In-plants produce creative wide-format inkjet applications, generate big profits

By Chris Bauer

Hershey Wraps More than Candy

In 2009, the staff at The Hershey Company’s in-plant used its wide-format printing capabilities to transform an old Isuzu box truck into a work of art. That project led the in-plant to start insourcing jobs wrapping vehicles, says Bob Wamsher , manager of Printing Services at the Hershey, Pa.-based in-plant.

The candy company’s in-plant is home to a pair of 60˝ Canon wide-format printers used for indoor materials, and a Roland XC540 that produces outdoor materials such as vinyl banners and vehicle wraps. The shop has been doing wide-format work in-house for about eight years.

“We have an interesting project coming up,” Wamsher confides. “The company bought eight totally electric cars and we will be wrapping them in a theme to show the public what the cars are and how they will be used.”

The in-plant works in conjunction with the company’s marketing department and an in-house designer to come up with new ways to use the wide-format equipment. Hershey has its own retail stores around the country, and the in-plant produces work for the various locations, including in-store signage and window decorations, Wamsher says.

He notes that sign printing is the fastest-growing area of the in-plant, and he has plans to install a flatbed printer to create jobs directly on foam board, which will eliminate labor and costs involved in mounting.

The shop has received a lot of positive customer feedback about its wide-format projects, Wamsher contends.

“A lot of people in the company didn’t even know we had these capabilities,” he says. “So the more we do, the more the word gets out there, and it is good publicity for our shop.”

The 2011-2012 college basketball season was an exciting time on the campus of Murray State University, in Murray, Ky. The Murray State Racers were the last undefeated Division I team in the nation, and people were beginning to take notice.

"I was watching a game one night on television and thought it would be fun if we had those fatheads at our games," recalls Sherry McClain, director of Print Media at Murray State. Fatheads are oversized printed likenesses of various athletes or public figures.

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