Customer Success Story: Arte Grafica
When Ennio Cavaiuolo started a printing company in his home in 1967, he couldn’t have foreseen the technological and business changes that would see Arte Grafica grow to a multi-award winning printing business. Today, Ennio shares his business with his son, Tony, and his daughter-in-law, De’Arne.
The business continues to uphold its key principles: to provide high-quality, large-format printing at competitive prices. Arte Grafica prides itself on fast turnaround, with staff doing whatever it takes to get the job done.
With exceptional full-colour A1-size printing capabilities, Arte Grafica also has a smaller A2 full-colour press and an in-house finishing line, delivering flexibility for any large-format job.
Summary
“Konica Minolta demonstrated a level of professionalism and technical competence that made us very confident they could deliver. The C8000 printer was an obvious choice and it performed extremely well.”
– Tony Cavaiuolo, director, Arte Grafica
The Challenge
Recent trends towards on-demand printing and electronic publishing meant Arte Grafica had to turn down more jobs than ever. The company didn’t have the equipment to deliver digital printing jobs, despite a growing number of customers requesting projects that were small, urgent, and low-cost.
Tony Cavaiuolo, director, Arte Grafica, said, “Competing with online printers was difficult and we were getting more and more requests. We needed to purchase a new, digital machine to satisfy demand or risk losing customers.”
As a result, Arte Grafica purchased a Konica Minolta C8000 device, which let them compete with other digital printers.
Tony Cavaiuolo said, “We had enough business to warrant purchasing a digital machine. 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, attracting more clients, and giving us more opportunity to expand the business. Not only did we have the same clients giving us more work, we also had more clients coming in, both large and small.”
The Solution
When searching for its first digital printer, Arte Grafica attended the trade show PrintEx. Konica Minolta was the only organisation at the show that could provide the information and samples needed to help the company select the right printer.
Tony Cavaiuolo said, “Konica Minolta demonstrated a level of professionalism and technical competence that made us very confident they could deliver. The C8000 printer was an obvious choice and it performed extremely well.
“When the volume of work got so big we needed to upgrade, we looked no further than Konica Minolta’s latest machine. We chose 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 production saddle stitch finisher from Konica Minolta can handle up to a 200 page/50 leave booklet and trim. It achieves speeds up to 100 ipm with outstanding colour reproduction and registration stability. The bizhub PRESS C1100 has been engineered for round-the-clock operation, routinely delivering up to one million impressions per month. This makes it an ideal solution for companies looking for high productivity, superb image quality, and reliability.
Customer Benefits
The first print job Arte Grafica ran on the new bizhub PRESS C1100 was 500 high-quality, finished in-line saddle stitched books.
Tony Cavaiuolo said, “From the beginning we were impressed with the new printer’s output quality and productivity. It was impossible to tell the difference between the first booklet and the last booklet.
“The improvements in printing half-tones and screens, which are traditionally difficult to produce on digital presses, was beyond our expectations.”
Importantly, having the new bizhub PRESS C1100 on board has delivered strong business benefits for Arte Grafica, due to its speed, reliability, and consistency.
Tony Cavaiuolo said, “Speed and quality is the key to keeping up with the trend towards on-demand printing and electronic publishing. This new machine is significantly faster than our previous printer, from its short warm-up time to its consistent output rate.”
“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, which frees up staff to get on with more value-added work. All of these benefits contribute directly to the bottom line.”
Konica Minolta’s outstanding customer service was critical to Arte Grafica. The company’s fast response times and willingness to help have set the bar high.
Tony Cavaiuolo said, “Customer service is extremely important to Arte Grafica and Konica Minolta absolutely excels at delivering outstanding customer service. If there is an issue then a technician is here within a few hours, or else someone is available to speak with us on the phone so we can get back up and running faster.
“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.”
“Konica Minolta demonstrated a level of professionalism and technical competence that made us very confident they could deliver. The C8000 printer was an obvious choice and it performed extremely well.
– Tony Cavaiuolo, director, Arte Grafica
