As The Independent Wine Group’s business grew, they experienced problems with keeping the cost of printing wine labels in-house down without compromising on quality. The solution was to combine a managed print solution with two Fuji Xerox Printers Phaser 6360 colour laser printers.
They saw the benefits almost immediately, with an 80 percent reduction in the cost per printed page, increased customer satisfaction with colour accuracy and print quality, along with the ability to turn around last minute orders immediately by printing in-house.
Here, we look at how they slashed their printing costs and boosted productivity.
Who is The Independent Wine Group?
The Independent Wine Group (IWG) offers quality cleanskin wines to corporate customers, retailers, restaurants and for special fund raising events. Based in Melbourne, IWG has been distributing wine for 30 years and represents some of Australia’s leading wineries. In 2005, IWG expanded their business to include customised wine labelling, where they designed and labelled quality cleanskins for their customers in-house.
The challenge
The company’s growth meant its existing printers needed to be upgraded. As wine labels were not a standard paper stock, IWG had trouble finding a solution. They were presented with machines that cost up to $1million or were given the option of low-end inkjet printers that did not meet their business requirements.
John Travaglini, Director of IWG said, “We had to keep the printing of wine labels affordable so buying expensive printers was out of the question. At the same time, it was important that the wine labels met the specific colour reproduction standards of our corporate customers’ logos.”
“The cost of offset printing is exorbitant with a small print run and it adds to the production time for each job.”
IWG was conscious about the cost of consumables as their print volumes were fairly high. The volume of print in conjunction with the heavy stock used meant the imaging units of some printers had to be replaced frequently.
The solution
Having used a Fuji Xerox Printers Phaser 6300 for the past two years, John was impressed by its durability and the quality of its output. IWG approached UDG, the reseller which had provided the printer to recommend a new solution.
John said, “UDG talked to us about using PagePack, a managed print solution and we knew immediately that it was the right solution for us.”
PagePack provides customers with a fixed price per page cost model for printing in-house. Customers are only charged on a fixed cost per page irrespective of how much toner or other consumables are used.
“The cost per page with PagePack was 80 percent cheaper when compared to the cost of purchasing our own consumables and managing the device outside of the warranty period. Since a lot of our printing is done in colour, having a set page cost gave us a high level of confidence on what we would expect to pay each month.”
Being a small business, IWG had three laser printers for the printing of labels, general office administration and for the printing of delivery forms. The ability to support different forms of media and printing at a fast speed was critical to ensuring its business kept running smoothly.
UDG installed two Phaser 6360 colour laser printers at IWG and experienced no downtime.
The benefits
PagePack allowed IWG to produce high quality customised wine labels which kept IWG customers happy while maintaining low print costs.
“In the past, there have been occasions where we’ve had to reprint labels because they did not meet the exact colour specifications. With the Phaser 6360, we were blown away by the quality of the printed wine labels. We’ve had no complaints about colour accuracy or print quality from customers since the installation. The Phaser 6360 is a great workhorse. We’ve also been able to save paper because the print quality so good and consistent that we don’t have to reprint.”
John added, “Printing in-house gives us a competitive business advantage. We can now prepare almost immediately.”
The Phaser 6360s were well received by staff. Besides being easy to use, the output speed meant no one had to wait too long for a print job to be completed.
“We couldn’t have found a better partnership than with UDG and Fuji Xerox Printers. They were always available to answer any queries and to assist with any issues. I’m glad I stuck to my initial decision of not considering any other brand.”
