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USAJossimo Print t/a MinuteMan Press
Jossimo Print t/a MinuteMan Press
“I love talking Plockmatic!” – Simon Crabtree, Owner MMP Melbourne locations Simon is the owner of three Minuteman Press locations in Melbourne; Knox, Glen Waverly and Hawthorn. We recently had a chat about his business and where Plockmatic has been an important chapter in his story. I was also able to spend some time talking to his production manager Mel Shilland, who has worked for Simon for the past 9 years.
“Plockmatic got us started, and helped us grow”
The reason I wanted to talk to Simon was that he has been a long-time user of the Plockmatic range and as he states, “Plockmatic got us started, and helped us grow”. I have worked with Simon for many years and after having this discussion I came away with a better understanding of the breadth of his business and how Plockmatic has played such an integral role.
Simon did not come from traditional print, but rather the call centre industry. He came into the MMP franchise with a fresh sense of wonder and a keen drive to succeed. The first store for Simon opened in 2009 at Glen Waverly. Here he got into his first Plockmatic BM2000 in 2012 configured with a 510ACF collator/ feeder. He added a BM2000S stitch head model in 2014. He still uses that system today for many booklet jobs.
“inline bookletmaking changed my world!”
In 2015, Simon added the Knox location to his franchise bailiwick. This also was where Simon added a Fuji Xerox C800 with Plockmatic Pro50, their Kirst Plockmatic inline bookletmaker. Mel tells me, “inline bookletmaking changed my world!” This gave them the opportunity to produce books at printer speed and deliver to the customer sooner while saving two hours of binding time.
In 2016, another FX printer was added, this time the C1000 with a Pro50 inline. However, the BM2000S was still used for jobs that were printed on other sources or needed to be combined with other print. Even though the 510ACF can feed pre-collated sets, they have found that their workflow works best as individual sheets. Meaning, they print all the pages, then load the 510ACF to collate the sets into the BM2000S.
In 2017, Simon adds the Hawthorn location as a satellite store and purchases a KM1 press for the Glen Waverly store. The B2 sheet size meant much of the bookletmaking needed to be done offline. Most of that work goes into a new Horizon Stitchliner, but the BM2000S still takes on many offline bookletmaking jobs.
“I love SquareFold, it is absolutely amazing!”
And last year he added some Ricoh printers to the mix, one of them a 9210 with inline PBM500. As with the Pro50’s, Mel and her team Kind that inline bookletmaking offers the ability to produce books as they print. This saves time and cost, providing the customer with a quality booklet on demand. The Plockmatic SquareFold process has also given these MinuteMan Press stores the difference in the market to stand out. “I love SquareFold, it is absolutely amazing!”, is what Mel tells me. Producing books with SquareFold gives a perfect bound look for a fraction of the cost and time. It also allows for printing on the spine and easy handling when the books are complete.
With so many options to produce print within the group, the hand feed capability of the PBM500 has been beneficial. During my visit to review the operation, I witnessed the operators running the Ricoh 9210 with PBM500 at the same time hand feeding a booklet job with cover that had a fold out on the inside of the cover. This job would be difficult on many finishers, but easily produced by the unique function of the hand feed on the Plockmatic inline bookletmaker.
Producing over 15,000 books per month keeps Simon and his team quite busy. Typical applications range from Marketing brochures to perfect bound novels. The substrate range is from 80-350 gsm, however most jobs would have 128gsm body stock and a 300gsm cover. The benefit of the 50-sheet version of the inline Plockmatic bookletmaker is the ability to easily bind stocks of heavier weight, including textured substrates. Many books that may have been traditionally done by perfect binding, can now be done at the same time as printed with the PBM500.
At the time of this publication, Simon was looking at the Plockmatic BM5050s, our newest addition to the bookletmaking stable. This model is an industry first, able to produce landscape A4 books up to 50 sheets with up to 4 stitch heads. One of the reasons this model is attractive to Simon, is that the Horizon Stitchliner that is capable of making landscape A4, cannot produce SquareFold books. Since Simon’s teams typically produce SquareFold on the many Plockmatic devices, their customers have become accustomed to the quality finish and expect it on all jobs they produce. In the meantime, Simon has added an offline Plockmatic BM500 with vacuum feeder and an additional Ricoh printer with PBM500 inline. Plockmatic is happy to be part of their success!
