With its existing equipment starting to age, Wyong label printer Mr Sticker needed a new machine that could produce high quality, four colour labels to keep up with demand.
The company was seeing profits erode because its analogue printer couldn’t turn jobs around fast enough. While Mr Sticker makes printing plates in-house, it didn’t produce film to produce the plates. This created a two-day delay while the film is outsourced before the machine is ready to print.
“We knew Mr Sticker needed to move to digital equipment so we could produce the high-quality, short-run jobs customers were demanding,” says owner/manager Michael Williams. “It was important to find a digital device that could use the same materials as our existing analogue devices so we wouldn’t have to buy specialised material.”
Mr Sticker also needed a machine able to produce in 250mm width.
The Central Coast NSW company worked with local Konica Minolta dealer TO Technology to find the right solution. TO Technology suggested Konica Minolta’s new C71cf label printer as an ideal solution but first it would need to be modified.
The machine usually produces a 330mm web width, but Konica Minolta was able to customize the printer to produce labels in a 250mm web width to meet Mr Sticker’s requirements. This is the first machine to be produced in that width globally, according to Konica Minolta.
“The quality of the labels produced by the Konica Minolta C71cf label printer is excellent and the device represents good value for money,” says Williams. “It was easy to use and we could run all the stocks we have through the press. Importantly, we knew the machine would be fully supported by TO Technology as a local provider. The parts were held locally so that, if they were required, the machine wouldn’t be down for too long, which would be costly to a small business like Mr Sticker. If there’s an issue with the printer, TO Technology can be here with parts within two hours and no other supplier could match that. That support is very important.”
Mr Sticker can now provide same-day turnaround on full-colour, short-run jobs.
“Some of the widths and lengths of labels we’re doing now, we couldn’t touch before,” says Williams. The machine we had was getting tired and we couldn’t trust that the output would deliver the required quality.
“The C71cf label printer is very easy to use and maintain, even more so than the analogue presses we have. We’ve also found it very reliable and haven’t needed to call on TO Technology for support. But it’s great to know that they’ll manage the maintenance and upkeep of the machine and we don’t have to worry about it. If something goes wrong, we know they’ll be there to fix it, so we can just concentrate on running the business.”
Mr Sticker is an Australian family-owned company established in 1980 to supply pressure-sensitive labels and specialised tags. It has grown from a single foil printing machine to a factory containing more than 10 printing machines plus ancillary equipment.