Carlson Print Gains Market Edge with manroland Foiler

MINNEAPOLIS—04/01/09—Carlson Print Group (CPG) is letting everyone know what it thinks of its new Roland 706 Hi-Print UV press with In-line Foiler Prindor. The digital and offset printer, a division of American Spirit Graphics Corp. (ASGC), was quick to pick up business soon after promoting its new addition on its web site. Installed in December 2008, the 40-inch, 6-color press presents an extra shot of competitive marketplace thinking to CPG’s overall strategy.

“We wanted to upgrade our technology, add UV capability and find a way to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace,” said Darren Carlson, CEO of ASGC and its three divisions, including CPG. “The upgrade in technology was a driving force with quicker make-readies and improved color, and so was getting into the UV market. Almost everybody has UV but very few printers have foil like this press. The Roland 706 can print on top of foil, in any color, and you can do it in-line as part of one process.”

Carlson said CPG outlined a strategy for a broad range of regional and national clientele, including retail, packaging and general commercial print customers. “In retail, it is all about catching a consumer’s eye. Packaging designers want their package to stand out and say ‘look at me’. We can give them new ways to make it happen with our foiling press.”

The Roland 706’s ability to automatically adjust for substrates ranging from 0.04 mm thin paper to 1 mm cardboard, meshes well with CPG’s clientele, too. Carlson said they had already uncovered plenty of other competitive advantages before “the foil strategy” crystallized.

First manroland for 20-year shop
CPG has prospered since it began as a small operation in the warehouse district of Minneapolis 20 years ago. A full service operation, it now employs 60 people and generated revenue of $16 million in 2008. Based on its success and new strategy, the search for a new press began last spring with General Manager Rod Franson, Sales Manager Don Gossen, and Plant Manager Doug Mohagen, spearheading the effort. With Heidelberg and Mitsubishi presses already on the floor, manroland was one of several manufacturers they contacted for consideration.

At Graph Expo last October, manroland was the established front-runner based on what CPG learned about advanced systems such as ColorPilot™ automated inking, automatic plate loading (APL), and System Brunner PrintConsult and okBalance® control. During the show, Franson, Gossen and Mohagen saw the press run at manroland’s Print Technology Center in Westmont, IL. Jason Carlson, Darren’s brother, who is ASGC’s VP – Strategic Initiatives, rounded out the team by evaluating the regional and national market potential for the output of the press from a packaging buyers’ perspective.

Ensuing discussions focused on strategic market potential for multicolor in-line foil capability on top of the ROLAND 706’s other advanced-technology features.

“We figured the extra features would lead to increased productivity and the foiler sealed the deal,” Carlson said. “Since we ran our first in-line foil job, customers have inquired about it. We are promoting the foiling capability directly to our customers and on our web site (www.carlsonprintgroup.com). It has generated a lot of ‘Wow’ interest and we anticipate our strategy will help the press pay its way even faster than we expected.”

Installed, trained and up-to-speed in less than 60 days
Once CPG made the decision to go with manroland, it took about two months to get everything organized in the plant to prepare for the new press. This required removing a Mitsubishi 640 press and training CPG’s pressroom crew, which went exceptionally well. CPG vigorously promotes the fact that its press operators treat printing as a craft, and their skill and attention to detail turns technology into a force for incredible results. To allow the pressroom crew to focus on production, they signed on for manroland’s printservices package. This ensures a service program that effectively keeps uptime at maximum levels.

manroland’s TelePresence® remote diagnostics service has proven to be a popular and highly cost-effective program. It allows manroland technical specialists to view problems with a camera in order to help the customer diagnose press problems. Typically, 95 percent of all manroland press problems are resolved remotely with TelePresence. This saves cost and time getting the press back online and into production as quickly as possible.

“The Roland 706 with in-line foiler replaced more than just one press with its faster make-readies, high run speed, and overall job turnaround,” Carlson said. “We had a solid round of training right after installation and the manroland training team returned a few weeks later for a second, advanced session. It worked out very well since it gave our crew time to work with the press and ask questions, upgrade skills and help us make the most out of all this new technology. Our crew now has the best tools to satisfy the needs of our current and future customers.”

manroland Inc., a division of manroland AG, is the world’s second largest printing systems manufacturer and the world’s market leader in web offset. manroland employs almost 8,700 people and has annual sales of some Euro 1.7 billion, with an export share of almost 80 percent. Web and sheetfed offset presses provide solutions for publishing, commercial and packaging printing. For more information, visit www.manroland.us.com