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American Speedy Printing: Proactively Growing the Business
By: Kurt Konow
Over the years, business requirements have shifted. The move from black and white to more personalized color applications -- coupled with the advent of software that drives the output of these applications -- has caused virtually every printer to take reexamine its existing business model. Don Girodat, owner of an American Speedy in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, is fully aware that being proactive when it comes to marketing initiatives that increase his customer’s’ ROI is the key to long-term success.
Changing Times
“Back in the mid ‘80s, most of our business was black and white…simple stuff,” recalls Girodat. “Today, we still operate with offset presses for two-color products. As far as the printing equipment and the bindery equipment goes, it’s all the same; it really hasn’t changed much in 24 years. The only thing that’s changed in the press room is that we’re now using direct computer-to-plate technology. Where the changes have really taken place is at the front end with the digital equipment that we have.”
American Speedy’s volume in the color area had been growing exponentially since the late ‘90s and the equipment on the floor wasn’t able to keep up with the pace. To accommodate, Girodat was sending his full-color work out to strategic partners that were able to produce four-color work on a wholesale level and turn it around quickly. And then a Ricoh representative introduced him to the RICOH Pro C900.
A Whole New World
Working with Ricoh was not new to the American Speedy operation. Girodat’s company had been a Ricoh customer over the years, having owned a 5560, as well as black and white Ricoh copiers. However, the RICOH Pro C900 introduced a whole new world to his business. With its ability to provide brilliant color output at 90 pages per minute, Girodat quickly discerned he could now bring the color work he had been outsourcing in-house, saving time and providing greater margins on his color work.
“It was a great presentation our Ricoh sales representative gave,” said Girodat. “But the deciding factor in most of our decisions has always been service. After purchasing and working with so many types of equipment and companies over the years, you realize that no matter what the salesperson sells eventually it’s going to need service. So any equipment decision needs to be based on service as well as capability. Ricoh delivers both. Ricoh technicians stop by our shop just to check to make sure everything’s working the way it should.”
“Cost is the other side of the equation,” Girodat continues. “When you get to a certain volume, you’re producing the work at far less expense than it would cost you to send it out. Part of paying for the equipment is making sure you’re putting as much on it as you can. Along with keeping our color work in-house, we are finding that things we used to send to the press, we’re now putting on the RICOH Pro C900 because it just works so well.”
Since installing the RICOH Pro C900, the company is able to produce a variety of jobs more quickly, reducing a two-day turnaround time by at the very least 50 percent. Additionally, customers are able to send their files electronically and the file is then sent directly to print, again reducing the time it takes to finish a job. Girodat can also offer completely finished documents—reports, proposals, direct mail, personalized brochures, newsletters, and more produced in photo-quality color that can be collated, folded, stapled, or delivered with covers, tabs and hole punches.
“This machine is simply light years faster than anything we’ve used in the past. It’s almost crazy to think about it,” said Girodat. “For example, there’s a business card application that we usually print on the offset press. It’s a two-sided, two-color card and, at best case scenario, we would schedule it to print the next day, and then trim it or cut it, and package it the day after that, so two full days. With the RICOH Pro C900 now, we’re able to produce that same job in 20 minutes. And that goes for almost all the jobs we used to send out. The turnaround time is just outstanding.”
Delivering Service and Opportunity
Along with the decrease in turnaround time, Girodat is excited about his ability to offer additional marketing services, such as variable data printing. While most of his previous requests have been for static output, he is now starting to incorporate the option of variable data into conversations at the front counter when selling. For example, the company was producing a book for an auction coming up for a local charity and noticed that on the front cover they had a spot to handwrite in a number that would become the bidding number or ID number. Girodat suggested to the customer that he could print those numbers using his variable data capabilities and ran the numbered full-color raffle tickets in the matter of an hour, resulting in a very happy customer.
Girodat sums it up: “I get calls on a weekly basis from other vendors wanting to come in, make their presentation, and talk about their equipment. And certainly through our franchise headquarters there are qualified vendors that have been tested and recommended. I never even spoke to them, because I was very happy with Ricoh service. And when Ricoh brought in the RICOH Pro C900, my experience escalated to extraordinary. Not only did I have a piece of equipment that we could build our future with, but I knew the service would be great, too. Both allow us to compete the way we do it best at American Speedy—on personal service.”
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Kurt Konow is a segment marketing manager in the Production Printing Business Group (PPBG) for Ricoh Americas Corporation.
Prior to joining Ricoh Americas Corporation, Konow served in numerous supervisory roles at Pitney Bowes, a global provider of mailing equipment and solutions. Most recently, he served as vice president of product management in the company’s Group 1 Software division, which serves the mailstream software market.
He holds a B.S. in Marketing from Indiana State University.
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