By Olivia Cahoon
Part 1 of 2
Promotional materials advertise brands, events, and products while retaining customers and increasing traffic to the business. Products include accessories, apparel, office supplies, and technical gadgets. For these applications, digital print technology offers personalization and fast turnaround times.
Heritage Bay Enterprises
Founded in 2008, Heritage Bay Enterprises started with one employee in North Kingston, RI. The company originally offered printed golf products, hat clips, and ball markers to ten states from a 500 square foot garage.
“The golf industry has a huge cross over into the promotional product industry,” says John Mitch Centracchio, national sales manager, Heritage Bay Enterprises.
The company now has five employees and offers its services to the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Dominican Republic, Europe, and the U.S. From a 4,000 foot workspace, it offers anodizing, digital and screen printing, epoxy, powder coat, and plating services.
According to Centracchio, a majority of the shop’s business is labels. However, it prints on a variety of promotional products including acrylic, bag tags, bottle openers, coasters, coins, cuff links, key tags, and poker chips.
In May 2015, Heritage Bay Enterprises began printing with a Direct Color Systems 1024UVMVP6 UV inkjet printer. The 1024UVMVP6 features a printing area of 10×24 inches with a maximum substrate height of six inches. It prints 4,645 square inches per hour in color. The press features three-dimensional prints, cylindrical and bottle printing, and prints on acrylic, aluminum, ceramic tile, foamboard, glass, metal, promotional products, polyester, stone, and wood.
“It’s a small format printer that paid for itself in about a year,” offers Centracchio.
In February 2017, the company purchased a Mimaki USA, Inc. JFX200-2513 flatbed UV printer. The JFX200-2513 features a maximum print area of 98.4×51.1 inches with up to two inches in media thickness. It prints at 269 square feet per hour and is suited for backlit displays, décor, glass, interior décor, metal, posters, and signs. “We’re extremely happy with both models,” says Centracchio.
Heritage Bay Enterprises uses manufacturer inks and software. “All of our materials are completed and ready after digital printing,” he shares. Since 2008, most of the company’s media consists of metal made in Providence, RI. The company also prints on acrylic, plastic, and poker chips.
According to Centracchio, the promotional materials industry is and always will focus on product delivery. This can be challenging when customers expect particularly short turnaround times. “Everybody needs everything yesterday. When most people can’t get it done in time, they call us. We figure it out one way or the other.”
Recently, the shop has noticed a high demand for personalization. “The challenge is getting all the correct information needed to execute the order,” says Centracchio. “There are almost always add ons or corrections in spelling from customers.”
Customized Awards
In 2017, repeat customer Genesis approached Heritage Bay Enterprises for a promotional materials job. The client requested six personalized acrylic awards for an AIDS awareness event.
Heritage Bay Enterprises used high-end acrylic and reverse printed at 600×600 dpi using its Mimaki JFX200-2513. The printer was ideal for this particular job because of its print quality and the ability to personalize each award.
The final six acrylic awards were 4×12 inches, three-fourths of an inch thick, and personalized individually. Centracchio says the company faced challenges regarding the acrylic thickness while maintaining resolution and registration.
From job submittal to delivery, the project took five days to complete. According to Centracchio, the client was extremely satisfied with the finished awards. “The design layout, customization, and personalization of the award was very unique.”
Promotional Materials
Digital flatbed presses allow print providers to offer customers unique applications that promote brands, events, and products. Part two of this series highlights a print provider that adopted digital print technology to transform its foam football manufacturing process.
Click on the link above to get more information on the vendors mentioned in this article.
Nov2017, Digital Output
DOPROMO1711
