Tukaiz Installs Four HP Indigo Presses to Meet Growing Demand for VDP and Specialty Applications

CHICAGO—Oct. 15, 2006—HP today announced that Tukaiz is completing its three-month installation of four new HP Indigo presses, enabling the firm to handle its customers’ rapidly increasing demand for digitally printed applications. Joining the Franklin Park, Ill.-based company’s two existing HP Indigo press 3050s are HP Indigo presses s2000, three HP Indigo press 5000s, as well as the new HP Indigo Production Manager digital front end. These additions create a large-scale digital printing operation projected to produce eight- to 12-million impressions per month.

The new investments are part of a progressive strategy to fully leverage variable-data printing (VDP) and other digital printing advantages while making the 43-year-old firm a leader in multimedia communications. Tukaiz, which was founded as a prepress provider, focuses on imaging excellence in numerous media and services, including interactive and video, as well as specialty and commercial printing. The company also offers large-format printing, and operates three HP Designjet printers. Additional services Tukaiz offers include solvent based large format printing, digital photography, prepress and color retouching and softproofing.

“Tukaiz is certainly a company that ‘gets it’ in terms of understanding, implementing, and selling the new marketing potential possible with digital technology,” said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP. “The latest press installations for this longtime and valued HP Indigo customer are clear indications of the firm’s forward momentum in meeting customers’ evolving needs.”

To leverage its newly expanded HP Indigo printing operation, Tukaiz is seizing opportunities in a digital printing specialization that has become one its fastest-growing business opportunities. “Digital printing is truly a value, not a commodity,” said Frank Defino Sr., founder, chairman and CEO, Tukaiz. “We’re seeing double-digit growth in our digital printing programs with HP Indigo. And, with our web-to-print capabilities and personalization offerings, an increasing amount of our digital printing work is variable-data.”

Showing the power of personalization in self-promotion

Tukaiz, which became the first Midwestern firm to own more than one Indigo press in 1993, also conducts an ongoing self-promotional campaign showcasing the power and potential of one-to-one marketing. Each month, the company mails personalized marketing pieces to clients and prospects exhibiting not only what can be done in digital printing, but also touting the full range of the firm’s multimedia capabilities.

“We firmly believe in showing the marketplace what can be done with digital,” said Frank Defino Jr., Tukaiz’ vice president and partner. “It helps build our brand and our market position.”

Tukaiz, which won the Printing Industry of Illinois/Indiana’s “Best of State” award for its variable-data digital printing applications in 2006, produces innovative marketing campaigns that drive growth for customers in a wide range of industries, including the insurance, financial services, real estate, mortgage, automobile dealership, banking and education industries. With its extensive HP Indigo capabilities and technological knowledge of data management, the firm is able to take its customers’ marketing efforts to unprecedented levels.

Taking the mortgage industry very personally

One example of the types of marketing successes Tukaiz creates is a multimedia campaign for the mortgage industry that begins with digital print and also incorporates interactive and call-center services. In this program, Tukaiz produces digitally printed mailers to homeowners who fit the mortgage company’s typical customer profile.

First, Tukaiz’ data-processing operation efficiently determines the best recipients for its offers by automatically comparing daily updates of mortgage holder information to interest-rate data. As soon as the comparison proves that a mortgage holder can benefit from refinancing, a mailer is automatically generated with a refinancing offer.

Each mailer includes a personalized url (purl), which leads to a mortgage calculator web page pre-populated with the prospect’s information. But, Tukaiz’ integration goes beyond even the typical purl-driven multimedia campaign. Logging onto the purl triggers an instantaneous message to a call center, enabling the mortgage company to contact the prospect by phone, walk him or her through the mortgage offer online, and potentially close a greater amount of new business than is possible with traditional marketing efforts using a single media approach.

Capitalizing on HP Indigo print quality and capabilities

The new HP Indigo press 5000s will enable Tukaiz to produce a larger volume of personalized materials, meeting the growing demand for successful one to one marketing campaigns. The firm has a number of additional digital printing specialty applications that rely on the quality and productivity of HP Indigo presses.

The firm’s HP Indigo press s2000 produces specialty items on plastics and other high value non-paper media. Using technologies from software provider HumanEyes, Tukaiz also produces lenticular and 3D printed pieces on the HP Indigo press s2000, an application only possible with HP Indigo digital press technology.

The firm’s prepress background has enabled Tukaiz to create a fully color-profiled environment across all of its service offerings. HP Indigo press technology with its liquid HP ElectroInks can precisely match the high-quality and consistency of its other imaging processes, a capability company officials said they have not seen in competing digital presses.

About HP
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company’s offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended July 31, 2006, HP revenue totaled $90.0 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at www.hp.com.