Thursday, November 18, 2010

Wetzel Brothers Offers Lamá Display Solution

After a thorough vetting process, we are proud to announce that Wetzel Brothers, Consolidated Graphics’ longest operating company and a leader in point-of-purchase (POP) displays, was recently selected as an official licensee in the USA for Marin’s International. The Lamá®is a patented, instant display that opens instantly into position in a matter of seconds. As easy as it is to set up, it’s just as simple to fold down, and saves customers up to two-thirds of their shipping expense due to its compact size.

Here’s how it all happened...

Last year, Marin’s, a French company and owner of the Lamá® patent, started looking for just a few qualified companies to manufacture and sell the Lamá® line of products stateside. They selected Wetzel Brothers because of their exclusive focus on POP displays and national scope, and thus the partnership was initiated.

What makes the Lamá® so fantastic is its ease of use and simple assembly (or should we say more accurately, no assembly?). It pops up automatically, and can be used for sampling promotional products, as a tabletop display, as a branding display, or in any number of formats utilizing the patented paperboard technology. Display sizes range from counter displays to 10 foot-high columns.

Companies like Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Microsoft, Sony, Unilever and more have already adopted the solution, and more recently, Wetzel brought the Lamá® to retail magnates Toys ‘R Us and Nintendo. According to Carine Krull of Wetzel Brothers, “They are excited about our new Lamá® capabilities and immediately made use of the innovative displays. We also anticipate generating a lot of new business as a result of this partnership.

For more info on the Lamá®, you can  contact Wetzel Brothers. Wetzel Brothers recently exhibited the Lamá at the 2010 Shopper Marketing Expo, October 6-7, 2010 at the Navy Pier in Chicago, but if you missed them there be sure to catch them at GlobalShop at The Sands in Las Vegas, March 28-30,2011.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Guest Blog from InfoPrint Solutions: Why Frederic Printing is the Dream Partner

At CGX, we work closely with our suppliers to keep the print industry moving forward and to continue to better serve our customers. Today, I'm happy to introduce George Promis,VP, CF Production Solutions and Technology Alliances, InfoPrint Solutions, as he shares his thoughts on Frederic Printing's installation of the InfoPrint5000:

Here at InfoPrint Solutions, we’ve realized that building strong relationships with our clients, partners and suppliers is important and we consider it as a staple in the success of our brand. As such, you can imagine how excited we were to work with Consolidated Graphics’ Frederic Printing because they share the same high standards and carry this philosophy over to their relationships with their partners and suppliers.

Upon first hearing Frederic Printing’s needs for a new printing solution and examining their workload, clients and output we knew an InfoPrint 5000 would be a great fit – specifically to address their demands for a flexible, reliable and versatile solution and to enable the creation of unique, future applications. Customized college textbooks, direct mail marketing pieces and election ballots were a few output types Frederic Printing produced and looked to InfoPrint Solutions to optimize.

What was most impressive throughout the selection and vetting process was the openness and mutually-beneficial relationship we immediately felt when working with the Frederic Printing team. Right off the bat, we could tell this would be a growing and rewarding partnership with ongoing work into the future. Coincidentally, Frederic’s facility is located nearby our headquarters which enables us to work closely together to jointly test new applications on very short runs – a capability not often supported by other inkjet offerings. By doing this, Frederic has the ability to report back to its parent company the innovative approach they are exploring in the field of short run, high quality output.

Once the implementation began, Frederic Printing had a smooth transition integrating their workload onto the InfoPrint 5000. The flexibility of the InfoPrint 5000 quickly fulfilled the company’s short run digital color printing needs. This, along with the quick, seamless installation, minimal staff training and ease of use was praised by the Frederic Printing team. The solution immediately met the demands of their clients for high quality while meeting critical print windows.

Sustainability is another important factor for Frederic Printing, as it is for InfoPrint Solutions. Hence implementing the InfoPrint 5000 was a perfect solution as it supports sustainability and cost-effective printing practices. Specifically, it is one of the industry’s lowest power consuming high speed inkjet models and also delivers exceptional operational efficiency and uses water-based inks.

We, at InfoPrint Solutions, measure our success on the outcome and satisfaction our products provide. In this particular case, we couldn’t have been more thrilled to realize that Frederic Printing shared our fundamental beliefs. Since then, we’ve garnered a strong and supportive relationship that continues to meet the needs and demands of their customers.

Want to read more? Check out InfoPrint Insights blog for a post by Chris Greene, President of Frederic Printing, where he gives everyday examples of how his company is using the InfoPrint 5000.

Thank you,
George Promis
VP, CF Production Solutions and Technology Alliances
InfoPrint Solutions