Reprographics 101

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  • Is Portland’s New Paperless Building Permit System Doomed?

    “Portland,
    Ore., is all-in on using technology that enables contractors to apply for
    building permits online. But the sheer complexity of the project and
    difficulties with the vendor are delaying its completion.”
    Full
    article by Brian Heaton, Feb 12th, posted on GovTech.com,     LINK:

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    http://www.govtech.com/computing/Is-Portlands-New-Paperless-Building-Permit-System-Doomed.html

  • Considering the sale of your reprographics company? What to do and what not to do.

    Recently, I came across an advertisement for
    a business for sale:
    “10 year old Blueprint
    & Printing company. Capable of doing large format printing & scanning,
    blueprints, vehicle wraps, signs, photo reproductions, digital graphics and
    display work.”
    -Gross Income (i.e., Sales):
    $240,000
    -EBITDA:  $150,779
    -# of Employees:  2
    -Asking Price:  $420,000
    Being
    the curious sort, I reached out – to the listing broker – to find out the name
    of the company for sale, and, after signing a non-disclosure agreement, I
    received a file titled “Presentation”. 
    The “presentation” file included, among other information, an income
    statement for the first six months of 2014.
    I’m not
    going to tell you the name or the location of this business, because I did
    agree to not disclose that information.
    And,
    anyway, that’s not the purpose of this blog-post.  The purpose of this blog-post is to, very briefly, talk about “what to do and
    what not to do” when attempting to sell your business.
    1.   
    Be able to initially provide prospective purchasers a very
    recent, up-to-date, annual P&L for the business. (Most will want to see
    more than that, but that should serve as a starter.)  In the case above, in spite of the fact that
    annual sales were stated in the business-for-sale ad, the P&L included in
    the presentation file was only for the first six months of 2014. 
    2.   
    Make damn sure that whatever numbers are stated in the ad tie to numbers that are in the
    P&L.  Whenever numbers don’t tie in, that immediately raises
    questions.
    3.   
    If you’re going to state in the ad (or in the financial
    information you furnish) that the “Owner’s Benefit” (meaning the Owner’s “take”
    from the earnings of the business) is such and such, list out the specific line
    items and amounts that were used to arrive at the “Owner’s Benefit.”  In the case of the presentation file I looked
    at, the “net income” was stated to be $81,579 (for the full year 2014) and the Owner’s
    Benefit was stated to be $150,779, with no detailed explanation as to what
    items were added back to net income to arrive at the amount stated as the
    Owner’s Benefit.  And, as I previously
    pointed out, the presentation file did not provide a P&L for the full year.

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    The
    point being that, if you are going to put your business up for sale and are
    serious about selling, know that it’s
    vital to put your best foot forward     regarding the information that you initially present to prospective
    buyers.

  • MEMJET TO REVIEW BEST PRACTICES TO GROW WIDE FORMAT REVENUE STREAMS AT GOA 2015

    MIAMI BEACH, FL–(Marketwired – Feb 12, 2015) – Memjet
    today announced Jeff Olson, Business Development Manager of Memjet’s Wide
    Format division, will speak at Graphics of Americas (GOA) in a session titled
    “Opportunities in the Short Run Market: Lean, Mean & Profitable on
    February 26 at 2:00pm ET. Taking place in Miami Beach, Florida, GOA brings
    together over 8,000 graphic communications professionals including commercial
    and digital printers, label and wide format printers, packaging printers and
    converters and a range of specialty printers.
    During Olson’s presentation, attendees will learn how to
    identify new revenue streams and better align with customer needs by embracing
    short run printing solutions in the wide format arena. Through real-world cases
    and best practices, Olson will also discuss customer demands for customizable
    content across a variety of mediums, and how the overall market is disrupted by
    the concept of “just-in-time,” customizable printing.

    Memjet’s partners will be exhibiting and delivering live
    demos of solutions ranging from wide format and packaging presses to desktop
    label printing systems.
    Afinia Label will demo its L801 label printer, which
    features Memjet’s technology to deliver fast, vibrant, photo quality at a low
    cost. [Booth #216]
    Colordyne Technologies™ Colordyne Technologies (CDT), a leader in providing digital printing end-to-end solutions will demo
    their CDT 1600-C and CDT 1600-S high-speed benchtop digital color printers that
    help print-on-demand applications become more efficient, accurate and cost
    effective. [Booth #1009]
    Formax will demo the ColorMax 7 Digital Color Label
    Printer. [Booth #332]
    Mac Papers will display the RTI-Digital Vortex 4200 wide
    format printer. [Booth #745]
    Printware, a leader in prepress and digital solutions,
    will showcase the label and envelope printing applications of if its
    Memjet-powered iJetColor devices. [Booth #719]
    Xante will demo the Excelagraphix 4200, a high-speed wide
    format printer built on Memjet technology. [Booth #700]
    Additionally, Mac Papers and RTI-Digital will host two
    Vortex 4200 open houses following the trade show to discuss wide format revenue
    opportunities, scheduled for:
    March 5-7, 2015 at the Marriott Sawgrass Resort in Ponte
    Vedra, Florida
    March 26, 2015 at Mac Papers’ facilities in Atlanta,
    Georgia
    CONTACTS FOR MEMJET:
    Leigh Ann Benicewicz
LEWIS PR for Memjet
    Memjet@lewispr.com

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    +1 619.677.2700

  • AIA: Architecture Billings Index "softens" in January

    Ho, hum….

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    http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2015/02/aia-architecture-billings-index-softens.html

  • Ron Perkins is now President of Jobsite Tech Group (updated March 15)

    This post updated on March 15th to provide a link to the Press Release posted
    on IRgA.com on March 12, 2015

    Link:

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    http://www.irga.com/blogs/technology-news/nri–launches-jobsite-tech-group-to/

    One of the more experienced A/E/C solutions
    providers,     Ron Perkins is President at Jobsite Tech Group

    Check out
    their web-site to see what they are offering.
    http://jobsitetechgroup.com
    Ron Perkins
    213.537.9882
    770.722.5279 (mobile)
    rperkins@jobsitetechgroup.com
    “Our team of experts have decades of
    AEC industry experience and are backed by some of the most well-known brands in
    the world. Jobsite Tech Group was started by one of the oldest solution
    providers in construction in coordination with some of the most recognized
    visionaries in the market. We have the stability and the ingenuity to address
    every project situation.”
    Ron’s background:
    Director of Business Development, NRI, April 2010 – February 2015 (4 years 11 months)
    Principal, AEC Technology
    Consultants    , April 2009 – April 2010 (1 year 1 month)
    Business Development, Adenium
    Systems, Inc    ., January 2005 – April 2009 (4
    years 4 months)
    AEC Consultant, Hewlett
    Packard    , July
    2003 – August 2005 (2 years 2 months)
    Business Development, Buzzsaw
    (a division of Autodesk)    , 2001 – 2002 (1 year)

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    Sales Director, Construction
    Market Data, Inc    ., September 1984 – September 2000
    (16 years 1 month)

  • Consulting to Help Add Sign Services to Your Print Shop

    The February issue of Larry Hunt’s Wide
    Format Imaging News contained a brief article that some of you might benefit
    from knowing about, especially those of you who are trying to figure out how to
    add “sign business” services to your existing reprographics services
    business. 
    Larry Hunt’s Wide Format Imaging News is
    available by subscription, so I can’t (won’t) spill all of the beans in today’s
    blog post, but here’s some of the article Dirck Holscher (publisher of LH WFI
    News) wrote:
    Consulting to
    Help Add Sign Services to Your Print Shop…
    I
    continue to get questions about how to get started in wide-format. Though we
    have covered this topic extensively, some readers have expressed an interest in
    more-comprehensive training options.
    One
    such option is provided by ____ ______, who offers a two-day consultancy at his
    sign shop in the ________ area of __________.  He began his printing career
    when he and his brother purchased a small quick-print shop in 1978. They grew
    their business from one location and two employees into six locations with more
    than over 75 employees. His shops feature extensive sign-shop and wide-format
    operations.
    During
    a two-day consulting visit, clients will see firsthand what type of sign shop
    can be added to a printing operation. You will get hands-on training in every
    activity of a typical sign shop. You will leave with complete information on
    the following (etc, etc, etc.)

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    If you want the rest of the story, contact
    Dirck Holscher of LH WFI News at:  dirck@larryhunt.com

  • New Canon Océ ColorWave printers to make UK debut at Sign & Digital 2015

    Canon has launched two new high
    performance wide format colour systems which are set to make their UK debut at
    Sign & Digital in March. The two new models come as both printer only and
    multi-functional; the     Océ ColorWave 500
    dedicated to workgroups and the     Océ
    ColorWave 700    , designed for wider graphic arts applications.
    Read more here:

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    http://www.largeformatreview.com/hardware/large-format/5387-new-oce-colorwave-printers-from-canon-will-make-uk-debut-at-sign-digital

    Update:
    I forgot to mention that these new Oce ColorWave models use Oce’s “Crystal-Point” printing technology.

  • Service Point Solutions – Financial Results Report

    Today, I noticed that SP, on January 30,
    2015, filed a financial results report, for the 9-month period ending September
    30, 2014, with Spain’s equivalent of the S.E.C.
    This is the Spanish-language version of that
    financial results report:
    LINK:
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B81al4kFAU9JSktDbE9oUjN5N0k/view?usp=sharing
    This is an English-language translation of
    that financial results report
    (not that, Google Translate does a fairly good job, but, IMHO, it reads like “Spanglish”
    (i.e., not easy to read.)
    LINK:

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    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B81al4kFAU9JX1paWmRweFpDT0E/view?usp=sharing

    From Reuters.com
    Thursday, 18 Dec 2014 08:21am EST 

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    Service Point
    Solutions SA:  Says court approves
    Service Point’s creditors agreement and ends insolvency proceedings. 

  • How many reprographics companies are there in the U.S.?

    Someone asked me this question the other day, and, other than a ball-park estimate of somewhere between 500 – 700, I really had (and have) no clue.


    Many years ago, when we were in the process of taking our company public, one of our securities attorneys, who, at the time, was trying to write our prospectus, asked me that question.  And, back then, we came up with a ball-park guess of 2,000 reprographics companies.  But, that was 1985, well before ARC and Thomas completed a bunch of acquisitions and well before the “Great” Recession (the latter did force some companies to close their doors.)


    Anyone out there know – or willing to venture a guess at – approximately how many reprographics companies are operating in the U.S.?  

  • Reprographers in Boston like this location

    Innovation and Design Building, Boston, MA
    One Design
    Center Place & 21-23-25 Drydock Avenue
    Boston, Massachusetts
    02210
    NRI has a location in this complex; address
    is 21 Drydock Avenue
    ARC Document solutions has a location in this complex; address is 23 Drydock Avenue
    A recent note on IRgA.com mentioned that AIR
    Graphics     “has moved its Boston branch from Fort Point to the beautiful Seaport
    district, where the office will be
    housed beside the Innovation and
    Design building    .”

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    ABC Imaging’s Boston location is not far away; across the channel from the Seaport
    District, at 76 Batterymarch Street.