Hi, this is Frank Romano for WhatTheyThink.com. I’m here in Concord, New Hampshire, at Concord Litho. [I’ll get it right] One of the best printing companies I’ve visited in a long time.
As I’m talking, you will see some of the shots of some of their equipment running and some of the other areas as I toured the plant. I was very careful not to film any of the products they were printing because they do stuff for very prestigious companies.
But it’s really an example of how printing has changed. First of all, they do most of their bindery in-house, so finishing now is an important part of the product mix. They have moved into digital printing, mostly into in printing for direct mail work. And they have a very large letter shop. And that’s very important because I think printers have always had to get into mailing and now Concord Litho shows you how important that it.
Now, their equipment ranges from sheet-fed presses to roll-fed presses, they have a very large KBA press on which they do posters and graphics and some kinds of packaging. On their roll-fed presses, they’re doing all kinds of inserts and mailers for very, very famous companies.
Most importantly, they have a fund raising division because they realize that fund raisers need printing in order to ask you for money. So they have people who help you to design, create, produce mail and deal with the people that you are soliciting for funds. I think it’s a very interesting approach.
Now, digital printing is one of the things they have moved into in the last year or so. Now, most of what they’re doing is imprinting. And imprinting is very important because that’s how most direct mail is done today and that’s where we are essentially printing by offset and then imprinting address and perhaps even messaging of some sort. They’ve got a very interesting system with a very, very nice home Hunkeler system at the backend for their finishing.
So, Concord Litho, Concord, New Hampshire. Oh, one thing I didn’t mention. They are one of the pioneers in printing scented material. This material allows you to rub it and then have an odor of some sort. I can’t really communicate that through the video, but maybe some day we will. But they are pioneers in scented printing, if you will and they have a line of wrapping paper where you scratch the peppermint and the candy cane and you get that smell of the candy cane, which is absolutely fantastic.
So from here in Concord, New Hampshire, Concord Litho, that’s my opinion.
Discussion
By Ray Rafalowski on Jun 08, 2011
Nice to see all those IAPHC Craftsmen Gallery of Superb Printing Awards on the wall behind you in that presentation.
By James Kohler on Jun 09, 2011
Frank - Your right! Concord is a great printer. I have spent quite a bit of time there while working for International Paper doing testing, conducting training and other presentations! They are nice folks to work with.
Jim