Haapanen/Burkett Inc. — Raising the Quality Bar

THE STAFF at Haapanen/Burkett Inc. believes that being a successful, full-service commercial printer begins with an unwavering commitment to customer service, along with offering a wide variety of production capabilities to its largely pharmaceutical industry client base. Founded by Jerry Haapanen and Joe Burkett in 1984, the Gurnee, IL-based company came to fruition when the two typesetting business owners realized the advantages of merging their experience and expertise into a partnership.

Built on the premise of being a one-stop shop, Haapanen/Burkett cultivated a strong business base by serving the typesetting needs of small, local printers by preparing camera-ready art. The company quickly developed a reputation for providing excellent service. This dedication to service progressed the business from typesetting into electronic prepress and, within a few years, Haapanen/Burkett evolved into a flourishing enterprise.

With a significant segment of work dedicated to specialized projects requiring handwork, a key component of the company’s success has been its gamut capabilities.

By 1997, it had grown to the point that the partners decided to invest in their first Heidelberg press—a five-color MO, which quickly became the company’s flagship machine. A stepping stone to Haapanen/Burkett’s progression toward larger presses, the MO paved the way for the purchase of a new Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74 with coater.

Soon after, the partners realized the need to move into the 40˝ market, so they invested in a six-color Speedmaster XL 105 with coater. The XL 105’s remarkable speed capabilities enabled Haapanen/Burkett to keep up with the demand of its customers, but also created a few new issues.

“The XL 105 presented us with some big challenges due to its exceptionally fast performance,” says Haapanen, vice president. “We experienced some issues with misting and ink/water balance, and had difficulties getting the first sheet of the run to look like the last. When our press operator escalated or decreased the speed of the press for any reason, keeping the color consistent was often a challenge.”

The need to upgrade the company’s ink to one that had the ability to hold color, regardless of press speeds, was clear. Haapanen/Burkett experimented with several inks in the hopes of finding one that would suit its needs.

After many trial-and-error experiences testing several competitive inks, Haapanen/Burkett’s supplier, Fujifilm Graphic Systems, introduced the company to Van Son ink. A longstanding partner of the ink manufacturer, Fujifilm was confident the ink would outperform every other product they tried.

“We understood that efficiency was extremely important to Haapanen/Burkett,” recalls Tom Pokorny, pressroom sales specialist at Fuji- film. “After taking an in-depth look at the issues it was facing, we knew Van Son would provide the performance needed—so we brought the ink in to test.”

“We were impressed with Van Son right from the start. It’s hard to get a true feel for an ink without first running it over the course of hundreds of jobs,” comments Haapanen. “But, we saw a difference right away.

In fact, the difference was huge. “The ink gives us excellent trapping capabilities; colors are laying on colors giving us smooth and consistent color,” he continues. “We have superb ink/water balance consistency, no blanket piling and the sharpness of the dot is excellent.”

Haapanen was pleased to find that no matter what speed the press was running at, the ink was extremely stable—providing an unparalleled consistency of color. “We didn’t understand what true stability on this press meant until we started using Van Son inks,” notes Haapanen. “Now, we run up to 18,000 impressions an hour without a hitch. The improved overall quality has enabled us to create a better product for our customers.”

That improved quality has made a big impression in the pressroom. “When you run such a large volume of impressions an hour, it puts a lot of responsibility on the press operator,” the printing exec says. “When we were deciding on the new ink to use, our press operators put us under a lot of pressure to run a competitive ink, but I was against running it due to its high cost. We found Van Son to be much more reasonably priced and highly capable of meeting all of our expectations.”

Another key component that has contributed to Haapanen/Burkett’s satisfaction with Van Son has been the strong technical support. Haapanen appreciated that Van Son assisted his company with getting its fountain solution ratios, as well as water and roller temperatures, on par to help get the ink running at its best.

“Our technical support specialist checks in with us frequently. We not only appreciate his help, but feel that he genuinely wants to ensure our satisfaction,” he notes.

Today, Haapanen/Burkett’s 50,000-square-foot building also touts a full-service bindery, offering small diecutting, tipping, taping, gluing, folding and package inserting capabilities. With nearly all services accomplished in-house, quality, time and production are closely monitored and controlled—resulting in a better product.

The printer prides itself on staying loyal to its founding principles—that quality, value and service are the hallmarks of customer satisfaction. Despite the industry’s fierce competition and the company’s self-proclaimed humble beginnings, Haapanen/Burkett’s unwavering focus on customer service has been a driving factor in its steady growth over the years.

“Our business model is to ‘never say no,’ ” concludes Haapanen. “We never tell a customer that a request can’t be done. Our steadfast commitment is to exceed their expectations. You must provide quality and, of course, the biggest differentiator is service.” PI