Case Study
Taws Printers
Digital Print
Production print - commercial
Midlands printer
increases business 10-fold
and delivers digital print
quality indistinguishable
from litho
Since making the decision to build its digital print
capability on Ricoh production print technology, Taws, a
commercial printer in the Midlands, has increased digital
print business 10-fold. The quality and efficiency of the
Ricoh printer even allows jobs to combine both litho
and digital print which even print professionals cannot
tell apart.
Executive summary
Name:
Location:
Size:
Activity:
Taws Printers
Telford, Shropshire
30 employees
Commercial printers
Challenges
• Increasing demand from customers for high quality
digital print
• Many modern digital printers unable to deliver a high
standard output
Solution
• Ricoh production printer
Benefits
• Helps increases level of business 10-fold
• Quality of digital print so good even print buyers
cannot distinguish it from litho
• Reduces costs and improves print job efficiency
• Able to handle heavy and coated non-digital paper
stock without reducing performance
• Ricoh equipment provides simple, but excellent build
quality
Case Study Taws Printers
Besides the high quality output of the Ricoh printer, one of the
other reasons why Taws chose it against other products is its
ability to handle heavy and coated paper types without
reducing performance. Sunin Patel, Digital Manager at Taws
Printers, says, “With most of the other digital printers we
looked at they would start to slow down when printing on
coated paper. And since customers demand it, and we use a
lot of coated paper types, the fact that the Ricoh can handle
paper like this is a big advantage for us.”
To highlight the problem, the Ricoh printer has a print rate of
90ppm (pages per minute) compared to 32ppm on the old
printers. But when the old devices used coated paper the
print rates dropped to just 7ppm.
Challenges
Benefits
Taws Printers is a traditional commercial printer set up in 1973
in the Midlands providing a wide range of print services using
both lithographic and digital printing methods. The company’s
customers include both small, local businesses and large
national and international organisations and local authorities
across the UK.
“Ricoh digital printing equipment has helped Taws increase its
level of digital print business at least 10-fold,” says Patel.
“And now that it is a key part of our operation, I think that if
we didn’t have our Ricoh printer for a week, we’d be lost.”
Taws has always prided itself for remaining at the forefront of
printing technology and delivering the best quality products
and service to customers. It was one of the first printers in the
UK to use continuous printing. Equally, when demand in litho
print began to slacken and digital printing and its ability to
handle variable data started to emerge, Taws was quick to set
up a digital printing capability.
In line with its strategy to use the best technology, Taws was
looking to improve and upgrade its digital print equipment.
The company’s existing digital printers were slow, compared
to newer printers, and lacked features such automatic paper
feed which reduced speed of throughput and made them
inefficient. Also, the equipment was no longer providing the
level of print quality that Taws wanted to give to its customer
or that customers were starting to expect.
Taws did an analysis of several different production print
manufacturers and decided to build its digital printing
capability around Ricoh print technology. Today, demand on
the company’s Ricoh print equipment is large and growing –
currently around 100,000 impressions a month.
One of the stand-out features of the Ricoh printer is its ability
to produce material that is virtually identical in quality to litho
printing. Patel says, “Often on digitally printed material there
is a slightly raised feel, but with litho, and indeed the Ricoh
printer, you get a very flat, uniform print. At a recent open day
we had on display the same document printed on litho and on
the Ricoh printer and even experienced print buyers could not
tell the difference between the two.”
Patel described one job – a colour brochure – which was
printed on a litho press, but also included some pages printed
on the Ricoh digital printer. At one point in the brochure a
picture spans two pages and because of the reproduction
capability of the Ricoh printer, Taws was able to print one part
of the picture on litho and the other on the Ricoh printer. To
further underpin the integration of litho and digital print, the
quality of print from the Ricoh device has, in part, meant that
the two print methods at Taws are so interdependent that the
company does not separate digital and litho business
operations.
Solution
One of the ways in which the Ricoh printer helps Taws reduces
costs and improve efficiency is its ability to handle litho paper
stock. Instead of having to invest in and hold stock for both
litho and digital paper, the company only needs one type of
paper.
Taws was the first commercial printer in the UK to install
Ricoh’s newest range of Pro 900 professional printers. It has
recently installed the latest version of the products, the Ricoh
C901. In fact, Taws has been able to use the Ricoh to replace
two of its existing digital printers and still handle more jobs
than the old printers combined.
Another benefit of the Ricoh printer is the quality of build and
its simple design and construction. For example, Taws has a
four-hour service agreement with Ricoh in case of faults.
Should the Ricoh ever break down mid-job, staff in the Taws
print shop can replace parts themselves and have the printer
up and running in a matter of minutes.
continued overleaf
www.ricoh.co.uk
Case Study Taws Printers
Patel adds, “We’ve heard of some real horror stories of
problems with some digital printers, but with the Ricoh we
feel very lucky because the up time performance is so good.
And I think this is as a result of the technology and the
engineering of the Ricoh equipment.”
Patel has also been impressed with Ricoh support. Remotely,
Ricoh monitors the printer at Taws so that if any parts need
replacing there is advance warning and Taws can plan
servicing during a quiet period which further increases
production up time.
Joy Lunn, Head of Business Development at Taws, says, “It’s
important that commercial printers broaden their markets.
Our strategy is to offer a much wider service to clients and
digital printing plays an important part in this and the Ricoh
print solution has helped us uphold our reputation for quality
and customer service. It’s tough out there and with the
capabilities of products like the Ricoh printer, suddenly we
have more products in our portfolio. So rather than having the
door shut on our salespeople they can offer clients short run
print jobs, fast turnarounds, one off promotional items and do
so to a very high standard. That’s where Ricoh helps our
business objectives and will do so going forward.”
Ricoh Solution/Products
• Ricoh Pro C901
“Ricoh digital printing equipment has helped Taws increase its level of digital
print business at least 10-fold. And I think that if we didn’t have our Ricoh
production printer for a week, we’d be lost.”
Sunin Patel, Digital Manager, Taws Printers
www.ricoh.co.uk
2012 Ricoh UK Ltd. All rights reserved. Replication of part or all of this document requires the express written permission of Ricoh UK Ltd.