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.

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

Joe Davis Wins Print CEO of the Year!

We can't say enough about our CEO, Joe Davis, but it's always nice when the rest of the world realizes what an outstanding leader he is. Mr. Davis was recently honored as Print CEO of the Year by WhatTheyThink and Manroland for his "inspirational leadership and success."

We aren't sure if it's the incredible growth the company has seen (Mr. Davis has grown CGX from a single print facility to over 70 facilities in just 25 years, and our company has reached over $1 billion in revenues), his Leadership Development Program (in his acceptance speech, he said this is his proudest achievement), or the company's successful acquisition program (which is the company's core growth strategy), but whatever it is, 2,500 of Davis' peers seem to agree that he is worthy of such an honor. To learn more about the Print CEO of the Year award, click here.

Introducing emerge Magazine

Every year, we invite our top customers to emerge, our annual conference for clients that highlights print, technology and marketing innovation. The event features breakout sessions, showcases major developments from print suppliers and manufacturers, and shares best practices from some of the biggest names in business: Merck, Aviva, Tyco, Adobe and more.

While we've gotten rave reviews about emerge over the years, one of the things we've discovered is the need to continue education and knowledge transfer among our clients in-between the annual conferences. As a result we recently launched a bi-monthly magazine (also called emerge).

Our goal for emerge, both conference and magazine, is simple: to explore new perspectives and solutions so that we, our customers, suppliers and the entire industry can improve our respective businesses. We want your input, comments, thoughts and musings, and we've also put together an online digital subscription version for you to conveniently view anytime, anywhere.

Frederic Printing's InfoPrint 5000

Part of what makes CGX such a strong company is the relationships we hold with our suppliers. Our customers tell us what they need, we translate that need to our suppliers, and they provide us with the appropriate technology. This gives us the ability to package this technology into a complete solution that makes our customers' lives easier and their marketing efforts more effective.

Frederic Printing, a CGX company in Aurora, Colorado, recently partnered with InfoPrint to install the InfoPrint 5000, which improves our ability to create print-on-demand textbooks, direct mail pieces, election ballots, and other high-volume variably-printed collateral. For more info on the InfoPrint, check out Chris Greene's guest post on the InfoPrint blog.

Joe Davis Selected as Print CEO of the Year Finalist

Joe Davis, CEO of Consolidated Graphics, was just announced as a finalist for the WhatTheyThink.com Print CEO of the Year award. While no surprise to us, it's always nice to be recognized by such a premier online resource for all things print-related.

Mr. Davis was selected from a prestigious group of thirty nominations for the first annual Print CEO of the Year award. Criteria for judging includes a demonstration of "inspirational and innovative leadership," metrics like revenue and profit growth, corporate transformation initiatives, and/or environmental leadership, and other qualifications that the nominator deems important.

We're not sure if it's his support for innovation shown through groundbreaking events like emerge, his commitment to young talent displayed through the Leadership Development Program that he founded, or the solid CGX financial performance, but whatever it is, we are in full agreement that Mr. Davis is worthy of such an honor.

Awards will be presented at the second annual Print CEO Forum scheduled for October 2nd and 3rd in Chicago, Illinois, and the winner will be selected by a group of industry peers. “We assembled a panel of 10 industry experts to narrow the list down to the top five,” said Randy Davidson, president of WhatTheyThink. “Hundreds of Print CEOs from around the globe will be invited to submit their votes to determine who will be named the Print CEO of the Year. All 5 finalists will receive a unique award crafted by a talented artist. It was a tough choice for our industry experts since all 30 nominees were highly qualified. Our congratulations to all 30 nominees, and especially to the final five.”

The five finalists, in alphabetical order, are:

* Joe Davis, Consolidated Graphics, Houston, Texas

* Robert Keane, Vistaprint, Lexington, Mass.

* John Lacagnina, ColorCentric Corp., Rochester, N.Y.

* Joel Quadracci, Quad/Graphics, Sussex, Wis.

* Adam Slutsky, Mimeo, New York, N.Y.

Congratulations to all!

CDS Publications Receives Prestigious ISO Certification

CDS Publications, a Consolidated Graphics company located in Medford, Oregon, has completed its ISO certification process, which it has maintained since 1994. ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, is the world's largest developer and publisher of international standards, and governs national standards of 163 countries. The organization forms a bridge between the public and private sectors, ensuring that companies meet the requirements of both business and society at large.

CDS renews its certification every three years, after receiving approval from a 3rd party auditor on specific processes, initiatives, and standards that have been determined as best practices for the print and manufacturing industry.

"The ISO 9001:2008 certification is a signal to our customers that we are protecting the data they send us, producing their work with the utmost quality, and staying ahead of the curve when it comes to our internal processes," said Steve Brown, President of CDS. "While not required by the industry, it's an important step in assuring our customers that we will deliver not only a superior product, but a superior experience."