New Cutter Installed at Teleflora's In-plant

With only a few weeks before his industry’s busiest day of the year — Mother’s Day — David Graham needed to upgrade the finishing department of Teleflora’s in-plant operation in Oklahoma City. Teleflora has been connecting customers with the nation’s best florists for more than 81 years and has over 11,000 member florists throughout the U.S. and Canada.

A few calls and some online research led to a conversation with Colter & Peterson’s Bruce Peterson, who had the right machine for Teleflora’s operation. When the Dscoop digital printing conference in San Antonio concluded on April 16, a Prism P80 30˝ paper cutter with a Microcut automated back gauge system was shipped to the in-plant.

“We used a Procut paper cutter for 18 years and needed a more accurate piece of equipment,” said Graham, director of occupancy and safety and head of the printing services division. “I did some research and the advisers we worked with recommended the Prism. I liked what I saw and I’m amazed at its size. I knew it had a small footprint, and that’s a good thing since our shop has eight-foot ceilings. The installer did a fabulous job, trained our people and made it a very smooth transition for us.”

Graham manages a four person in-plant that handles much of the printing and finishing work for the company’s office staff, the sales support team in the field, and many customized marketing materials for their member florists.

“At any given moment we are doing jobs for all three groups. You name it and we have printed it,” explained Graham. His 3,000 square-foot operation is mostly digital, with Konica Minolta color and black-and-white presses handling the bulk of the work. But he still puts several A.B.Dick Ryobi one- and two-color duplicators to work on a regular basis for booklet printing.

“We probably cut a fraction of what larger companies do, but we’ve been using the Prism every day since it was installed the last week of April,” continued Graham. “We cut a lot of business cards and publications. The directory is printed four times a year and we do other publications. All of them get trimmed down to 11x17˝. The average is 15,000 per run and we mail it to all Teleflora members. When you take into account the brochures, letterhead, newsletters, folders, certificates, training materials, new member kits and everything else, plus the different sizes involved, it was absolutely the right time to upgrade to the Prism.”

Colter & Peterson was exhibiting at Dscoop for the first time and had the Prism work in tandem with HP Indigo’s Direct-to-Finish finishing automation for digital operations. The Prism was demonstrated with a Microcut PLUS WS program, which improves productivity by as much as 50% or more since it instantly recalls pre-set cutting sequences. By automatically placing the back gauge blade into position, the Prism delivers highly accurate cuts within 1/64th of an inch.

The automation factor was an attractive feature to Graham with his small staff. Everyone is trained to operate the Prism, but with the computerized program his pre- and post-press operator and press operator are able to do other tasks at the same time.

“We are really happy so far and haven’t experienced any issues with the cutter,” said Graham. “In the past we always used local people to service our equipment, but that concern was immediately assuaged when we had a question. Colter & Peterson quickly responded with step-by-step directions and things have worked out well.”