Worth Higgins & Associates Bridges the Gap Between Offset and Digital
Worth Higgins & Associates, based in Richmond, VA, is the state’s largest commercial sheetfed printer. The core technologies include offset, digital, wide-format, and letterpress printing with a pressroom that keeps two 40" Komori (Booth 2607) presses, a 26" 6-color Komori press, and a 26" 4-color Komori press quite busy. Known for variety, quality, and sophistication in the work it produces, Worth Higgins & Associates’ client base encompasses organizations of all sizes in the financial services, government, education, ad agency, and business-to-business corporate fields.
Taking digital capabilities to a new level
Worth Higgins and Associates agreed to be the beta testing site for the new Komori Impremia IS29 inkjet sheetfed UV printing system, and soon thereafter purchased the IS29 to expand its ability to economically meet the increased demand for variable data, short-run, high quality color printing. “Before acquiring the IS29, the market we were able to play in digitally was limited to an 11x17" plus bleed sheet,” says Scott Hudson, Director of Corporate Communications for Worth Higgins & Associates. “We were getting requests for unique applications that we weren’t able to produce on the digital presses that we had on our floor.”
Komori Impremia IS29 inkjet sheetfed UV printing system
The IS29 offers two features that the team at Worth Higgins & Associates appreciated immediately. First, it can handle a 23x29" sheet, giving the company a larger print area of 22x28". Second, it doesn’t require any special substrates or special coatings on the paper. Other digital presses require pre-treated papers, which are more costly than standard offset stocks. With the IS29, the company can run the same sheets it runs on its offset presses, which not only reduces paper costs, but also storage space.
A solution for customized short runs
Pressroom Manager Butch Kelly is impressed with the durability of the ink when cured with UV. “With our other digital press, if a piece was going to go through the mail, the ink had a tendency to get scuffed. The UV inks are much harder, and they don’t scuff,” says Kelly. “The production coming off the UV press can also go straight to bindery.”
Worth Higgins & Associates is finding it makes sense to migrate more jobs to the IS29. One example is letters that print with variable data for banking and university customers. In the past, the company printed the shell of the letters on an offset press, trimmed them to 8.5x11" and then imprinted the variable data from a digital device. Now it can migrate that work and do everything at once on the IS29, saving time and expense.
Rick LaReau, CEO of Worth Higgins & Associates sums it up: “The IS29 goes beyond just producing quality digital print. It is innovative technology that successfully fills the gap between both mainstream offset and digital. One of our favorite expressions at Worth Higgins & Associates is that we are not only good at what we do; we also celebrate others who are good at what they do. Komori is a company that continues to demonstrate this excellence to us. We see the IS29 as the future of technology, and we are thrilled to partner with Komori to see where this technology can take us.”
