Case Study: Little Rock Printing

New production printing solution drives sustainability and immediate ROI, saving at least $4,000 per month on energy and increasing sales volume by 15%.

About our customer

Based in Calgary, Little Rock Printing opened its doors 30 years ago. It has remained current and evolved to a 100% online shop with the vision to be the best e-commerce print solution in North America. Their philosophy means delivering the best customer service, and high-quality in-house printing with low minimums, fast turnarounds, and flexibility. They even offer free sample prints for customers to pick the right paper or color match online.

“The RICOH Pro C9500 is a much simpler press to operate with more capabilities. It uses less electricity, less resources, less space, produces better products, has better uptime and it’s more reliable. It hit all the checkmarks for us. We've been thrilled with the full transition over to Ricoh.”
— Brian Kroeker
President
Little Rock Printing

Challenge

Excellent customer service and quality printing at a fair price.

Older non-Ricoh printer with higher print costs and growing downtime
Two different output devices, difficult to match output for large runs or back up one another
High energy costs
Wanted to grow customer base from 8,000 to 20,000

Little Rock Printing, a successful print shop that sells 100% of orders online — with 100% of those orders time-sensitive — wanted to ensure they could keep their promise of excellent customer service and quality printing at a fair price. To do this, they needed a top-of-the-line production printing solution that was more reliable, flexible, fast and produced high-quality output. And, it was important to the company that any new equipment leave a smaller carbon footprint with eco-friendly features.

Solution

Modernized equipment with two matched RICOH Pro C9500 Color Sheet-Fed digital presses

To meet their criteria, the Ricoh team recommended the Pro C9500 Color Sheet-Fed Printer for their primary production presses. This top-tier system is built to scale growth, increase operational efficiency, and achieve exceptional and consistent color with accurate front-to-back registration.

Before, their older competitive machine required venting and pumped out a lot of air, so the shop had to run their humidifiers full blast during business hours, which expended a lot of energy. With the new Ricoh digital presses requiring less power to operate and no venting, their humidifiers ran less and saw an immediate drop in energy usage.

“Being more sustainable is more than just feeling good; we’re saving money and becoming more efficient,” said Brian. The Pro C9500 machines are saving the shop about $3,000 to $4,000 per month in utilities, which is considerably more than expected.

Results

Higher quality and consistent output
Immediate ROI by cutting costs up to $4,000 per month in electricity
Increased production while reducing paper waste due to fewer errors and higher accuracy
Achieved a 20% spread: increased sales by 15% and cut waste by 5%
Faster turnaround times

Since Little Rock Printing began using the new digital presses, they have increased their sales volume by 15% and can still accommodate more customers. Between higher sales, energy savings and less waste, the company achieved a fast return on investment within the first month, with savings starting on Day 1. Customers are happy that turnaround times are faster for jobs. And, because of these benefits, Little Rock Printing’s carbon footprint is smaller, making the world a better, more sustainable place.

To learn more about how production printing solutions like the RICOH Pro C9500 can help your business grow, speak with a representative.

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