Inkjet Solutions/Productivity SoftwareCase Study

Serial entrepreneur Chuck Stempler

joined the AlphaGraphics network when

he purchased an existing franchise

operation in Seattle in 2001. Over the

years, Stempler has grown the business

into the largest AlphaGraphics franchise

in the world and is a trend leader for

the network. Today, AlphaGraphics

Seattle occupies 32,000 square feet, has

90 employees and generates annual

revenues in excess of $15 million.

AlphaGraphics Seattle has six regional

sales, design and light production offices

to augment customer services, including

an office in Los Angeles. The company

offers a wide range of services, from

offset, digital and wide-format printing,

to online ordering and a variety of

marketing services.

AlphaGraphics Seattle

3131 Elliott Avenue, Suite 100

Seattle, WA 98121

+1.206.448.9100

www.alphagraphicsseattle.com

AlphaGraphics Seattle Sets the Pace in Innovation with EFI UV Print and MIS TechnologyChallenge:

“We see the sign and display graphics business, especially in the retail segment, as a significant growth area for the future of our company.”

Chuck Stempler President and Owner

AlphaGraphics Seattle

AlphaGraphics Seattle began offering wide-format printing services in 2003 with the acquisition of a roll-to-roll aqueous inkjet printer. Over the subsequent years, as the business grew, the company continued to invest in wide format, adding latex printing capability.

As demand for wide-format output, particularly direct print on rigid materials, continued to grow, AlphaGraphics Seattle sought out a UV-curable, superwide-format solution that could deliver the level of quality its customers wanted while still having broad flexibility in the range of applications that could be produced. When looking at suppliers,

Stempler’s team had confidence in EFI™. Like many AlphaGraphics franchises, the company had used EFI PrintSmith™ business management software and EFI Fiery® digital front ends (DFEs). In 2010, the company became the first franchisee to switch from PrintSmith to the EFI Pace™ MIS platform.

Even though there is a successful track record of working with EFI, print quality was AlphaGraphics Seattle’s most important consideration in selecting a superwide-format printer.

Solution:“We are used to very high quality from our Komori offset presses,” explains Reid Baker, AlphaGraphics Seattle’s vice president of sales. “In considering the addition of another wide-format printer, we were looking for quality as close as feasible to the Komori. We also wanted to be able to easily switch between roll-to-roll and flatbed since we still have a significant amount of roll-to-roll work, but find that printing direct to rigid substrates offers the best margins.”

While AlphaGraphics Seattle already has wide-format equipment from other vendors, the company chose a 3.2m-wide EFI VUTEk® GS3250 UV inkjet printer. Baker describes the process behind the selection: “We first look at the application set, and once we are comfortable that the applications align with our culture and strategy, we absolutely want a Class A piece of equipment. The VUTEk GS3250 met all those objectives for us.”

While AlphaGraphics Seattle was the first AlphaGraphics business to install a UV inkjet printer from EFI, franchises in other parts of the country have since followed suit.

AlphaGraphics Seattle’s VUTEk GS3250 joins a host of high-end EFI technologies at the company. The printer and one of the franchise’s cut-sheet digital presses both use EFI Fiery DFEs for efficient production workflow processing. EFI Pace MIS software manages estimating, quoting and scheduling across AlphaGraphics Seattle’s six locations. The company also has created more than 100 print-ordering web sites for customers using EFI OPS web-to-print software.

Results:The new VUTEk printer helps AlphaGraphics Seattle win new business and improve profits.

“Installing the VUTEk GS3250 gave us another opportunity to educate our customers on new capabilities,” Baker says. “As a result, we are seeing

Solution:

“For wide-format printing, the default in the shop is the VUTEk. It is wider, faster, and the operators always like to use the newest equipment.”

Chuck Stempler President and Owner

AlphaGraphics Seattle

Inkjet Solutions/Productivity SoftwareCase Study

significant growth in one of our most profitable products, direct printing on rigid substrates for in-store, outdoor and point-of-sale signs and display graphics. It is not unusual for our VUTEk to be operating almost without pause as we work to meet these growing customer demands.”

Baker also reports that AlphaGraphics Seattle has been able to color match output across its digital, offset and production platform. “Often, campaigns contain components produced on multiple print technologies, and it is critical that the color matches as closely as possible across all of those platforms. Our VUTEk GS3250 has been easy to integrate into the overall color management scheme.”

White ink presents another productivity advantage. “The VUTEk lets us be much more efficient on white-ink jobs, because, unlike with other printers, we can run those jobs without having to change out our ink sets and adding white,” says Stempler.

With the expanded capacity and new applications enabled by its VUTEk GS3250, AlphaGraphics Seattle is successfully cross-selling new products to customers who purchase other types of printing from the company.

“UV-curable wide-format printing with our new EFI VUTEk GS3250 has been a boon for our business,” Baker says. “If you are printing on rigid materials and you want to get the best revenue per hour, UV-curable is the only way to go.”

While the VUTEk printer represents the latest impressive new technology for AlphaGraphics Seattle, the company’s Pace MIS “is the heart and soul of our company,” according to Stempler. Pace also puts Stempler’s business on the leading edge among AlphaGraphics franchises when it comes to using data to enhance profitability.

“We implemented Pace in 2010 and within a year or so, it had contributed $500,000 to our bottom line due to improved efficiencies and better business management capabilities,” says Stempler.

“We are more focused on the data we have available to us now, and our goal is to bring an additional $1,000,000 to our bottom line, directly attributable to the abilities Pace gives us to manage our business,” Stempler adds. “For example, we can do a better job of determining estimating flaws and finding areas for margin improvement. It will also allow us to compensate our sales force not just based on top line revenues, but on margin contribution as well.”

Results:

“We’ve been happy with EFI solutions and service. It made sense to turn to EFI when we needed to add a UV-curable wide-format printing solution.”

Reid Baker Vice President of Sales AlphaGraphics Seattle

02/27/2014

6750 Dumbarton Circle Fremont, CA 94555

650-357-3500

www.efi.com

Auto-Count, BioVu, BioWare, ColorWise, Command WorkStation, Digital StoreFront, DocBuilder, DocBuilder Pro, DocStream, EDOX, the EFI logo, Electronics For Imaging, Fabrivu, Fiery, the Fiery logo, Inkware, Jetrion, MicroPress, OneFlow, PressVu, Printellect, PrinterSite, PrintFlow, PrintMe, PrintSmith Site, Prograph, RIP-While-Print, UltraVu and VUTEk are registered trademarks of Electronics For Imaging, Inc. in the U.S. and/or certain other countries. BESTColor is a registered trademark of Electronics For Imaging GmbH in the U.S. The APPS logo, AutoCal, Balance, ColorPASS, Dynamic Wedge, EFI, Estimate, Fast-4, Fiery Driven, the Fiery Driven logo, Fiery Link, Fiery Prints, the Fiery Prints logo, Fiery Spark, FreeForm, Hagen, the Jetrion logo, Logic, Pace, Printcafe, the PrintMe logo, PrintSmith, Print to Win, PSI, PSI Flexo, Rastek, the Rastek logo, RIPChips, SendMe, Splash, Spot-On, UltraPress, UltraTex, UV Series 50, VisualCal, the VUTEk logo and WebTools are trademarks of Electronics For Imaging, Inc. in the U.S. and/or certain other countries. Best, the Best logo, Colorproof, PhotoXposure, Remoteproof, and Screenproof are trademarks of Electronics For Imaging GmbH in the U.S. and/or certain other countries. All other terms and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners, and are hereby acknowledged.

© 2014 Electronics For Imaging

Beat the competition and profit with EFI’s integrated Fiery®, VUTEk®, Jetrion®, EFI Wide Format, Print MIS and Web-to-Print solutions. Visit www.efi.com to learn more.

Why EFI?

EFI™ (www.efi.com) helps businesses worldwide bring their visions and goals to life with a scalable, digital product portfolio. Our powerful servers; controllers; RIPs; inkjet printers, and precise colour and imaging solutions help companies increase their brand recognition and market reach on signs, buildings, bus wraps, graphic displays and more. Our business automation software helps companies work faster and more cost-effectively. Our office, enterprise and mobile cloud solutions help companies create, access, and communicate impactful information that can win them more business.