Digital Press Brings New Business to Iowa In-plant

Todd Palmer shows off his in-plant’s second Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C7000, which has helped the shop bring in more outside print work.

While some print shops’ volumes are decreasing each year, Todd Palmer, print shop coordinator for the Johnston, Iowa-based Iowa Bankers Association (IBA), has managed to increase output year over year.

Four years ago, IBA began bringing in work from other banks, as well as some additional outside work, and was able to increase its workload to the point where one Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C7000 and a Xerox J75 — installed in 2015 when the shop shut down its Ryobi 3304 offset press and went all digital — could no longer handle the work, even though both were running nonstop. The shop added a second C7000 with a booklet maker, which is now dedicated to the growing external work that the in-plant is bringing in.

“Our first year, we did about $8,000 in outside printing. The second year was about $15,000. Last year was $55,000. And this year we’ll probably be over $100,000,” Palmer reports.  

The shop has brought in so much more work, in fact, that Palmer is even considering adding a third employee to the two-person in-plant.

The addition of the second C7000 has increased the shop’s productivity. Prior to the new addition, all of the printing that was done for local customers had a two- to three-day turnaround — even though one to two days was the desired turnaround time. Sometimes, Palmer explains, when the J75 and first C7000 were running in-house work, it would be days before the shop could get to its outside customers’ work.

For example, if IBA is in the process of printing its bimonthly 48-page newsletter — which takes approximately four days to complete and goes out to banks, members of the association, vendors and more — or one of the various brochures for IBA’s workshops and events, such as the consumer lending school, then Palmer is able to monopolize one of the C7000s and the J75 exclusively for that work, leaving open the new machine for any outside work that comes up.

The pre-owned C7000 was purchased from Infomax, the distributor from which IBA bought its first C7000. However, Infomax was no longer distributing Konica Minolta equipment, so when a marketing firm that had only used the digital press for 150,000 copies returned the equipment at the end of its lease, Infomax offered the practically new C7000 to IBA at the low price of $12,000.

“It was a no-brainer,” Palmer says.

Though he would love to add an even more productive digital press, Palmer says there’s not enough room. Despite being remodeled recently — pressroom chemicals had leaked onto the sealed concrete floor, so it was replaced — the shop is still too small to fit an additional device without trading in one of the C7000s.

Otherwise? “It would be tight,” Palmer laughs.