Ramsey, NJ – Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leading provider of advanced imaging and networking technologies for the desktop to the print shop, today announced that Firehouse Printing (Firehouse) has grown its color print production business by 18 percent with the award-winning bizhub PRESS C8000 Color Digital Press.  With the bizhub PRESS C8000, Firehouse has been able to expand its business beyond the production of training materials to offer customers higher quality, color printing options for heavy-stock postcards, direct mail flyers, business cards, and billing inserts while still meeting tight deadlines and budgets.
 
With continued advancement of digital printing, Firehouse customers are requesting features such as exact color profiling, crisper images with higher resolutions and the ability to run heavier stock paper.  Firehouse Printing selected the bizhub PRESS C8000 with the Fiery Image Controller and EFI Fiery Graphic Arts Premium Edition to help them meet customer demand and provide the company with a competitive edge. Firehouse now offers sophisticated color management tools and can save individual customer color profiles to ensure that the specific colors are consistent for each print job saving the production team time and keeping customers coming back for more services.
 
"The bizhub PRESS C8000 meets all of our expectations and is reliable, fast and easily handles any job we put at it," said Pablo Ramirez, Production Manager for Firehouse Printing.  "Not only does it have more robust features, but it requires less maintenance from facility operators allowing us to free up resources.  More importantly, with the bizhub PRESS C8000 we have expanded our business to become a one stop printing solution for our customers."
 
Firehouse runs 100,000 to 120,000 impressions monthly through the bizhub PRESS C8000 and the print quality and color remains consistent on all print jobs from the first impression to the last.  Firehouse can quickly turnaround press quality materials with heaver substrates ranging from 100 to 130 pounds cover stock.  The Dual Fusing feature allows Firehouse to run thicker stock at near full rated speed providing offset-quality images without the time constraints of using an offset production press.  In addition, the company has not experienced any paper curling with the hybrid de-curling and humidifier option.  This combined with the air vacuum paper feeding ensures that all paper moves quickly and smoothly through the system.
 
"In a tight economy growing your business can be challenging and Firehouse Printing is an excellent example of how production print companies can leverage the bizhub PRESS C8000 as an alternative to costly offset presses," said Kevin Kern, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc.  "Our customers can count on Konica Minolta to deliver fast, reliable, world-class color output, and market-leading innovation that will increase their productivity and provide them a competitive advantage."
 
Click here for more information on Konica Minolta's award-winning products and services geared towards the production print marketplace.