Adare Limited has recently completed the final part of a comprehensive upgrade to enable it to deliver its 'Essential Communications Solutions' strategy. The investment has seen the company install a total of six Ricoh InfoPrint® high volume continuous-feed digital presses over the past 12 months into its Huddersfield production facility. Four InfoPrint® 4100s joined an incumbent InfoPrint® 5000 General Production Platform (GP) in October 2013, with another two InfoPrint® 5000 GPs joining the impressive production line-up early this year.
Says Barry Crich, Managing Director, Adare Limited: "The installation of the four InfoPrint® 4100s and two additional InfoPrint® 5000 GPs completes an important stage of a wide-ranging investment strategy for Adare Limited.
It has provided us with a print production facility that meets the highest standards of versatility, quality and performance. Adare Limited is focused on providing Essential Communications Solutions and our aim is to take our customers' communications and consistently deliver them with the greatest added value across multiple integrated channels from print to the web, email and SMS.
"The new Ricoh machines sit at the centre of this operation as an anchor for a range of integrated and cross media solutions for customer marketing and communications including invoicing and statements, precision marketing and customer acquisition, retention and loyalty campaigns to enhance customer engagement and minimise attrition. Their productivity provides us with the capacity to enhance our workflow efficiencies, grow the business, as well as meet, and indeed, exceed the expectations of our customers' SLAs."
Adare Limited provides Essential Communications Solutions to private and public sector clients who need to control the cost, quality and efficiency of their printed and electronic communications. It specialises in the production of business critical communications such as Transactional Mail. Its comprehensive range of solutions ensures legal compliance, regulatory adhesion and the management of complex data-driven, fully variable messaging. Adare Limited is part of the Adare Group, a £170 million global leader in Marketing and Secure Communication solutions.
Continues Barry Crich: "Big data is everywhere today, but it needs to be effectively managed to maximise its value and take the complexity out of the process. The 'clean and lean' processing coupled with intelligent and efficient management of complex data is where our experience and heritage at Adare Limited comes to the fore. But, once you are able to manage the data, you also need to ensure the means of output can match this, to add real value and enable cross-selling and precision marketing to achieve real, targeted customer interaction and engagement.
"The productivity demands in this market are very high, requiring on many occasions, ultra- short turnaround times, but without compromising on quality. As a result, printing technology that is robust and totally reliable is non-negotiable. The overall capabilities of both the 4100s and the 5000s including their colour consistency and quality, even at the highest volume production, are simply outstanding."
The Ricoh InfoPrint® 4100 Advanced Function Printing System has been designed to meet the requirements of digital publishers and transactional printers. These continuous form, monochrome printers produce a level of image and text quality traditionally associated with cut-sheet solutions, on an extensive range of papers. In addition, the InfoPrint® 4100 provides one of the highest speeds currently available for electro-photographic printers – as a result, users can increase output volume with fewer devices and less operator time. MICR capability adds the flexibility to run all applications on the same production platform at maximum throughput.
The Ricoh InfoPrint® 5000 General Production Platform (GP) is designed for environments with ultra-tight time demands, requirements for diverse media and the most stringent colour quality. A highly versatile platform, the InfoPrint® 5000 GP prints full-colour at up to 128 meters/min (1724 A4 impressions/min) and offers optional integrated or on-demand MICR for colour or monochrome jobs, with the production speed of all models able to be upgraded in the field. The GP range benefits from PANTONE® PLUS certification and improved accuracy of print job estimates and ink usage through the IP500 Ink Suite, as well as accurate, consistent, device-independent output thanks to built-in Advanced Function Presentation™ (AFP™) and native PDF print architecture.
To complement the new print hardware installation, Adare Limited has also implemented Ricoh's Process Director Software to streamline print workflow and provide closed loop document integrity. In addition, Ricoh's Productivity Tracker software provides live information on all aspects of the print system's performance for improved efficiency and real time management information across the whole continuous feed print facility.
Martyn Viquerat, Sales Director at Adare Limited says "Adare Limited is a business that is completely focused on technology-led change and this is an ethos mirrored in Ricoh's own approach to its business". He continues: "We believe Ricoh is a real thought leader in the fields of continuous form and transaction printing. They have a clear development path for new products and want to work closely with customers on new product innovations. For example, Adare Limited has a presence on the Ricoh User Council, which is made up of customers and Ricoh representatives. And, while all manufacturers have some level of interaction with customers, we believe this Council is quite unique in a number of aspects."
"The User Council helps advise on the development of future Ricoh products to ensure they are aligned with customers' needs and where the market is going. These Councils engage customers at the highest strategic level, and I have no doubt they have actively contributed to the success of Ricoh's products in the marketplace. It is a great initiative and one we're very pleased to be involved with. Ricoh and its people are at the heart of technology, and that's great to be part of."
Says Gareth Parker, Strategic Marketing Manager, Ricoh UK: "We do not underestimate the significance of this investment in Ricoh technology from Adare Limited and it is a powerful confirmation of the ability of our products to deliver at the highest level. With four InfoPrint® 5000 GPs and four InfoPrint® 4100s, this production facility is a major Ricoh print technology house, and we're very proud of that fact. Adare Limited is a company that is committed to leading the way in the industry in terms of technology-led change. We are extremely pleased to be a part of their continued investment to ensure they always maximise production efficiencies and consistently add value and new innovations to customer communications. This is clearly a key ingredient to their success in what is a highly competitive and fast-changing commercial environment."
