Ricoh USA, Inc. announced that Polaris Direct is partnering with Ricoh to offer the RICOH Pro C7210X and RICOH Pro C9200 color sheet-fed production printers. The collaboration to build Polaris Direct’s cutsheet print operation from the ground up took place over the course of a single year, and the commercial printer is now a top postcard vendor, printing and finishing millions of postcards per month entirely in-house with Ricoh solutions.
“Ricoh understands our business, our customers’ needs and our longer-term strategy. They took a holistic approach that started with an initial assessment of our unique workflow to understand our challenges and goals, then built a comprehensive solutions package that most effectively addressed those needs,” said John Strand, director of operations, Polaris Direct. “They helped position us to not only secure business in an area that was new to us, but to keep up with the future demand we envisioned for ourselves as business continued to grow. It’s very much a relationship based on mutual trust, and the fact that it all took place during the global pandemic speaks to the amount of support we have with Ricoh in even the most difficult times.”
Polaris Direct is a full-service lettershop and printing company based in Hooksett, New Hampshire specializing in high-volume direct mail processing for Fortune 500 companies and direct marketing agencies. The company integrates innovative resources and patented technologies into 1:1 marketing campaigns to provide its print clients maximum ROI.
Since investing in a RICOH Pro C7210X one year ago to jump-start its sheetfed applications, Polaris Direct has subsequently acquired two RICOH Pro C9210s and leveraged Ricoh’s professional services offerings and workflow assessment expertise to keep up with the high demand this move has generated. The company also worked with Ricoh’s finishing experts to install the Rollem Jetstream XY Slitting machine, further enabling a complete end-to-end operation in-house. The Rollem Jetstream converts 3 or 4-up postcard sheets in one process with precise cutting accuracy on all four sides of the sheet, helping deliver unparalleled finishing.
“Our collaboration with Polaris Direct is founded on an enormous testament of trust built during a challenging and uncertain time in the midst of the global pandemic, which impacted our ability to communicate face-to-face and to predict what the market might do next,” said Derrick Rankin, national director, Professional Services Organization, Ricoh USA, Inc. “We moved quickly to assemble the right team in record time to assess Polaris Direct’s operation and recommend solutions and services that would best support their business and their customers’ future success, which is the number-one priority.”
Designed for commercial printers, service bureaus and enterprise in-plant operations, the five- and four-station RICOH Pro C7200 Series and Pro C9200 color sheet-fed production printers offer superb image quality, oversize print options and diverse media choices for a wide variety of applications. The presses offer advanced workflows and performance-enhancing capabilities to reliably meet deadlines and keep up with evolving customer requirements while minimizing operational costs.
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