Sometimes it is advantageous to look back, select knowledge we have been given, and use that information as a summary of what we have learned. We know how much dealers value learning from what other dealers are doing to become successful in production printing. So, we decided to take a look at highlights of what we have provided our dealer audience in the production printing space.
We begin by quoting from our July/August issue of 2020, bearing in mind that this was at the peak of COVID. Allow me to share what our then editor-in-chief had to say:
- “The printing industry has transformed itself into a hotbed of innovation. If that sounds like a joke, you have not paid much attention to the past three months and even longer.”
- “What caused significant disruption to our lives has forced others to speed up ingenuity and innovation. Unlike office imaging, production print—as many individual businesses have suffered and still struggle to survive—has become a literal lifesaver in many regions.”
The article went on to point out three areas where the production print market had enabled access for many dealers:
- in-plant printing
- packaging solutions
- label printing
These are the areas that are still being advocated as potential marketing lifesavers, and our article called it six years ago. One of the first dealers we approached was Marco Technologies, as an example of what that opportunity represented. We interviewed Steve Gau, then vice president of Marco’s copier division, and Clint Dorgan, production print manager, who had taken production print from 0 to $16 million in 10 years.
Gau, who is now president of technology services at DEX Imaging, addressed it correctly. “Forget the average selling price for a production machine is $58,000. You need to sell 12 to 15 mid-range products to get the same amount of revenue and the same number of clicks.”
Gau capped that all off by saying, “If I could turn the clock back, I would have added production print to Marco Inc.’s product offering 10 years ago [in 2010].”
It was the Konica Minolta rep who encouraged Gau to hire Dorgan as their production print manager. It was a great decision.
Production printing power
We move forward to 2021, when we visited RJ Young to learn what they were doing to address what we identified as a “Production Print Power Play.” What they shared with us was an example of what production printing did to alleviate the pressure of COVID and the re-orientation of their business.
Here is what our editor, Scott Cullen, wrote at that time: “Production print represents a sizable percentage of yearly revenues—about 10% of total hardware sales and close to 17% of total aftermarket.”
We quoted Aj Baggott, who was RJ Young’s COO at that time and is now the dealership’s president. “What we lost from COVID is not coming back, at least in any material level,” Baggott said, adding, “Production is going to have to grow as a portion of our business or our business is going to decline.” Bear in mind this was March 2021, which is more than five years ago.
Moving forward we searched for our 2022 effort to address the importance of production printing. You will find it in our 2026 production print issue and determine for yourself if CEO John Lowery has met and exceeded his expectations. We asked Lowery about the advantages that production printing provides for Applied Innovation. “Production print broadens the customer base and gives you added products to sell to existing customers,” he told us. “In some instances where we sell A3 and A4 we can sell a (production) printer for the company’s CRD. The product could be light color production or monochrome, particularly in schools. We aggressively promote the cut-sheet production printers and have sold 2,000 of them.”
In this issue we also interviewed Keith Allison, now chairman of Systel Business Equipment, who had an incredibly unique approach that was nothing short of brilliant. Allow me to let him explain why we describe what Systel has done in that lofty a term. See if you do or do not agree.
We asked Allison which are his most successful selling models. As a follow-up: Which market segments have you experienced the most success with these models?
His response, “We have a significant advantage over other dealers in that we own a print shop. We made the decision to buy a commercial printer for many reasons, and it has worked out quite well. When we started our commercial printing operation in 2005, we went out over the next two years and acquired four commercial printers and merged them into our in-house operation. We maintained both the experienced personnel and customer base to set up a profitable in-house operation from the beginning.”
We are now moving forward to the 2023 September production print issue and explored a new area for production print—inkjet. He continued, “Prior to Kyocera introducing the 15000c, production was all toner based except for wide and large format. The obvious reason was the quality of the imagery with toner was superior to inkjet.”
However, what Kyocera was able to exploit was clients who were not looking for high-quality reproduction because what they wanted to present was sufficiently done with inkjet.
Kyocera made the move, and it worked. CJ Cannata and I were invited by Mr. Nori Inna in 2023 to meet with him and his team from Japan who were attending a meeting in Los Angeles. He wanted us to view this new product which had not been released yet. Frankly, I was still a little concerned that inkjet might just be limited as to what it could do. How wrong we were.
Visual Edge took that product—the TASKalfa Pro 15000c—and ran like hell with it and became Xerox’s number #1 dealer. We interviewed them to discover what enabled them to be so successful in competing against many of the largest dealers in the country. Here was their answer: “You offer color at 1½ cent per copy. In a market like education, it is an absolute winner.”
We continued to explore production print with one of the most successful production printing dealers in the business—EO Johnson Business Technologies. Dave Greene, an old friend, was president at the time and has since retired. In 2023 we wanted to explore just how deeply COVID had disrupted the world of copy and print. We had the pleasure of Greene adding to the discussion along with Jeff Reuter, director of production print.
We asked flat out how the pandemic had affected the dealerships production business.
Both Greene and Reuter reported that this segment of the business had experienced double-digit growth that was propelled by the sale of flatbed devices and digital presses in secondary markets in the United States. They also credited the growth of inkjet in wide- and large-format printers.
One of the many things we learned from these dealers was that so many brought subtle differences to their businesses that had nothing to do with the product. EO Johnson was unquestionably one of the first dealers to build their own customer experience center, and this we learned several years prior when we visited the Wisconsin dealership.
They reinforced the concept of a dealer having their own CEC. Allison accomplished that at Systel with the acquisition of four commercial printers. They were not only CECs, but they were operated by individuals who knew and were using the products they were selling to dealers. Think of each one of those commercial printers now incorporated into the Systel dealership. Those print shops are their demo areas where salespeople can bring potential customers to see the product performing by employees who are highly qualified SMEs.
Still scratching our heads in 2031?
This is an effective way to wrap up our discussion on production printing for 2026. We can honestly say that, after six years, we have more than proved our point. For dealers who are still primarily in A3 and A4 and want to increase productivity and profitability, the obvious answer lies in production printing. You can add wide format and do not forget inkjet, in addition to toner, and you are in a win-win situation.
These industry leaders we have focused on have clearly shown the way with production print. They have proven, beyond a doubt, that such diversification can generate increased revenue and profitability. And, they’ve been doing it, in many cases, for some time.
Sharp decided three years ago that they needed to enter production print. They have done so and exceeded everyone’s expectations. Kyocera has quietly increased production printing profitability. Toshiba, another newcomer, will soon be offering Xerox production product.
At the same time, Canon and Konica Minolta are offering entry means to exploit industrial production print. This year’s PRINTING United Expo should clearly show just how deep each of the manufacturers have addressed the expansion of their dealer business through production.
Most importantly there is more to come. We have not addressed textile printing in our concentration on production print. We look for Konica Minolta to lead the way to this exciting new area in industrial production and would not be surprised to see them lead the way in heading into 2032.
