The Bureau Grows with Large-format Sheetfed Printing and Marketing Services

By Erik Cagle

Pressing Ahead

The Board of Directors at The Bureau took a bold step in ordering a new 73″ Roland 900 XXL large-format sheetfed offset press from manroland. Despite the economy, the printer saw it as an ideal opportunity to better address retail clients’ needs for in-store signage. Could another bold move be far behind in the form of grand-format inkjet equipment?

The Bureau has been watching the development of grand-format inkjet from afar. Patrick Stuart, the company’s vice president of marketing, is taking a wait-and-see approach.

“The challenge is one of technology. Inkjet is a fast moving train,” he says. “We’re sitting back and holding our wallet close to the vest. Let’s wait until some of these chips fall and see how we can leverage our success there. At the same time, when you start looking five, 10, 15, 20 years out, you ask yourself where print is going to be in that timeframe, as well. How do we handle that?”

That is why The Bureau views itself as a marketing manufacturer. It is a strategy that is not beholden to any particular manufacturing process. Not that Stuart is ready to throw litho printing under the bus. The XXL investment is proof positive.

“Whether its marketing materials or signage, we're helping customers throughout the process,” Stuart says. “Marketing services allows us to layer on top of that, to ask the question, “Was it worth printing, and are you getting the results that you hoped for?’”

In late 2010, Minneapolis-based commercial printer The Bureau was officially recognized with Women's Business Enterprise Certification (WBENC) as a woman-owned, operated and controlled business. For anyone familiar with the back story of The Bureau—and its century-plus span of female involvement—it hardly comes as news.

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