A decision to buy a Konica Minolta digital printer at the Printex trade show produced a dramatic lift in business at family-run Adelaide printer Arte Grafica.
“We had been competing with online printers and it was becoming difficult and we were getting more and more requests,” said manager Tony Cavaiuolo, whose father Ennio, managing director, started the company out of his home in 1965 and now shares the business with Tony and daughter-in-law De’Arne.
The trend towards on-demand printing and electronic publishing meant that award-winning Arte Grafica was being forced to turn down an increasing number of jobs. The company didn’t have the equipment to deliver digital printing jobs to a growing number of customers whose projects were often small, urgent, and low-cost.
“We decided we had purchase a digital machine to satisfy demand or we’d risk losing customers,” said Cavaiuolo, who headed to Printex in Sydney and walked onto Konica Minolta’s stand.
“Konica Minolta provided the information and demonstrated a level of professionalism and technical competence that made us very confident they could deliver,” said Cavaiuolo. “The C8000 printer was an obvious choice and it has performed extremely well. Once we had that machine in place, the demand just skyrocketed. Without even trying, we managed to triple our business in that market. Having a digital machine gave us the ability to do a wider variety of jobs and attract more clients.
“When the volume of work got so big that we needed to upgrade again, we chose Konica Minolta’s latest machine, the bizhub PRESS C1100, because it offered in-line saddle stitch finishing. It’s a faster printer, the colours are better, and it runs consistently no matter what stock you’re using."
The first print job Arte Grafica ran on the bizhub PRESS C1100 was 500 high-quality, finished in-line saddle stitched books.
“From the beginning, we were impressed with the new printer’s output quality and productivity,” Cavaiuolo said. “Because this printer costs us less to own and run, we can make a little more margin on each job. And because it’s fast, we can do more jobs in the same amount of time. A real highlight is the fact that we no longer have to take jobs from one machine to the next to finish them. We used to have to hand-collate jobs. Now, the bizhub PRESS C1100 finishes everything.”
Konica Minolta’s customer service has been critical, according to Cavaiuolo. “Customer service is extremely important to Arte Grafica and Konica Minolta absolutely excels at delivering outstanding customer service," he said. “When we originally switched over from the old machine to the bizhub PRESS C1100, we quoted for a job that was due to be completed on the new machine. Due to some timing issues, the new machine wasn’t in place, so Konica Minolta completed the job for us on the new machine while it was still in the showroom. That kind of support means we can deliver a better, faster service for our customers, which is what we’re all about.”
Arte Grafica is located at 73 Magill Road, Stepney, South Australia 5069.