Reprographics 101

Just in case you missed this, this is the full list that BERTL’s published a month or so ago…..

BERTL Announces Winners of the Fall 2010 BERTL’s Best Awards!

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FAIRFIELD, NJ – November 5, 2010 – BERTL, Inc. a leading independent testing laboratory for imaging devices and workflow solutions, is pleased to announce the winners of the BERTL’s Best Fall 2010 Awards.

BERTL’s Best Awards recognize individual devices, software, management utilities, and entire product lines. BERTL’s analysts review current product lines and new product introductions to identify the select group of devices and software that stand apart from the others.

BERTL combines its wide-ranging knowledge of the competitive landscape and contact with buyers about their product and supplier experiences to identify worthy products. BERTL analyzes network management utilities, concurrency and contention, print and copy productivity, image quality, return on investment, competitive advantages, accessibility, design and build quality, standard functions, modularity of design and upgrade path, installation, and more.

Here is a list of winners of the Fall 2010 BERTL’s Best Awards:

BERTL’s Best Desktop Awards:
Ricoh Aficio SP C431DN
Ricoh Aficio SP 6330N
Canon imageFORMULA P-150/P150M
Canon imageFORMULA DR 2020U
HP’s LaserJet Pro P1606dn
iVina BulletScan S300/S400

BERTL’s Best Wide Format Awards:
Contex XD 2490
KIP 7100m
KIP 700m
KIP Color 80
Colortrac Smart LF Ci24
HP Designjet L25500
Oce Arizona 550 GT Printer
Xerox 6622

BERTL’s Best Workgroup Awards:
Konica Minolta bizhub C35
Kyocera ECOSYS FS-2026/C2126MFP
Kyocera ECOSYS FS-3040/3140MFP
OKI B411/B431 Series
OKI C330/C530 Series
Ricoh Aficio MP 5001/MP 4001
Xerox WorkCentre 7755
Xerox WorkCentre 7775
Lexmark E462dtn
Copystar FS 2026/C2126 MFP
Copystar FS 3040/3140 MFP

BERTL’s Best Environmentally Conscious Award:
HP Latex Inks

BERTL’s Best Solution Award:
Sharp’s Sharpdesk® 3.3

BERTL’s Best Software and Utilities Awards:
Canon CaptureOnTouch Lite
Contex XD 2490
Konica Minolta MyTab
MWAi MPS Solutions
ARC PlanWell Collaborate
ARC AbascusPCR
ARC ishipdocs
ARC MetaPrint
ARC PlanWell Enterprise
Digital Gateway e-automate

BERTL’s Best Light/Mid Production Award:
InfoPrint 1357EX
Sharp MX-M753N

BERTL’s Best Value for Money Awards:
Lanier GX e5550N
Ricoh GX e5550N
Savin GC e5550N

Congratulations to all of the winners!

For a complete list of the awards, including the individual award titles, visit http://www.BERTL.com. NOTE: A current BERTL member login is required to view the awards. There is no subscription required or fee to register. If you don’t already have an account with BERTL, you may click on the following link for quick and easy registration – My BERTL Registration.

About BERTL, Inc.
The Business Equipment Research and Test Laboratories Inc., (BERTL) is an independent testing laboratory whose purpose is to provide objective, independent, product evaluation reports and comparative analyses on imaging devices and software solutions. BERTL prohibits any manufacturer-control over its product evaluations, and bases its opinions, ratings and awards on a combination of rigorous analysis and worldwide customer satisfaction research across 11 testing criteria: Build Quality, Network Administration, Security, Workflow, Finish, Ease of Use, Media Handling, Printing, Image Quality, Features, and Price.

At all times, BERTL’s primary focus is the end user. BERL’s evaluation reports, customer satisfaction research, awards and product ratings are undertaken entirely at BERTL’s expense for the benefit of its worldwide subscriber base. Covering all major digital imaging manufacturers, BERTL publishes the world’s most extensive Web site evaluation reports, comparisons data, vertical market research, news and more on copiers, printers, MFPs, production and workgroup scanners, fax machines, color and production equipment, wide format devices, and document workflow solutions. BERTL reports, research and other industry information services are available in a range of specialized subscription services. To learn more about BERTL, visit http://www.BERTL.com or telephone 1.973.882.0200.

If you go to Google Finance and bring up the income statements of the U.S.’s largest home builders (KB Homes, DR Horton, Toll Brothers, Lennar, and others) and peruse through their annual sales figures from 2006 through the current time – it is a “jaw-dropping” exercise. Unbelievable how home builders’ sales have plunged as much as they have.

Just noticed this on MarketWatch:

ECONOMIC REPORT
Dec. 15, 2010, 10:15 a.m. EST
Builders index stuck at low level in December
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes remained unchanged at low levels in December, according to a report released Wednesday.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index remaining unchanged at 16.

Housing still on edge

Nick Timiraos discusses worry among economists that the housing market could be headed toward another downdraft as mortgage lenders tighten credit.

The component gauging the traffic of prospective buyers fell a single point, to 11, while the components on current sales conditions and sales expectations for the next six months were steady.

The seasonally adjusted index is based on a score where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor — which hasn’t been the case since April 2006.

“The steady but low level of the HMI reflects the fact that builders and consumers have yet to see consistent signs that the economy is improving,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

I did a post about C2 Repro a few months ago, around the time C2 added to its LA area operations. I just noticed this press release…..on Wide-Format Imaging…..

Brunson Joins C2 Reprographics

Costa Mesa-based C2 Reprographics has announced Victoria “Vicki” Brunson has joined to lead the company’s San Diego business development efforts.

Brunson worked in sales for a rival reprographer in Las Vegas for nine years during the height of that city’s building boom. She consulted with clients on projects such as the MGM City Center and Boyd Gaming’s Echelon. Brunson was very active in several construction-related trade groups such as the AIA, AGC and ACEC. Prior to reprographics sales, the Cleveland native worked in upper management for eight years at Costco (Price Club at that time) in Phoenix, and for two years owned a restaurant-bar in Payson, Arizona.

“Vicki brings to her new position not only solid sales experience but a refreshing energy and enthusiasm for contributing to the larger community,” said C2 president Gary Crisp. “As our company continues its rapid expansion throughout the Southern California market, Vicki’s spark will be an invaluable asset to the team in San Diego.”

Regarding growth of the company, Crisp stated, “C2’s culture of delivering uncompromising value and exceptional service is attracting new clients to us each day. This is precisely what attracts top industry professionals such as Vicki to C2. We are very fortunate during such a downturn in the construction industry.”

_______________________________

Gary and Julie Crisp (principal owner/managers of C2) are excellent people; good luck to Vicki in her business development role at C2!

On Wednesday, December 8, 2010, OCE issued a Press Release to announce the OCE CS2436MF ReproKiosk.

The OCE CS2436MF ReproKiosk combines a large-format multifunction scanner and plotter with an ergonomic workspot. This “workspot” is basically a well-designed (meaning, good looking) piece of furniture with a nice large work surface (over the top of the system) and with shelves and compartments for storing consumables, media and binding supplies.

The Océ CS2436MF ReproKiosk includes the fast Océ CS2436 color printer with an interpolated resolution of 2400 x 1200 dpi, the Océ CS4236 high resolution scanner with 1200 x 1200 dpi and Océ Copy Easy for making copies. There is room to place a computer as well.



In the Press Release, OCE says, “Handling large plots can be awkward. Office workers have to drape their originals over a chair or bend over a low table to make changes. The Océ CS2436MF ReproKiosk concept converts the unusable space above a printer into a practical workspot. People can carry out all repro activities at an ergonomical working height with plenty of room to check, collate, fold and spread out large format documents. All operations, like media loading, scanning, collecting prints, easy job submission, user interface controls and document handling can be easily accessed from the front of the system.

 This system is ideal for architectural firms, manufacturers, construction companies and local government departments with small and medium-sized workgroups. Users in these environments can send jobs via a Windows-based printer driver.”

You can see a video of this new OCE product at this internet address:

http://global.oce.com/products/cs2436mf-reprokiosk/product-demo.aspx

If I knew how to post a picture of this new OCE product, I would have done so!

IMHO, OCE has long been the best company in the large-format equipment workspace when it comes to design and esthetics. So, you will not be surprised when you see how good looking this system is. It will be very appealing to small and mid-size A/E/C firms who value having l/f imaging capabilities in-house. Kudo’s to OCE on the design of this new system.

I frequently visit the web-site of Southeast Construction News (McGraw-Hill) to see “what’s going on in the A/E/C market in Florida. I’ve been visiting this site for many years. This site used to be filled with “news” highlights about “private sector” non-residential and residential design/development/construction projects, each month, each quarter, every year.

I just copied into this post the “headline news articles” listed during the most recent six month period. It’s a good thing that there are still public works projects, school projects and healthcare related projects going on, because if that was not the case, the AEC market in Florida, design/development/construction-wise, would be way down deep in the toilet.

Below, I’ve highlighted the “headline news articles” that are (or can be considered) “private sector” projects; as you can see, there are very, very few!

11/10/10 Despite “Cloud of Uncertainty,” FDOT, Contractors Prepare to Move Ahead on HSR
11/01/10 Brasfield & Gorrie Snags $260M Orlando VA Med Center Contract
11/01/10 Florida Contract Activity: 17% August Drop; Flat YTD
11/01/10 Balfour Beatty, Cummings Land $100M Ft. Lauderdale Airport Contract
11/01/10 AECOM Awarded $101M Davie Water, Wastewater Project
10/06/10 Orlando’s Amway Center Ready for Tip-Off
09/29/10 Everglades Restoration Inching Along
09/14/10 EPA Orders Florida to Improve Everglades Water Quality
09/01/10 Port of Miami Expansion Includes New Rail Link
09/01/10 Port Manatee Awards $14.8-Million Berth 12 Dredging Contract
09/01/10 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Nourish Two Pinellas Beaches
09/01/10 Moss Miller Building Research Center at Nova Southeastern
09/01/10 FAU Breaks Ground on Max Planck Florida Institute
09/01/10 Clancy & Theys to Build First Phase of Harmony Town Center
08/18/10 S. Florida Water Management District Commits to Land Deal, Not Reservoir
08/04/10 Florida Contracts: 21% June Decline; Down 8% YTD
08/02/10 Global Design Giant W.S. Atkins Plans New Foray into U.S. Market
07/20/10 USDA Buys Easement on 26,000 Acres of Everglades for Restoration
07/01/10 Broward Co. Taps Weitz for $200M Civil/Family Courthouse
07/01/10 Developer Unveils Plans for Laura Street Trio Buildings in Jax
07/01/10 Florida Agency Countersues Contractor on Expressway Job
07/01/10 Florida Contracts: 2% Increase in April, but 5% Down YTD
07/01/10 BP Joint Venture Plans Ethanol Plant in Highlands County
07/01/10 Indian River State College Project Moves Forward
07/01/10 Kraft Wins Garage Contract at Seminole Hard Rock
07/01/10 MEB Replacing Navy Jet Fuel Tanks in Jacksonville
06/24/10 Sewer Upgrades in Florida Keys Need More Funding
06/16/10 Bouygues of France Starts $1-Billion Miami Port Tunnel
06/03/10 Gov. Crist Circumvents Raid On Florida Highway Trust Fund
06/02/10 CEO John Fish Has ‘Big, Audacious’ Goals For Suffolk Construction
06/01/10 2010 Hurricane Season Will Be “Active to Extremely Active,” Scientists Predict

GPO & FedEx Office renew agreement that saves taxpayer money on printing costs
Friday, December 10, 2010

Press release from the issuing company

Washington – The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) and FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinko’s), an operating company of FedEx, have renewed the public-private agreement that will provide federal agencies discounted printing and business services through the GPOExpress program. Through a competitive bidding process, GPO awarded FedEx Office a five-year renewal of its contract for this program. Federal agencies who use their GPOExpress card will receive pre-negotiated prices that are lower than previous years on most services and are up to 80 percent below retail rates.

The GPOExpress card was introduced in 2005 and utilizes the FedEx Office network of more than 1,800 locations nationwide to provide federal government customers a convenient, low-cost “quick-print” solution that mirrors the ease and convenience that private-sector companies enjoy. Under the renewed contract, FedEx Office will continue to provide federal agencies with a wide range of professional services including printing, binding and finishing, banner and sign production, direct mail services, and digital content management through the FedEx Office DocStore system.

For more information on GPOExpress: http://www.gpo.gov/customers/express.htm

“Together with FedEx Office, GPO has created an incredible public-private partnership called GPOExpress delivering a cost effective, convenient way for federal agencies to meet their printing and communication needs,” said Public Printer Bob Tapella. “In these challenging fiscal times, GPO wants to help federal agencies get the maximum benefit out of their printing budgets, and the GPOExpress program is another tool agencies can use.”

“The GPOExpress program has been an enormously successful initiative over the last five years, not only for GPO and FedEx Office, but for the federal agency customers we serve,” said Brian Philips, president and chief executive officer of FedEx Office. “More than 4,000 GPOExpress cardholders are utilizing this program to meet their immediate printing needs. We are proud to have developed a program that seamlessly meets the needs of the GPO and feel privileged to continue serving the U.S. government through this new contract.”

Currently, 140 agencies from the three branches of the federal government participate in the GPOExpress program. Participants include the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Agriculture, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Department of Veteran Affairs. FEMA has been meeting the printing needs of its on-the-ground response and recovery efforts exclusively through the GPOExpress program since 2006.

Old news, but “my, how the times have changed”…..

When a significant owner of stock in a publicly-traded company sells stock, the owner is required to file a “Form 4” with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 4 is a “statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities.”

Sathiyamurthy Chandramohan, who was formerly the Chairman & CEO of American Reprographics, completed Form 4 filings in 2007 and 2010.

As I said, “my, now the times have changed”………

Per the Form 4 filed in 2007, and this was done to report shares of stock sold in the “secondary” public offering of ARC’s shares …..

– on March 27, 2007, 130,000 shares sold at $32.25 = $4,192,500.

3 years, 2 ½ months later, Per the Form 4 filed in June 2010, additional shares were sold …..

– on June 11, 2010, 25,000 shares sold at $8.81 = $220,250.

– on June 14, 2010, 175,000 shares sold at $8.74 = 1,529,500

That’s a decline in value of $23.475 per share!

The shares sold in June 2010 for $1,749,750 would have sold for $6,450,000 had they been sold in March 2007. Wow, what a huge difference!

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

“Ain’t that” kind of like saying that, if your reprographics business was worth $5,000,000 in March 2007, it would “only” have been worth $1,361,000 by June 2010?

Service Point, one of ARC’s competitors, said in a press release, several months ago, that it was going to resume acquisition activity and, in a more recent report, Service Point indicated that it was in the final stages of due diligence on an acquisition opportunity in Europe.

The questions many “Reprographers” in the U.S. I think are asking themselves are; “will ARC resume its acquisition activity in the near-term future?,” and, if it does resume its acquisition activity, “what will ARC be willing to pay for future acquisitions, given the significant decline in ARC’s own value and considering that most, if not all, reprographics firms are worth less today than they were when ARC was very actively acquiring reprographers in 2006 and 2007?”

One would think that ARC’s recent private placement “Notes” offering frees up ARC from the restrictions that ARC had to live with when ARC was financed by the line of credit that the Notes were sold to payoff. In addition, the line of credit required significant quarterly payments against principal; the new unsecured “Notes” do not require quarterly or annual payments against principal. That frees up ARC to be very aggressive, acquisition/expansion/investment-wise, if it wants to be very aggressive. But, the question remains, will reprographers be willing to sell, given the deterioration of values of businesses in the industry?

ARC recently announced that it had completed the sale of $200 million in Notes via a private placement and that the notes were priced to yield 11%. I was surprised at the high rate of interest ARC is going to be paying on these notes.

Trading (volume) activity in ARC stock has been very high the past week, during which time ARC’s price-per-share has declined. I asked a financially-savvy friend for his opinion about the recent high volume of trading in ARC stock, and he said that the higher volume (with the price-per-share trending down slightly) could be because “capital structure arbitrage” firms have bought the new ARC Notes and, as a hedge against their investment in the Notes, are shorting shares of ARC stock. I had no idea what he meant when he said “capital structure arbitrage”, and, after Google-research and reading a couple of articles about that subject, I still don’t know how that works. Maybe you do?

I also looked at a three other fairly recent private placement unsecured “Notes” offerings; Scotts, SAIC, and Landry’s, to compare them to the yield on ARC’s Notes. Scotts and SAIC (both public companies) got a very decent interest rate compared to the interest rate ARC is going to be paying. Landry’s (private company) is going to be paying even a higher interest rate than ARC.

Dec 13 2010 (Reuters) – Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (SMG.N) on
Monday sold $200 million of senior notes in the 144a private
placement market, said IFR, a Thomson Reuters service.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan were the joint
bookrunning managers for the sale.
BORROWER: SCOTTS MIRACLE-GRO COMPANY
AMT $200 MLN COUPON 6.625 PCT MATURITY 12/15/2020
TYPE SR NTS ISS PRICE 100 FIRST PAY 6/15/2011
MOODY’S B1 YIELD 6.625 PCT SETTLEMENT 12/16/2010
S&P BB-MINUS SPREAD 334 BPS PAY FREQ SEMI-ANNUAL
FITCH N/A MORE THAN TREAS NON-CALLABLE 5 YRS*
*MAKE-WHOLE CALL 50 BPS

Dec 13 (Reuters) – SAIC Inc (SAI.N) on Monday sold $750
million of senior unsecured notes in two parts in the 144a
private placement market, said a market source.
The notes are guaranteed by Science Applications
International Corp.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley
were the joint bookrunning managers for the sale.
BORROWER: SAIC INC
TRANCHE 1
AMT $450 MLN COUPON 4.45 PCT MATURITY 12/1/2020
TYPE SR NTS ISS PRICE 99.637 FIRST PAY 6/1/2011
MOODY’S A3 YIELD 4.496 PCT SETTLEMENT 12/20/2010
S&P A-MINUS SPREAD 120 BPS PAY FREQ SEMI-ANNUAL
FITCH N/A MORE THAN TREAS MAKE-WHOLE CALL 20 BPS
TRANCHE 2
AMT $300 MLN COUPON 5.95 PCT MATURITY 12/1/2040
TYPE SR NTS ISS PRICE 99.851 FIRST PAY 6/1/2011
MOODY’S A3 YIELD 5.961 PCT SETTLEMENT 12/20/2010
S&P A-MINUS SPREAD 155 BPS PAY FREQ SEMI-ANNUAL
FITCH N/A MORE THAN TREAS MAKE-WHOLE CALL 25 BPS

HOUSTON, Dec. 14, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Landry’s Restaurants, Inc. (“Landry’s” or the “Company”) today announced that it intends to offer up to an additional $87.0 million aggregate principal amount of 11 5/8% senior secured notes due 2015 (the “Additional Notes”) in a private placement not registered under the Securities Act of 1933. The Additional Notes will have the same terms and be part of the same series as the $453.5 million aggregate principal amount of 11 5/8% senior secured notes due 2015 which were previously issued. Proceeds from the offering will be used to pay for the acquisition of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurants, Inc., if such acquisition is consummated; to pay related fees and expenses; and for general corporate purposes.

The other day, I read about ARC receiving BERTL AWARDS for two of ARC’s software products:

*** AbacusPCR was awarded Best Print Tracking Solution in the marketplace in 2010.

*** PlanWell Collaborate was recognized as 2010’s Best AEC Project Management and Collaboration Tool.

Inasmuch as BERTL “best of” awards are not easy to come by, these awards were very impressive.

I haven’t ready the full articles about these two particular awards, so, in making these award selections, I have no idea what other “products” ARC’s products were compared to. If anyone knows that information, how about posting a comment with that information.

Next week will mark the 3rd anniversary of ARC’s purchase of NGI (National Graphic Imaging), and, wow, there have been a lot of changes in the ranks since NGI became an ARC-owned company.

ARC purchased NGI one month after the recession started, but who knew then that the recession had started and who had any idea that the A/E/C industry and the Reprographics industry would be impacted as harshly as what’s happened because of the “Great” Recession.

NGI (National Graphic Imaging) was sold to ARC in December 2007. NGI was a powerhouse operation in Florida, with operations in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Ocala and plans to establish operations in South Florida. NGI also conducted operations in Atlanta. Even though ARC owned operations in Florida and Georgia before ARC acquired NGI, NGI was, evidently, a key target for ARC. Sometime after ARC acquired NGI, NGI absorbed into its operations the other ARC owned brands in NGI’s Florida markets, including TRS (Tampa, St Pete, Clearwater) and Orlando Reprographics (Orlando.) Not long after ARC acquired NGI, Greg Williams, President of NGI assumed the role of President of ARC’s Florida operations, including T-Square in South Florida.

As that saying goes, “that was then and this is now”, times have changed. Today, NGI is predominately managed by ex Ridgway’s employees (Ridgway’s is another reprographics enterprise ARC purchased, several years before ARC purchased NGI.) All of NGI’s senior management team (with the exception of Martha Korman, former CEO of NGI and who is now a member of ARC’s Global Accounts team) are gone from NGI and ARC.

I would like to stop for a minute to acknowledge the former senior management team of NGI, the management team that created a powerhouse operation in Florida. Without the tireless efforts and dedication of this management team, NGI would not have become a powerhouse operation in Florida. None of the following people are still working for NGI or ARC:
Greg Williams – President & Chief Operating Officer
Craig Bell – Chief Technology Officer
Craig Hubbard – Chief Financial Officer
David Fitz – Controller
Pete Vassos – Vice President, Production/Customer Service Operations
Bob Paschal – Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Danny Kane – General Manager of Imaging Products Group (IPG), division of NGI

I would further like to acknowledge the fantastic contributions made by other former members of the NGI team, people who are no longer with NGI or ARC, for these were the people who operated “on the front lines” and made it all happen:

Former NGI Sales team members who are no longer with NGI or ARC:
Esther Leonard (Tampa)
Marie Mosely (Tampa)
Maureen Michel (Orlando)
Terri Davis (Jacksonville)
Collin Zucharelli (Atlanta)

Former Production Center Managers who are no longer with NGI or ARC:
Alex Prieto (Tampa Westshore)
Reggie Jackson (Atlanta)
Eric Cardona (Orlando)
Danny Landon (Jacksonville)
Rob Faiella (St Petersburg)
Randy Faiella (Tampa Downtown)

And, Program Managers who are no longer with NGI or ARC:
Dave Shives (Color Program Manager, NGI)

And, of course, I can’t forget to acknowledge the fantastic contributions made by other members of the NGI team who are still with NGI:
NGI Sales team members who are still with NGI:
Dave Powers (Orlando)
JD Loudermill (Jacksonville)
Production Center Managers who are still with NGI:
Robert Posada (Ocala)
And, Program Managers who are still with NGI:
Craig Sterner (FM Operations Manager)

As you can see, very few of the “core of NGI’s team” are still with NGI. Time marches on. Changes happen.

This post authored by Joel Salus, former Senior Vice President and Chief Business Strategist (aha!) at NGI