Millennium Press Installs First HEIDELBERG Versafire LP in U.S.

Determination and automation – two words that have fueled Millennium Press’ success for over thirty-five years and its owners’ recent recognition as 2023 Small Business Persons of the Year for Massachusetts. The commercial trade printer, located in Agawam, MA, recently installed a new Versafire LP with Prinect Digital Front End (DFE) from HEIDELBERG. The Versafire LP is HEIDELBERG’s newest digital press and the first of its kind to be installed in the United States and easily integrates with Millennium’s fully connected Smart Print Shop.

Determination

Despite being a “small” operation, Millennium is completely automated from quotation and job entry all the way through finishing and invoicing. “We’re not the typical size of a shop with this level of automation,” said Millennium Press Founder and President, Jim Sullivan. “We’re continuously working to streamline our operation and remove human touchpoints – making us more resilient to any unexpected bumps down the road.” The company, which started in 1989 out of a small garage, has already overcome various “road bumps” in its thirty-five-year history including the recession of 2008 and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Millennium steadily grew from a one-man garage operation to a successful commercial trade printer until 2008. In 2007, the company invested in a new state-of-the-art Speedmaster from HEIDELBERG and put a $1 million addition onto its production facilities. Less than a year later, the recession devastated the economy and the print industry. Sullivan and his wife Kelly, Millennium’s CFO, were determined to survive – throwing many of their personal savings into the business and meeting with the Small Business Association (SBA) to restructure its debt.

After building its business back up and erasing most of its debt by 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic then wiped out 75% of Millennium’s business – forcing the company to temporarily lay off most of its workforce. The Sullivans’ resolve along with the SBA and the Paycheck Protection Program helped Millennium to quickly bring back its employees as the company started regaining work.

Based on their efforts and personal sacrifices during these difficult times, Jim and Kelly were recognized as the 2023 Small Business Persons of the Year for Massachusetts by the SBA. The Sullivans were chosen out of 700,000 small businesses in the state and invited to the White House to meet the President and Vice President. In D.C., they received their award along with the winners from all fifty states. “To represent one of the thirty-one million small businesses in the United States was a truly humbling experience,” said Sullivan.

Automation

Millennium’s ability to succeed despite adversity is due in part to its investment in a completely connected HEIDELBERG solution, which includes Prinect workflow and Business Manager MIS, Suprasetter CtP, Speedmaster with Prinect Inpress Control technology, two Versafire digital presses, and Stahlfolder and POLAR finishing solutions. The entire production chain and business operations are linked end-to-end with Prinect. Customers first submit an order through an online portal, and a job ticket is generated. The job is then automatically preflighted and routed to the appropriate queue (offset or digital) to be printed. All of this done autonomously without human interaction. Sullivan said, “I don’t think we could do this as seamlessly without Prinect. Everything is so automated. The connectivity makes it easy to check on the business – even when thousands of miles away.”

Installed at the end of 2023, Millennium’s newest addition is the Versafire LP, the latest digital press from HEIDELBERG. The company has a history of purchasing digital presses from HEIDELBERG for over a decade. “When HEIDELBERG first introduced its Linoprint digital press in 2013, it was around the time that the quality of digital printing finally met my expectations of what I deemed acceptable for my customers,” said Sullivan. “While we were able to efficiently produce short runs on our Speedmaster, the Linoprint allowed us to produce smaller quantities more profitably, and the customer was very happy – both saving money and with the quality.”

Since then, Millennium has purchased each subsequent digital press model from HEIDELBERG. “With the Versafire, each generation has gotten better – faster, higher quality, and easier color calibration and registration,” said Sullivan. The new LP will replace an older generation Versafire and work alongside Millennium’s existing Versafire EP. Sullivan says that the company’s digital workload has increased so much over the years that it consistently runs two machines throughout the day. The Versafires handle a variety of variable data mailings and standard short run jobs. He said, “We’re not into specialty printing. I’m more concerned about how many ‘units’ we can produce day in and day out.”

The Versafire LP was introduced late last year and is HEIDELBERG’s most productive digital press to date. With a capacity up to 2,600,000 letter pages per month, the LP is made for handling high volumes or a multitude of changeovers for shorter runs. Sullivan said, “Moving from an older generation Versafire to the LP is going to be like night and day in regards to higher speed, enhanced productivity, and ease of use.” The new Versafire allows for intelligent settings for gloss level from high gloss to matte without any mechanical changes to press. Its paper range is also expanded from 40 gsm (lighter than 40 lb. offset) to 470 gsm (24 pt. paperboard) as well as synthetics.

The enhanced Prinect DFE easily integrates with Millennium’s Prinect workflow and Speedmaster press to enable a flexible, standardized, highly productive, and intuitive combination of offset and digital printing. The automated and standardized print production provides the company with excellent efficiency, greater transparency, and faster job flow.

Sullivan’s journey to complete automation began in 2005 when Millennium purchased HEIDELBERG’s original estimating software, which was integrated with its prepress software and new Suprasetter CtP from HEIDELBERG. “Once it was installed, and we were able to see how easily a job could move without human interaction, it became the foundation for how we wanted to move forward. Every piece of equipment we bought after that point, we wanted to be connected,” he said. Recently, the company purchased a new POLAR N 115 AT with Compucut automation from HEIDELBERG, which is also integrated into the workflow and streamlines production all the way through finishing. Sullivan adds, “Every purchase I make is based on what is the most automated way to do something and where can we eliminate human touchpoints. HEIDELBERG makes all of that possible for us.”

Source: HEIDELBERG

The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions.