PXP Ohio tackles databases, then digital printing presses
While other small printers have bowed to increasing competition over the past several years and either were acquired or closed down, PXP Ohio survived by shrewdly embracing new technologies (online fulfillment) while waiting for the right time on others (digital printing).
"We could have started out doing digital like so many others, but I think that's backwards," said Gene Scott, president of PXP Ohio. Instead, the company launched a Web-to-print portal in 2002 that enables its customers to visit their own branded site, design printed materials and place orders.
"We have been successful in setting up [Web-to-print portals] the way clients want them and figured out how to get smaller customers up on those kind of sites without costing them a fortune," Scott said.
PXP Ohio, Reynoldsburg, OH, has gained experience working with databases. The company's 30 personnel now include experts in database marketing.
"A lot of people put in digital presses first and then try to figure out how to work with databases; we've already been doing that," Scott added. The Nexpress 2100 Plus Digital Production Color Press installed by PXP Ohio several weeks ago has become an output device for work that the company has been doing for years and outsourcing to another printer.
The Kodak press is a versatile, high-volume digital press that can be upgraded with options to select desired paper capacity, increase processing capability and add a fifth imaging unit for delivery of spot color, watermarking and protective coating.
With its own digital press, PXP Ohio expects to offer its clients a wider variety of one-to-one marketing and print-on-demand options, both of which many have been asking for, according to Scott, who expects the typical print for the Nexpress to be about 5,000 units.
PXP works with several financial institutions that want to do more personalized direct mail, which accounts 25 percent of overall revenue. "People want to be more successful with direct mail and this is the perfect thing to help them do that," Scott said.
