There are a few up-and-coming, growing advertising mail shops in the advertising mail industry, and BIGEYE DIRECT of Sterling, Virginia, fits that profile. BIGEYE DIRECT was founded in 2007, and its current CEO, Damon Smith, along with President Jake Brown, directs the company's marketing mail manufacturing from a new state-of-the-art facility just outside Washington, DC.
Since 2007, Smith has been working with his MCS sales rep, Phil Repass, to build a best-in-class mail manufacturing facility. It started with replacing the old swing arm inserting technology with eight FlowMaster high-speed inserters. "The FlowMasters have been a game changer. We reduced labor costs by half and doubled the net output while retaining flexibility,” said Smith. Last year, BIGEYE invested in an MCS MSD ultra-high-speed inserter for the largest inserting jobs, increasing its capacity.
BIGEYE DIRECT's next investment was the MCS Merlin process color inkjet press. While many shops jumped into expensive inkjet webs, BIGEYE DIRECT recognized its opportunity lay in converting the existing cut-sheet toner work to inkjet, which provided immediate cost savings compared to toner technology. A second machine was added shortly after, and the color inkjet work continued to flourish.
Last year, it was time to consider replacing the four obsolete toner web presses that MCS sold to BIGEYE DIRECT in 2007. While process color inkjet presses dominate the advertising mail imaging market, industry insiders understand that the cost-effectiveness of offset printing shells on a roll, combined with black and white inkjet imaging for letters, remains unmatched. The MCS TK 500 offers one of the lowest cost-per-page models, maintaining the flexibility of older web laser printers for applications like non-profit labels. The unique design of the MCS TK press makes it one of the only inkjet technologies that can image on heavy and coated stocks, including label stocks designed for mail. With speeds up to 1,000 feet per minute, the TK 500 and TK 1000 more than double the net production rates of the laser printers they replace, requiring significantly less maintenance. “The productivity of the TK, along with the operational cost, has been amazing,” stated Jake Brown, president.
“Watching our partners grow successfully is one of the best parts of our job," stated David Loos, President of MCS. "In the mail manufacturing business, selling one machine is straightforward, but getting that 10th machine into a shop requires more effort," he added.
