Not True to Forms

Variable cut-off is ideal for magazine subscription renewals and other direct mail products, which now account for 10% of BBF’s annual sales of $55 million.

Once a leading provider of business forms, BBF Printing Solutions, Largo, FL, has evolved and transformed itself. As most of the hard-printout forms market evaporated into electronic cyberspace, the company has spread its wings to add labels, direct mail and even plastic cards to its product mix.

BBF’s Direct Mail Solutions (DMS) division is using advanced printing press designs to produce more of what every one of its 5,000 customers wants: top-quality mailers printed fast and priced competitively. For the fast-paced direct marketing field, that’s a must.

Installed in early March, a new 8-color+UV Quantum 1500XP, a 21" web offset press from Sanden Machine, is exceeding expectations. “We’ve put the finished web product side-by-side with sheetfed, and customers and our press operators can’t tell the difference,” says Mike Barrett, VP of operations for BBF. He believes the quality rivals sheetfed.

“The press is a copy of a commercial press,” he adds, “from the size of the rollers and the number of form rollers to the ink train system and the ink it can put down.” The best part, says Barrett, is running 4-over-4 at such relatively high speeds. He notes that jobs with heavy ink coverage used to be an obstacle for BBF/DMS, “but we don’t shy away from them any more.”

In addition to delivering fast, high-end color, the Quantum 1500XP offers variable web widths (from 21" to 38½") and variable cut-offs (from 17" to 36")—features long familiar to a company with business forms’ roots, and ideal for the varying sizes of direct mail. Additional inline features, such as a flexo varnishing station and diecutting, help to differentiate DMS from its competitors. The magnetic diecutter option permits different perforations, special notching and blowouts on press.

“On remittance forms, triangular notches near perfs are in big demand,” Barrett says, because they yield better response rates. “There’s less tinkering with Sanden’s magnetic cylinder,” he reports. “We just slap on the die and run.” Furthermore, continuous production via automatic roll-splicer and rewinder options, along with CIP3 digital ink presets, helps to speed makereadies.

Visitors traveling near sunny Tampa for BBF’s upcoming open house (May 11-13) will see the speedy new press in action, as well as a new Trendsetter NEWS. The dual-loading setter can image two broadsheet plates in a single load cycle.

The CTP workflow, in place since January 2005, works with an Artworks/Nexus front-end. BBF’s 17 plate sizes presented a real challenge. “We worked with Creo to create templates and positions within the imagesetter,” Barrett says. “Now we’re able to run all the different plate sizes through the machine in a semi-automatic fashion.”

Apparently, the new additions in prepress and the pressroom are only the beginning. “We are now entering the biggest investment phase ever undertaken in the history of BBF,” says chairman Joe Baker, who started with the then four-year-old company in 1964, when it was still known as Better Business Forms.

Sealing the deal last fall are (from left): Tom Reeder, DMS VP of sales; Scott Justus, Sanden regional VP; Mike Barrett, BBF VP of operations; and Doug Justus, Sanden sales director.

In 2004, the company reorganized into four divisions based on the markets each serves: Direct Mail Solutions, Document Solutions, Label Solutions and Plastic Card Solutions. Their combined 210,000-sq.ft. facility houses some two dozen presses, including six other UV webs—mostly older 4- and 6-color Harris models adapted for UV—that run direct mail.

Three Mark Andy 2200 UV flexo presses, installed simultaneously three years ago, run 6-, 8- and 10-color pressure-sensitive labels, as do four other flexos.

Also in 2002, BBF added a 28", 6-color Komori Lithrone with UV. Along with a Sakurai silkscreen press, the Komori sheetfed is used exclusively to produce thin- and thick-mil plastic cards (from 15 to 30 mil), with and without magnetic stripes, signature panels and personalization. The document division reproduces health-care and financial statements on 2-color Hamada and Ryobi duplicators.

As part of his promotion to VP in February, Barrett is now responsible for overseeing DMS’ sales initiatives, as well as production. BBF literally is a single source under one roof, offering offset and label products in roll, fan-folded and sheeted configurations. Many jobs require more than one component—for example, plastic cards and labels that go together. Nonetheless, the company has learned the hard way that it can’t be all things to all customers.

“We were asking 20-year forms salespeople to go out and sell labels, which are a much more technical sell,” says Barrett.

So, along with operations, its 60-person sales force is being segmented according to product lines. “We’re also expanding in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions,” he says.

At around $2.5 million, the new Sanden press represents the single largest investment in BBF’s history. The deep pockets of its parent company, the $800-million Clondalkin Group (GAM 101 #16) are helping to finance the iron.

Clondalkin of Dublin, Ireland, acquired BBF in 1989. With U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia, Clondalkin ranks among the world’s Top 20 printing conglomerates, employing more than 4,000 people at some 40 print sites.

If sales and ROI go as planned at BBF/DMS, the company hopes to buy another Sanden press within 18 to 24 months. “We’re thinking about a 10-color,” Barrett says optimistically.

>> To learn more, visit these companies online at:
www.sandenusa.com, www.creo.com, www.hamada.co.jp, www.komori-america.us, www.ryobi-group.co.jp, www.sakurai.com