By Cassandra Balentine
Print service providers (PSPs) strive to offer the complete package. With the right equipment and skill set, complementary offerings come together for a beautiful presentation. Print providers not only service customers with signage applications, but can offer packaging as well. The combination leads to streamlined production across all marketing elements of a brand.
Offset & Digital
Located in Portland, OR, Premier Press is a women-owned, family business established 44 years ago. Through a team of 150 employees, the company provides creative design, project management, production, and fulfillment. While it holds national accounts, it primarily services major brands in the Pacific Northwest.
The creative production company provides a range of services that include custom packaging, influencer marketing, retail graphics, and direct mail. “We are very diversified with 30 percent offset printing, 30 percent digital, and 30 percent grand format with packaging amounting to 25 percent of our overall revenues,” shares Michael Zienty, electronic prepress and pressroom manager, Premier Press.
With such a diverse portfolio, the company utilizes its expertise across various platforms for impactful and complementary presentations that include signage, packaging, and other printed collateral.
Invested in its large format businesses, the company offers everything from building wraps to window displays and event graphics. Roll and rigid printing, lamination and mounting, contour cutting, grommeting, seam welding, heat bending, and sewing are available. It prints to doors, glass, metal, wood, pegboard, window clings, aluminum, mirror, metallic paper, fabric, vinyl, plastic, asphalt, magnets, dry eraser board, and wallpaper with UV and latex inks.
To achieve all this wide format versatility the company relies on an EFI VUTEk LX3 Pro printer, HP Inc. Latex 3000 printer, HP Latex 570 printer, d.gen Inc. Teleios Grande H6 printer, Canon Solutions America Arizona 6170 XTS flatbed, Canon U.S.A., Inc. imagePROGRAF PRO-6000S printer, and a range of finishing equipment including the Mimaki USA, Inc. CG-130FXII, Miller Weldmaster T300 Extreme Edge, Zünd High Performance G3 3XL-3200, and Zünd G3 2XL-300.
Its equipment list also includes offset lithography products from Komori Corporation and Presstek. For digital presses it utilizes the Komori Impremia IS29, HP Indigo 7900, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. bizhub PRESS 1052, and Xerox Corporation Phaser 7800.
Packaging Perks
Premier Press produces most of its packaging work on a Komori Impremia IS29.
The Impremia IS29 is a 29-inch sheetfed inkjet digital printing system designed to meet a range of printing needs. According to the Komori website, the press provides suitability with a range of printing stocks and sheet thicknesses, the ability to print with ordinary offset printing paper—no need for any precoating or certified paper, instant curing, one-pass double-sided printing, and immediate finishing as well as the ability to accommodate short runs of many different printed products with tight turnaround times. It runs with UV ink at 1,200×1,200 dpi.
Zienty says the company enjoys a long, successful partnership with Komori, which certainly helped to sway its decision when looking into a packaging press. “It’s the second installation in the country of the Impremia IS29. We needed a digital press to set us apart in a very competitive marketplace. The ability to print on a variety of substrates up to 24 pt. was important as we started to grow the packaging segment of our business, Additionally, we do a lot of variable data printing and the ability to perfect that was a huge plus,” he shares.
While the creative production company had experience with Komori, it was careful to do its due diligence and evaluate other solutions before investing in the Impremia IS29.
“We did look at three different digital press manufacturers and gave all three of them the same exact print test. The Komori Impremia IS29 was the most consistent from sheet to sheet and side to side. Komori’s ink had the best adhesion not only on paper, but on different substrates,” says Zienty.
With the packaging press in house, Premier Press levels up its offerings. Zienty says it eliminates offline coating after printing due to the durability of the ink. Additionally, it allows for high-quality, low-quantity runs to existing customers, opening the doors for new business as well. “We do a fair amount of custom packaging, which tends to be shorter run lengths, so the Impremia IS29 was a perfect complement to that business,” he adds.
When it comes to clientele, its customers span a variety of businesses and industries. “As a creative company, we provide our clients the whole package, from creative to kit building and everything in between. We produce small packaging for the cannabis market to medium and large boxes for the influential market. Quantities vary from ten to a few hundred,” says Zienty.
Complementary Work
One of the benefits of owning and operating a diverse mix of printing equipment is the ability for different processes to complement each other, offering customers a unified approach to branding and marketing.
Premier Press has two accounts that print weekly packaging on the Impremia IS29 and its grand format devices. They both use corporate colors that must match each other. “We were diligent from the start on profiling everything.
The company recently completed work for a national furniture provider. The client required signage and product tags for its stores across the U.S.
In order to help streamline the ordering process, Premier Press provided the client with a web portal. All of the store locations order through this weekly. The jobs are gathered, ganged, and printed twice a week.
The consistency of the Impremia IS29 allows the company to take products from its grand format press or packaging from its Komori LS 840 offset press, profile the substrate they are going to run on the Impremia IS29 digital printer, and produce the job. “We never have to chase color,” shares Zienty.
Each project is unique, and Premier Press looks at each job as an opportunity, not a challenge. “I cannot say enough about profiling when it comes to multi-device printing. My feeling on this is that you may take an extra step at the beginning of the process, but it sure pays off every week when all you have to do is hit the print button. It is very rewarding,” he stresses.
Premier Products
Premier Press prides itself on offering more than ink on paper. Instead, it is a creative provider that brings its clients’ ideas to life.
“Printing is a huge part of it, but we’re not your basic four-color, run-and-gun shop. We spend not just hours, but days, on creating a product that ensures clients can’t wait to return to us for the next project,” concludes Zienty.
With a range of capabilities, from grand format to packaging, the company offers consistent quality and color, a feat possible with its carefully selected equipment and streamlined color management process.
Nov2020, DPS Magazine
