Wide-Format Printing — Sizing Up a New Market

“It’s not rocket science.” That same reply was given by two players in the market when asked about the challenges facing a printer looking to diversify into digital wide-format printing services.

Adding this service seems like a natural extension of the printing industry’s digital evolution. Large-format ink-jet print engines have all but become the norm for some level of proofing, ranging from digital bluelines up to contract color. Putting aside the finishing requirements, digital color printing presents much the same proposition whether the output be an 8.5x11˝ sheet or large banner.

Why, then, have so relatively few commercial printers gotten into the business? “Less than 8 percent of all commercial printers currently offer large-format services of any kind, and 22 percent of that group only offers it for proofing purposes,” according to the “Large-Format Graphics: Supersizing the Market?” report update published earlier this year by the TrendWatch Graphic Arts research firm in New York City.

Some answers may be found in the insights of commercial printers that have successfully integrated digital large-format services.

Imaging Zone, in Springfield, VA, has a history of diversifying its service offerings. Mounir Murad founded the company as a PostScript-based prepress service bureau in 1987. When that market went into decline in the mid-1990s, Murad transformed the company into a full-service imaging center offering offset and digital printing, as well as large-format production services. It also expanded into CD duplication and replication.

Equipment Gets Wider

Today, the company’s pressroom features three (two-, five- and six-color) Heidelberg half-size and smaller sheetfed presses, and it also does color and black-and-white digital printing on Canon devices. Ink-jet printers in its wide-format department currently include a 54˝ HP and 44˝ Epson, but Murad says an equipment upgrade is pending. Imaging Zone serves the creative community in the greater Washington metro area, including corporate, institutional and professional organizations, design firms and ad agencies.

“I believe large-format digital printing is still a good service for commercial printers to offer as part of a diversification plan,’’ Murad says. However, he cautions against taking the “buy it and they will come” approach, since the business has certain requirements that must be met in order to achieve success. Obviously, the decision should be based on client needs and demands, the company president adds.

“Diversification is a double-edged sword,” Murad says. It expands the “basket of goodies” that a commercial printer has to offer, but may blur the company’s marketing position, he explains. Because of that risk, he doesn’t think large-format services should be set up as a separate division.

“There are many companies that specialize in this field. The idea behind commercial printers selling large-format printing is to retain and service existing clients while adding a new profit center,” Murad asserts.

Most of Imaging Zone’s large-format work comes from its existing offset and (standard-format) digital printing clients. Therefore, the company relies on the same staff to sell all of its services. “Salespeople have to be up to the challenge and willing to learn, though,” he adds.

Murad believes commercial printers that already offer short-run and on-demand printing are better positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. They still must be willing to commit to the market in order to succeed, he adds.

Sticking a toe in the market by trying to use the same device for proofing and display graphics production isn’t practical, Murad points out. “A proofer in a busy prepress department is already in use most of the time. The last thing you want to do is put your main bread-and-butter work in jeopardy. Besides, you need to use different devices, inks and substrates for different products,” he explains.

Printing capability is just one part of the business equation. “Offering large-format printing without handling finishing is worthless,” Murad argues.

The good news: the finishing equipment required to get started isn’t very expensive. “A 60˝ mounter/laminator may run you around $20,000,” the company exec reports. “You also need a wall cutter/trimmer, table trimmer and other miscellaneous equipment that would total about $7,000 to $10,000.

“It’s not just a matter of getting the equipment, however,” Murad continues. “You need space—maybe 1,000 square feet or more of flat work area—and human expertise. A good prepress department can handle the imaging part, but you need people who know how to mount and laminate graphics. You may also need to do some experimenting with different substrates in order to provide clients with quality products.”

In addition, production and salespeople have to learn new lingo, the company president observes. “They need an understanding of outdoor graphics versus indoor, floor graphics, back-lit display, panels, trade show booths, vehicle wraps, etc. They also have to learn about issues such as solvent- versus dye-based inks, longevity and fading,” he explains.

Similarities can be found in the evolution of DPI in San Francisco, which has grown into a full-service printer with 55 employees. Sanjay Sakhuja started the company in 1989 as a pioneering, PostScript-based color prepress house.

The company first ventured into the commercial printing arena in 1996 by installing a digital color press. Soon after, it added a digital platesetter and began selling plates to local printers. Sakhuja says he quickly recognized that the future was in direct-to-plate production, so in 1998 the company acquired one of its printer clients (a 40˝ sheetfed shop).

Wide From the Start

DPI has been producing digital large-format work as a parallel business almost from day one. Initially, the shop’s 32x44˝ Iris ink-jet proofer provided a means to produce high-end prints for the fine art market, he says. As a complement to that capability, the company installed a ColorSpan ink-jet printer to do more commercial-type work.

In the late ‘90s, DPI shifted its large-format output capabilities to photographic-based technology. It replaced the ColorSpan machine with a 50˝ Durst Lambda photo laser imager, and added an Océ LightJet 500XL printer a couple years later to produce work up to 72˝ wide.

Around that same time, DPI also installed a new six-color, 51˝ Mitsubishi sheetfed press. “We were finding a lot of people needed a medium, rather than super-wide, format,” Sakhuja notes. “We couldn’t fit the work on a 40˝ press, but digital systems were too expensive for some quantities customers needed. Our shop is designed to cater to an in-store marketing clientele.”

Whether the service be standard- or large-format printing, offset or digital, the company typically is calling on and working with the same customers. That means the same staff sells its full spectrum of services.

Sakhuja believes a variety of factors likely account for the relatively small number of commercial printers offering digital wide-format services. He suggests the issue could be something as basic as printers waiting for customers to bring jobs in, rather than proactively exploring market opportunities.

The photographic-based market segment that DPI decided to go after is a bit of a special case, the company exec asserts. “It requires a completely different skill set than offset printing,” he explains. “There’s almost no process overlap, even though you might start out working from the same file.”

As the industry has matured, competition has become an ever-stronger deterrent to market entry, Sakhuja observes. “Offering the capability doesn’t open doors like it did when the technology was new. Clients already have sources for everything, and the existing service providers are now fighting for market share,” he says.

Maturity has also led to a big drop off in the rate at which new applications are introduced. The industry’s collective imagination is getting tapped out, Sakhuja concludes.

Nebraska Printing Center’s business approach reflects the leading theories of how to achieve success in today’s competitive environment. It provides one-stop service, is customer focused and has diversified beyond ink on paper.

The Lincoln, NE-based company offers high-end sheetfed and coldset web (with UV capability to support coated stocks) printing, backed up by comprehensive bindery and mailing departments. Its staff of more than 40 employees includes 12 designers that create much of the work printed by the shop.

In 1996, grand-format display services were added to the mix, further establishing the operation as a center for print. Scott Stewart, president, says the company backed into that market as a result of doing a design project that included large-format graphics.

“The job became very frustrating in terms of getting the product produced,” Stewart says. “We decided to see if we could bring the capability in-house. We’re now on our fourth generation of large-format graphic output devices.”

Solvent-based ink-jet machines, including an Océ Arizona and a 10.5-foot-wide Chinese machine it calls Hercules, are the department’s workhorses. It also has a couple of water-based Epson printers for indoor, photo-realistic image work.

While keeping “Nebraska Printing Center” as its primary face to the market, the company decided to establish “Lion Art” as a trade name to identify its grand-format graphics output service. “It’s not a separate corporation, though. We put the Lion Art logo on our delivery trucks and use it in other ways to market the service,” Stewart explains.

The company’s early success came in the retail grocery market segment, which involves a lot of point-of-purchase work. Lion Art’s capabilities cover a wide range of applications, from four-color banners and wall murals to floor and vehicle graphics. It even has a climate-controlled garage where the latter is installed.

Sign of the Times

“Within the last year, we decided to also get into the real estate sign business,” the company exec reveals. “We now have a 95 percent market share of the business in Lincoln for real estate-type signs.”

Two realty companies handle more than 80 percent of the listings, and both use Lion Art exclusively to digitally produce personalized “For Sale” signs. “We give agents the option of personalizing their signs, not just with a name, but also a picture in four-color. That service has gone over extremely well,” Stewart says.

One sales staff sells all of Nebraska Printing Center’s services. When it comes to large-format work, the salespeople have to think creatively to identify opportunities for graphics, while also having some understanding of what is possible from a production standpoint.

“We do presentations on new applications in our sales meetings,” he divulges. “We also have a showroom to demonstrate applications, including half of a van used to display vehicle graphics.”

Stewart believes there is an opportunity for commercial printers to capture the significant large-format business that currently goes to little sign shops.

“I think it would still be a fairly easy market entrée today for a commercial printer,” the industry exec continues. “A printer would need a competent design person or two and a production person who is reasonably meticulous, with an eye for art and willing to learn the technology. With about a $100,000 investment, the printer could be in business by installing an inexpensive solvent-based printer and a decent laminator.”