High-Tech Upgrades Help Profit-Focused Finishers Meet Customer Needs and Capture New Business
"Finishers that want to grow have to be increasingly technically flexible if they are to respond effectively to customer needs. Companies that don’t move in that direction soon lose their financial health and inevitably become as extinct as the dinosaurs."
That’s how Karen DeMaio, president of 21st Century Finishing, Inc., describes the importance to finishers of having a firm commitment to meeting customer requirements through continual upgrading of their technical capabilities. 21st Century Finishing, a diversified, high-end finishing company located in Saddlebrook, NJ, has implemented a tech upgrade program which has dramatically expanded its customer base and increased sales by approximately 70% in each of the past three years. The company has substantially grown its business with established customers, while also securing sizeable chunks of good business from add-on accounts. Last year more than 60 new customers came on board.
21st Century Finishing specializes in die-cutting, embossing, foil stamping, folding/gluing, automatic inserting, hot stamping, sheet and web forms and a range of other finishing operations for the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and packaging industries. The firm produces such diverse projects as book covers, checks and gift certificates, brochures, CD mailers, folding cartons, greeting cards, invitations and holograms. 21st Century Finishing has quickly evolved from a small shop with restricted capabilities to a well-respected major player in the highly-competitive finishing industry. Much of the company’s success is due to the customer-conscious, market-savvy leadership of its president, Karen DeMaio, as well as the 29 years of press and production expertise of James Ramirez, the firm’s Vice President of Operations.
Technically Flexible And Multi-Dimensional
"We started out as a small business and reasonably soon were able to achieve a reputation for being reliable and doing quality work,” states DeMaio. “However, our production capabilities were limited to finishing jackets, folders and basic cartons. To grow, we wanted to increase our capacity to include more diversified folding carton applications and develop capabilities to use hot glue systems and clean stick applications. To make the rapid progress we wanted, we knew we had to become more technically flexible and multi-dimensional, so we could keep up with the ever-changing needs of our current customers and capture significant business from new sources. Reducing turn-around time was particularly important. To achieve our goals, we established a program to expand, upgrade and diversify our technical operations. This program really has paid rich dividends for us."
An early important step in 21st Century Finishing’s program was to retire its conventional folder/gluer, and install the innovatively designed REGAL® folder/gluer system, a product of B&R Moll, Inc., of Ivyland, PA. This system includes a primary pocket folding/gluing unit and a complementary, versatile folding unit that glues, forms pockets capable of changing product directions for secondary operations. The system is equipped with such features as one fold plate, a Tipper Plate offering exceptional versatility, built in sheet spacer and batch counter, and DC controls. This high-speed, extremely flexible system immediately allowed 21st Century Finishing to handle more varied, high-volume jobs and better meet customers’ demanding turn-around times. The firm now could take on such new projects as vertical/horizontal pockets and three–sided, reinforced pocket folders.
An important next step in the company’s tech upgrade program was to put into service a versatile, stand-alone, bottom friction feeder system. Designed and engineered by B&R Moll, this high-performance system features off-line folding and the ability to insert security tags; a four-line hot melt gluing system; and a double-sided tape applicator. The system also incorporates a multi-purpose conveying unit which allows for effective plowing, gluing and taping. The addition of the new equipment filled a gap in the firm’s line of technical capabilities and resulted in a jump-up in sales.