Pitney Bowes Gets Personal
Mailers can automate production of personalized direct mail with Pitney Bowes' DocuMatch Integrated Mail System.
DocuMatch prints personalized letters and documents created in Windows-based word-processing programs with a matching envelope, adds preprinted sheets with the letter, accumulates the material, adds another insert, then folds everything. Once folded, the system inserts the mail piece into the matching envelope, seals and stacks it for metering. Any documents damaged during processing are automatically detected and reprinted.
The U.S. Postal Service has reported that 17 percent of Standard-A mail is thrown out because it looks like unsolicited mail. To better target mail pieces, DocuMatch can selectively add inserts based on a recipient's profile and interests. Pitney Bowes research suggests that DocuMatch can produce personalized mail nine times faster than by hand.
For more information, call 1-800-672-6937, program 8607.
World Color Continues to Buy
World Color Press Inc., Greenwich, CT, strengthened its direct mail capabilities last month with the purchase of Dittler Brothers Inc., Atlanta. This marked the third acquisition of 1998 for the print and digital information distributor.
Dittler Brothers specializes in the production of complex personalized direct response materials and generated revenues of $66 million last year.
“As a result of this acquisition, World Color will be the only direct mail printer capable of providing complex personalization for both short- and long-run projects,'' World Color CEO Robert Burton said in a prepared statement.
Earlier this year, World Color acquired retail insert printer Century Graphics, Omaha, NE, and digital prepress specialist Magna Graphics, Lexington, KY.
Quad Graphics Plant Fully Digital
In the first step toward achieving full digital imaging in its 13 imaging sites by the end of the year, Quad Graphics has upgraded its Saratoga Springs, NY, plant to become the industry's first web-offset printing facility to offer 100 percent digital imaging services.
The all-digital workflow encompasses digital photography, digital proofing, telecommunications and digital production plates and cylinders.
Imaging division Quad Imaging, Pewaukee, WI, has launched advertising resource centers at four sites to assist clients in the conversion to an all-digital prepress environment. Services include digital and conventional inspection and reporting, film-to-file conversion, file reception, resolution proofing, film archiving and plotting.
CCG Teams Up East, West Coasts
Communication Concepts Group is providing timely fulfillment to clients that send bills, information and direct mail by using production centers on both coasts.
Communication Concepts Inc. (CCI), Ivyland, PA, and Pacific Communications Concepts Inc. (PCCI), City of Commerce, CA, work in tandem to process more than a half-billion pieces of mail every year for clients such as Charles Schwab and BMG.
A client's database, list and postal processing is carried out in the CCG data center. Data is then sorted for bicoastal delivery and electronically transmitted for imaging and mail processing. CCI and PCCI share tracking, production management and industry scheduling systems and rely on one client manager to handle a client's entire job regardless of where the work is done.
Champion Pushes Coated Papers
Champion International Corp., Stamford, CT, has launched an advertising campaign to convince magazine and catalog publishers and advertisers of the benefits of printing on coated paper.
Champion, a manufacturer and supplier of coated paper, initiated the campaign in response to the promotion of lower-cost, uncoated paper grades by several European manufacturers. Champion says that uncoated paper does not provide the superior reproduction publishing clients demand.
Matt Nightingale, director of coated paper marketing at Champion, said coated papers offer reduced ink absorption for a higher printed gloss, less dot gain for clearer images, greater opacity and a higher bulk or heavier feel than uncoated alternatives.
AMA Chooses Quebecor
Quebecor Printing Corp., Boston, has reached an agreement with the American Management Association International (AMA) to produce books, magazines, catalogs and direct mail and provide mail and list services.
AMA, New York, chose Quebecor because of its capabilities as a single-source supplier. AMA gives educational seminars worldwide and publishes educational materials for management and related business skills. The organization has 70,000 members and serves more than 2 million customers annually.
Company News
* Printing Arts America, Westport, CT, a privately held printing company, has been formed from the merger of S&S Graphics, Washington; Printing Arts/Litho Tech, Chicago; and Nashville, TN, printers Classic Printers and American Corporate Literature. The new company is expected to generate combined revenues of $62 million this year, making it the 80th largest commercial printer in the United States.
Terry Tevis, president of R.R. Donnelley Direct, will head the company as president and CEO, and Turney Stevens, president of American Corporate Literature, will serve as chairman. The merged companies will provide digital prepress, regional sheetfed and web printing, bindery production, distribution and fulfillment services as well as database design and management.
* Rather than acquire Impact Business Services Inc., the PLM Group Ltd., Toronto, has created its own direct marketing service provider called 1:1 Inc. The PLM Group will pump $2 million into 1:1 Inc. in 1998 with additional investment planned for 1999.
PLM CEO Barry Pike said the addition of 1:1 Inc. continues PLM's strategy of being the single source for print management solutions. The resources of the PLM group of companies will allow for traditional forms of direct marketing production as well as solutions using the World Wide Web.
* Printer Consolidated Graphics Inc., Houston, TX, continued a buying spree with its acquisition of color printer Tursack Inc., Philadelphia, on April 8. Once pending deals close, Consolidated will have 36 companies with combined annual revenues of more than $365 million. Tursack will give Consolidated access to the markets of eastern Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware.
* The San Juan del Rio division of R.R. Donnelley Mexico has been awarded a contract to print Glamour en Espanol, one of the 20 largest-run magazines in Mexico. Donnelley already prints nine of the 12 largest-run magazines in Mexico.
* Envelope industry consolidator Mail-Well Inc., Englewood, CO, has acquired Blue Line Envelope, Montreal, which had 1997 sales of $6 million. The acquisition will extend the product offerings and customer base of Supremex, Mail-Well's Canadian envelope network.
* Hygrade Business Group, West Caldwell, NJ, which offers direct mail production services through its Preferred Print Services division, has agreed to purchase Merit Integrated Products, Waterbury, CT. The purchase represents the continuation of a strategy of acquiring distributors in the Northeast. Hygrade also has purchased the healthcare division of Madison Business Forms, Fairfield, NJ.
