The benefits of print on demand

ASK Print in Bury St Edmunds is capitalising on the growing market for print-on-demand books and presentation material with a suite of new in-line finishing equipment specified to work alongside its Konica Minolta bizhub Pro C6500 digital production printer. Short runs of books (print on demand) can be finished with a choice of hard or soft back covers using a Fastbind Casematic manually operated table top cover maker and an Elite perfect binder and consumables, supplied by Ashgate Automation. “Until fairly recently, it was impossible to source equipment that would allow us to finish runs of anything from one to a thousand books with printed hard covers, cost effectively and to the quality that previously could only have been achieved by a trade binder,” explains Trevor Elmer, director of print. “The introduction of the Fastbind equipment has been quite revolutionary because it really adds value to our finishing and has opened up a lot of new and profitable opportunities. It’s very affordable, easy to operate with minimal training. and complements our Konica Minolta digital printers.” For hard backs, the cover paper is printed onto a self-adhesive outer sheet and can be laminated for durability. The Casematic mounts this onto cover and spine boards. The finished cover is then bound onto the printed pages using the Fastbind Elite hot glue perfect binder. “In the past companies probably wouldn’t have thought it possible to personalise and bind their Powerpoint and other sales presentations, but it adds that wow factor,” Mr Elmer points out. He also cites the potential for self-published books, including one that his company handled about a Second World War US Air Force base in East Anglia. “The author had arranged a tour for some comrades to visit the airfield and we reprinted and personalized each copy as a memento for them,” he says. “Another customer came to us with a very old book. There were only two copies in print and he had one of them. We were able to reproduce hardbound facsimile copies to an excellent standard. We have printed and bound cookery books in Polish, and a poetry book, which is to be marketed here and, in the United States. Our biggest contract has been for 1,000 books with the customer calling off 100-150 copies per month. Depending upon the order, we can finish them with either a hard or soft cover. I am sure that this is the tip of the iceberg and that there will be a lot more creative opportunities once people realise what we can do.” Mr Elmer previously ran his own independent print company in Bury St Edmunds, which was acquired last year by one of his major customers, the ASK Group, and re-branded Ask Print. This enabled the company to order the new finishing equipment and the C6500 printer. ASK is a business-to-business services company offering marketing, branding and graphic design, web and other related activities “It was a marriage made in heaven,” said Trevor. “I was at a crossroad because I had to make a decision to invest in new equipment to take the company forward. ASK, a dynamic, fast-growing group, had the capital to invest in us and realised the benefits of offering an in-house print service alongside their other services.” The group also provides branding and graphic design, telemarketing, translation and interpreting, website design and optimisation and e-commerce services. ASK Print is an all-digital print operation and stresses the environmental benefits of this on its website – no plates or chemistry and little waste. While the short-run book side is important, it will handle any type of short run print from business cards through to magazines and newsletters, and also offers variable-data work such as mailmerge and mailing services. ASK Print a KAS bookletmaker with on-line trimmer, a KAS CreaseMatic semi-automatic creasing and perforating machine, a Horizon folder and a Renz wire binder. “Although our new Konica Minolta has online finishing and saddle stitching, we need the increased productivity from the standalone finishing equipment because we finish a wide range of material from booklets, newsletters and brochures to invitations, menus, cards, calendars and books,” explains Mr Elmer. “It’s proving very good value for money and the service from Ashgate is excellent.” A second bizhub Pro C6500 is now on order for Ask, this time in a print-only configuration without online finishing.