Ariva's Mark Ushpol on the new brand, partnerships, and

Cary Sherburne talks to President of Ariva Mark Ushpol about the newly branded company and their recent partnership with MGX. Be sure to catch Cary's interview with MGX President & CEO Doug Watson

Cary Sherburne: Hi, I’m Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor with WhatTheyThink.com. And I’m here with Mark Ushpol, who is President of Ariva.

Mark Ushpol: Hi.

Cary Sherburne: How you doing?

Mark Ushpol: Good. And you?

Cary Sherburne: Great. So first of all, tell us a little bit about Ariva. ‘Cause it’s kind of a new brand name relatively speaking. Right?

Mark Ushpol: Right. Ariva rebranded beginning of last year. We were a mix of different brands in the company and felt that we should have one unified brand that the whole business could unite around. And with that brand and our byline Paper to Pixels, we’re trying to say that it’s about future technologies. The way forward to pixels. Where new technology’s going, that’s where we have to be. So that’s why we did the rebranding.

Cary Sherburne: That’s great. And I understand that you recently announced a pretty important partnership with MGX. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about that.

Mark Ushpol: Yes, quite a unique event to sign that partnership with MGX. I think MGX, one of the leading companies in terms of digital print substrates and specialized coatings. Ariva for a long time has been focused on providing our customers with cutting edge solutions in digital. Trying to build a full range to cover HP Indigo, IE Turner and Inkjet. This partnership with MGX gives us access to its special substrates. The ability to do special coatings. And their unique brands Masterpiece Revolution and Masterpiece Premium lines.

So that gives our customers a very, very wide range of products. Probably the industry leading widest range. In terms of meeting all those requirements. So I think our customers by virtue of that will be able to get very creative around what they can do with digital print. Which is exciting for them. It gives them potential for growth and good profit.

Cary Sherburne: That’s great. And you know, they’re always looking for new and innovative substrates and obviously the ability to print appropriately with the coatings. The coatings are really important, especially if you get into the, you know, some of the liquid toners or Inkjets and that kind of thing. Right?

Mark Ushpol: I think that’s what it is today. It’s obviously the specialized Indigo coatings that everyone knows about. But I think depending on what application a customer might be looking for, whether it’s something that has to be outdoor. Whether it’s something that has to go into a special application. You have that opportunity to offer them out of the wide Ariva range of products in the digital arena, everything they could possibly want.

Cary Sherburne: That’s great. Well, congratulations of the partnership.

Mark Ushpol: Thank you. We’re very pleased. It’s been great working with Doug Watson and the team at MGX. And we’re very pleased going forward. It’s a great partnership and good things to come.

Cary Sherburne: Good. We’ll look for all the great news coming out of there.

Mark Ushpol: Thank you.