I’d post this and bring a smile to your faces.

    Two young boys walked into a pharmacy one day, picked out a box of

    tampons and preceded to the checkout counter.

    The man at the counter asked the older boy, “Son, how old are you?”

    “Eight,” the boy replied.

    The man continued, “do you know what these are used for?”

    The boy replied, “not exactly, but they aren’t for me. They’re for

    him. He’s my brother. He’s four. We saw on TV that if you use these

    you would be able to swim and ride a bike. Right now, he can’t do

    either!”

  • American Reprographics (ARC) Q3 2011 Results – Joel's comments and further estimates

    American Reprographics Co (ARC) released its Q3 2011 results last week on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2011, after the market closed.

    Prior to ARC releasing its Q3 2011 results, I issued a” guesstimate”, in a blog post, that ARC’s Q3 2011 sales would come in at $105.00 million.

    A few days later, ARC reported its Q3 2011 results, and it’s “actual” sales revenues came in at $104.8 million.

    So, my “guess” wasn’t far off. Chalk it up as a “lucky guess.”

    Now, I’m going to “guesstimate” ARC’s sales for the Full-Year 2011, and, to do that, I also have to “guesstimate” ARC’s Q4 2011 sales.

    For most reprographers who are heavily involved in providing services to the A/E/C industry, the last quarter of the calendar year is, sales-wise, usually the worst quarter of the year. ARC management typically points that out during earnings calls. ARC’s revenues from “reprographics services”, the latter being ARC’s primary revenue segment, have continued to trend down, and I don’t see anything yet that’s going to change that for this year’s 4th quarter, inasmuch as the A/E/C industry (A/E work and Construction activity) has yet to show evidence of a rebound. ARC management did say, during the earnings call the other day, that ARC is experiencing significant growth in its MPS business, but ARC’s FM business, apparently, has not yet resumed growth, and ARC’s Riot Color business does not appear to have yet gained sufficient traction to offset declines in A/E/C plan and spec printing activity.

    Based on all that, my “guesstimates” for ARC’s Q4 Sales and Full-Year 2011 Sales, respectively, are $99.0 mil and $$419.89 mil.

    “Total” Sales by Quarter, 2010 and 2011, actuals and estimates:

    Sales

    millions

    Q1 2010

    $112.16

    actual

    Q2 2010

    $115.09

    actual

    Q3 2010

    $109.42

    actual

    Q4 2010

    $104.97

    actual

    Year 2011

    $441.64

    actual

    Q1 2011

    $106.50

    actual

    Q2 2011

    $109.59

    actual

    Q3 2011

    $104.80

    actual

    Q4 2011

    $ 99.00

    Joel’s estimate

    Year 2011

    $419.89

    Joel’s estimate

    And, if my guesstimate are close, then that would mean ARC would show a Sales decline of 5%, 2011 vs. 2010. Not bad, considering the fact that A/E/C industry activity is probably off close to 10%, 2011 vs. 2010.

    Let’s take a closer look at ARC’s revenues from its “reprographics services” revenue segment, and, below, you’ll see that I’ve “guesstimated” ARC’s reprographics services sales for Q4 2011 and for the Full-Year 2011.

    “Reprographics Services” Sales, year-over-year, actuals and estimates:

    Year

    Q4

    Full-Year

    2008

    $108.9

    $ 518.1

    actuals

    2009

    $ 75.8

    $ 350.5

    actuals

    2010

    $ 67.1

    $ 294.6

    actuals

    2011

    $ 62.0

    $ 289.4

    Joel’s estimates

    If my “guesstimates” are close, then it will be apparent that ARC’s “reprographics services” sales pretty much bottomed-out during 2011. Personally, I expect to see an uptick in ARC’s reprographics services” sales in 2012, say in the range of 5-10% about 2011 numbers, as a result of increased A/E/C industry activity in 2012 and as a result of ARC’s Riot Color business finally gaining traction.

    ARC’s Q3 2011 results must have pleased investors, for ARC’s stock price has gone up since it reported earnings, closing at $4.77 on Friday, November 7, 2011, two days after ARC reported its results. That’s probably due to investors believing that ARC’s prior revenue declines are pretty much over and done with (with the exception of Q4 2011) and that ARC is now poised for growth (in 2012 and later on), especially considering Suri’s comments about growth in ARC’s MPS business. ARC’s stock price closed at $3.17 on October 3rd, 2011, only five weeks ago, and, since then, ARC’s stock price has increased an impressive 50%. Damn nice gain if you got in at, or near, that price.

    One other comment: ARC did another write-down of (took another substantial charge against) its goodwill in Q3 2011. The faster ARC writes down its goodwill when it is in a bottoming-out, pre-recovery stage, the better ARC’s operating earnings will be once growth resumes. In the short-term, investors are apparently unconcerned about ARC’s substantial goodwill write-offs (since that’s a non-cash expense), but I suspect they will be pleased by the affects of that as, in forward years, there will be lower “normal” charges for amortization of goodwill, which will have a positive affect on EPS.

    As I mentioned in one of the posts I did about the Eastern (Regional) Reprographics Association convention, Suri spoke about ARC’s strategy, going forward, and he was very, very pumped up about ARC’s opportunities to grow its businesses – MPS. FM, Color and Technology.

  • HP Expands Latex Printing Portfolio (New HP DesignJet Latex ink-jet printers)

    Friday, November 04, 2011

    Press release from the issuing company

    HP today introduced two HP Designjet printers capable of handling a broader range of indoor and outdoor signage applications with better durability than eco-solvent inks.

    

Furthering HP’s strategy to disrupt the eco-solvent market, the 104-inch-wide HP Designjet L28500 Printer delivers speeds up to 70 percent faster than the HP Designjet L25500 Printer, while the 61-inch HP Designjet L26500 Printer is ideal for customers entering the growing soft-signage market.



    Both systems feature new HP 792 Latex Designjet Inks, which produce rich blacks and glossy results on banners and self-adhesive vinyl, and offer double-sided printing capabilities with less user intervention and more accurate, automated registration.

    Compatible with more than 500 media solutions, including the new HP Double-sided HDPE Reinforced Banner material, HP Latex Inks provide a consistent, reliable performance across a variety of substrates.



    HP also launched HP Latex University, a set of training materials and application workshops led by industry experts, as well as the HP Ecosolutions Trained Printing Company program for educating HP Latex Printing Technologies users in sustainability best practices.



    “With about 9,000 HP Latex Ink systems installed worldwide, HP is offering a superior alternative to eco-solvent solutions that delivers the versatility and ease of use our customers demand while lowering their impact on the environment,” said Santiago Morera, vice president and general manager, Large-format Printing Business, HP. “

    By allowing customers to cost-effectively print a wide array of new applications and providing the training required to succeed, our updated HP Latex portfolio helps PSPs differentiate their businesses and seize new growth opportunities.

    ”

Driving business growth with broad application versatility

 ideal for high-impact point-of-purchase displays, soft signage, bus shelters, vehicle graphics and more, the HP Designjet L28500 and L26500 Printer series can print on a broad range of materials, including eco-solvent compatible media and low-cost uncoated options.

 The new devices produce 1,200-dpi output with outdoor display permanence of up to three years unlaminated or five years laminated for high-quality, long-lasting prints. The output also dries inside the printer, boosting productivity for double-sided print jobs, and allowing immediate finishing or use.

    

“Compared with the solvent world that we’re used to dealing in, the HP Designjet L26500 Printer is a breath of fresh air. It allows us to laminate immediately, installing at the same time, and do reprints in real time, increasing our productivity considerably,” said Duston Noble, founder of Dallas-based Wrap Experts and a beta tester of the HP Designjet L26500 Printer. “We want to have the best equipment that makes our job easier and faster, so we love the fact that we can print and laminate jobs all in the same hour if we need to.”

    With new soft signage printing capabilities, customers can produce applications from retail banners to tradeshow signs and interior décor, which are easy to fold and pack, inexpensive to ship, simple to hang and have improved durability outdoors.

    Building on the introduction of HP HDPE Reinforced Banner, the new printers also are optimized to work with new HP Double-sided HDPE Reinforced Banner, a compelling alternative to PVC scrim for advertising applications. The substrate offers the image quality, durability and tear strength of standard vinyl without the environmental disadvantages of a PVC-based substrate.



    Availability of the HP Designjet L26500 Printer will vary by region beginning Nov. 3.

    The HP Designjet L28500 Printer is expected to be available Jan. 20, 2012. Designed with the environment in mind

Helping to address the demands of environmentally conscious print service providers (PSPs) and their clients, HP Latex Inks produce odorless prints. These water-based inks are nonflammable and noncombustible, and, unlike many eco-solvent inks, they do not require hazard warning labels and contain no hazardous air pollutants.

    Additionally, no special ventilation equipment or external dryer is required for safe and productive operation, helping to keep energy costs down.



    HP 792 Designjet ink cartridges are now Eco Mark certified by the Japan Environment Association, demonstrating relatively few environmental impacts through the product life cycle from production to disposal. PSPs can return their HP 792 Latex Designjet supplies through HP’s free, convenient recycling program, including ink cartridges, printheads, the printhead cleaning cartridge and the printhead cleaning container.



    A recycling program also is available for a range of HP High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Polyester (PET) printing materials, including the new HP Double-sided HDPE Reinforced Banner. Additionally, the new printing systems reduce the amount of ink used during maintenance routines compared to eco-solvent technology.

    Application and sustainability education for HP Latex customers



    Now available through HP Capture, HP Latex University provides PSPs with training to successfully produce a wide range of outdoor and indoor wide-format graphics applications using HP Latex Printing Technologies. 

By signing into HP Latex University, PSPs can access free application workshops led by specialists, online webinars and other tools that help maximize the use of their technology. The first webinar series kicks off in November and focuses on producing vehicle graphics and textiles.



    Also available through HP Capture, all HP Latex Printing Technologies users can now participate in the free HP Ecosolutions Trained Printing Company program. This downloadable training is available in 10 languages to coach PSPs to take advantage of the environmental profile of their HP Latex printers, build an ongoing commitment to sustainability within their businesses and engage clients on their sustainability goals.

 PSPs that complete the training will receive a framed certificate and an icon identifying them as an HP Ecosolutions Trained Printing Company that they may use for promotional purposes.



    Additional information about today’s news is available in an online press kit at www.hp.com/go/HPLatexSummit.

    More information about the latest additions to the HP Latex Printing Technologies portfolio is available at http://www.hp.com/go/latex, through the HP Graphic Arts Twitter feed and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/hpgraphicarts.

  • Eastern Reprographics Association – 3rd convention review post

    Joanne Underwood, Senior Account Executive with Monster Color (Monster is owned by Lynn Imaging, Kentucky), gave a presentation titled, “How Did We Get Here”, which was a story about Lynn Imaging’s development of its Monster Color business.

    It was a thoroughly interesting story, and anyone who attended this presentation and who is interested in further developing their large-format color (or grand-format color) business, or interested in adding large-format (or grand-format) color to their business offerings, will go home with “actionable” information.

    Joanne started her presentation with a series of slides showing some of the larger projects Monster Color has completed. That was the “where we are today” part of her presentation.

    After that, she dropped back in time….. to the time when Lynn Imaging first got into the large-format color business – with a couple of large-format HP ink-jet printers.

    And, after that, Joanne provided a detailed list of what you need to do to get into the business and a brief list of the “customer-types” you should consider pursuing.

    For those of you who have not yet pushed into the large-format color business – and I’m not talking about color CAD printing, I’m talking about “display graphics” color printing – she suggested that you find a mentor who has experience in the business and learn from that mentor. In Lynn Imaging’s case, their mentor was TPM. (The Print Machine, So. Carolina.)

    Today, Monster Color is a serious player in the large-format and grand-format color business in the markets it serves. Monster’s business grew so large that Lynn moved it to a new 10,000 sq ft facility.

    One of my former competitors has grown its “large-format and grand-format color” business to be larger than its AEC reprographics business – they’ve done an outstanding job – that company is Triangle Reprographics, Orlando, FL.

    I’m not going to go into any more detail about Joanne’s presentation ….. and that’s because I suggested to her that the ERA should post her presentation on the ERA web-site, and I was informed that the ERA would do that. So, visit the ERA web-site, www.eastrepro.com, in the near future, to access Joanne’s excellent presentation.

  • Eastern Reprographics Association – 2nd convention review post

    Suri Suriyakumar; certainly, one of the most gifted speakers to ever grace the reprographics industry. (I’m not “blowing smoke up…..”)

    Suri’s presentation was, without question, one of the best presentations I’ve ever heard anyone in the reprographics industry give at an industry event.

    Yes, you could feel Suri’s passion for the business.

    I first met Suri in 1995 at his office (Ford Graphic’s downtown office) in San Francisco. At that point in his reprographics career, he was still fairly new to the business and industry ….. but it was easy to tell that he already had a passion for the business. Simply my opinion, but if you are not passionate about the business you are in, you are not going to achieve huge success. Since I first met Suri, I’ve had the pleasure of listening to several presentations he’s given. At PEiR Group meetings, at IRGA conventions. He’s an extremely organized speaker. And a very personable, engaging speaker. However, although I’ve heard Suri do presentations before today, I don’t recall that any of Suri’s previous presentations were as “revealing” informative, and thought provoking as the one he gave today, at the Eastern (Regional) Reprographics convention.

    Revealing? How So?

    Well, the title the convention-events agenda used for his presentation was….. “The Future of Reprographics.” But, that’s not how I would title the presentation Suri gave today. If I were to give his presentation a title, it would have been, “ARC’s Strategy, Going Forward; What and Why.” Suri gave his audience an in-depth, revealing, informative look at what ARC is doing to capitalize on its assets, discussing the key revenue-segments of ARC’s business and sharing with his audience ARC’s approach to the FM business, the MPS business, the Large-Format Color business, and the Technology (software and cloud) business. Suri went into great detail about the MPS business, including the estimated overall size of the MPS market, players who compete for MPS business, what a reprographer has to do to develop an MPS business, and why a reprographer should seriously consider entering the MPS business.

    Just to give you some idea of how informative and engaging Suri’s presentation was – – – it was supposed to last one hour (including Q&A), but it last nearly two hours. I don’t think any of the attendees wanted Suri to stop!

    I have never, ever heard the CEO of a reprographics company go into such detail about his/her company’s strategy at an industry event. I’m not saying that Suri shared with his audience everything “one needs to know”, but it was a truly revealing and informative presentation.

    I can’t believe that only 16 of ARC’s competitors registered for this convention and that only 14 or 15 actually heard Suri’s presentation. Those that attended the convention and heard Suri speak went away with “actionable” information.

    And, to me, this was a perfect example of why reprographers need to continue to support industry associations.

  • Eastern Reprographics Association – 1st convention review post

    I’m taking a break from today’s ERRA (Eastern Regional Reprographics Association) convention in order to write this article, which expect to be one of several articles I will post about the short 3-day convention I’m attending, here in Hilton Head Island, S.C. At this point, we’ve finished the first two days of the convention; tomorrow will be the last day.

    For an overall comment, I’d like to say that ….. , so far, this convention, which was sparsely attended, was one of the more interesting conventions I’ve attended….. and I think that’s “saying something,” inasmuch as I’ve been involved in the reprographics industry for 40+ years. If you did not set aside the time to attend this convention, you missed out!

    David Brownell did an excellent job putting together this convention, and his convention-associate, Dennis Dillon, did an excellent job putting together the “education” program. A “round of applause” to both of them.

    I mentioned that the convention was sparsely attended. Only 17 reprographics companies registered to attend the convention, and at least one reprographics company (and perhaps more) did not make it to the convention, due to the after-effects of the ugly snowstorm in the northeastern U.S., which cut power to thousands of homes and businesses.

    Reprographics companies who were registered to attend included:

    A1 Blueprint – Atlanta, GA

    AIR Graphics – Boston, MA

    ARC –

    -ARC Eastern, Columbia, MD

    -ARC Eastern, Richmond, VA

    -ARC Eastern, Philadelphia, PA

    Bay Area Blueprint – Pensacola, FL

    Capitol Imaging – Little Rock, AR

    Charleston Blueprint – Charleston, SC

    FLM Reprographics – Fairfield, NJ

    Hackworth Reprographics – Chesapeake, VA

    Jiffy Reprographics – Clearwater, FL

    Lynn Imaging – Lexington, KY

    New England Blueprint – Springfield, MA

    Plan & Print Systems – Syracuse, NY

    Print-O-Stat – York, PA

    Reprodux Copy Centers – Toronto, CA

    RPG Digital – Laurel, MD

    Starr Image Products – Butler, PA

    TuscaBlue – Tuscaloosa, AL

    About the sparse attendance, Bob Roperti, President of Jiffy and current President of the IRGA, remarked that, in past years at just “SRA” (Southeastern Regional Reprographics Association, the association now merged into the Eastern Regional *ERA”), upwards of 200 reprographics companies would attend conventions. When you consider that the Eastern Repro Association is now combined with the Southeastern Repro Association, the fact that only 17 reprographics companies registered for this year’s convention …. is incredible (if not abysmal.) Is the sparse attendance a reflection of “reprographer apathy”, a reflection of “economic times”, or maybe both?

    Reviews of “education” sessions, which have taken place, so far, will appear in separate subsequent posts on Repro 101.

    Just to mention them:

    Suri, Chairman & CEO of ARC, gave a presentation of ARC’s current strategy. There’s an old saying, “worth the price of admission.” As to Suri’s presentation, that’s an understatement. Suri’s presentation was, without question, one of the best presentations I’ve ever heard anyone in the reprographics industry give at an industry event.

    Joanne Underwood, Senior Account Executive with Monster Color (Monster is owned by Lynn Imaging, Kentucky), gave a presentation titled, “How Did We Get Here”, which was a story about Lynn’s development of its Monster Color business. It was a thoroughly interesting story, and anyone who attended this presentation and who is interested in further developing their large-format color business, or interested in adding large-format color to their business offerings, will go home with “actionable” information.

  • KIP to offer memjet-enabled wide-format printer ???

    Evidently, KIP USA will be introducing into the market a wide-format ink-jet printer, sometime around the beginning of 2012.

    Will it be a “memjet-enabled” wide-format device?