Leicester UK, Boston, Massachusetts and Appenzell, Switzerland -
GMC Software Technology, the standard in personalized communication, today announced that Leeds-based direct mail production company, The Lettershop Group, has installed PrintNet from GMC Software Technology to enable it to make the most of its new KODAK PROSPER S10 Imprinting System.

The Lettershop Group is one of the most advanced direct communications groups in Europe. An independent business, the company operates from a 12-acre site in Leeds and was named PrintWeek Direct Mail printer of the Year in 2008. Its customers include major names in retail, insurance, mail order and the media.

In June 2009, Kodak announced that The Lettershop Group was the first UK beta test site for the KODAK PROSPER S10 Imprinting System using Kodak's revolutionary Stream Inkjet Technology. The S10 Imprinting System is a monochrome continuous inkjet solution for inline digital printing. "GMC Software Technology allows us to maximize developments made by Kodak and to make further advances into the full color personalized digital printing market," said David Vickers, Executive Director for Information and Communications Technology.

The company's services include litho print, data processing, personalized digital printing, specialist finishing and enclosing. It runs its own data processing bureau to handle clients' data for personalized mailing campaigns, with data cleansing, de-duplication and mail sortation. "The final data phase is to produce print image files to drive whichever digital print process is required," Vickers added. "We have complex finishing lines for specialist inline one piece mailers, all of which have Kodak digital printing systems. We also have more traditional A3/A4 laser printers. GMC gives us the ability to create digital print image files for any output print device, at any resolution, independent of the design. This same design stage also allows us to produce archive files as well as output for email and web based campaigns."

The Lettershop Group's annual document production is around 150 million a year, with a weekly peak of about eight million. Individual campaigns vary in volume from a few hundred documents to four million –or more. The documents The Lettershop Group produces range from those with a simple name and address on a one-piece mailer through to a complex redemption piece with up to 84 personalized bar-coded vouchers. The business also creates transactional documents as well as personalized quotations for insurance products.

Vickers explained that the features of PrintNet that particularly impressed The Lettershop Group when selecting it for their operation were the open access to its databases, visual design, general ease of use, the ability to output across multiple mediums without any difficulty, and its compatibility with Kodak's print devices.

PrintNet is also used by Wilen Direct in the US to drive its KODAK PROSPER S10 Imprinting System. "We work closely with all the main print technology innovators around the world to make sure their clients can make the most of the advances in digital print techniques," commented Bill Parker, GMC's Chief Marketing Officer.

"Kodak is committed to delivering innovative solutions like the PROSPER S10 Imprinting System that help our customers improve production and supply chain efficiencies, maximize their return on marketing investment, and ultimately grow their business," said Pat Holloway, UK Marketing Manager, Kodak. "Our relationship with GMC helps ensure that customers get maximum value from their technology solutions."