Following a devastating fire in October 2012, Creps United Publications has completed the installation of three new Goss Sunday insert presses, revitalizing the company’s entire production capabilities. 

A new 100,000ft² (9290m²) facility in Indiana, Pennsylvania is now home to two GossSunday 2000i presses (57in/145cm width) and a Goss Sunday 3000i (66in/168cm width) press, along with the company’s prepress department and general offices. Creps chose the new presses based on their suitability for modern insert formats, their ability to deliver high volumes and to streamline throughput in line with the company’s vision for the future.

“The time, waste and labor saving technologies of the Sunday presses are making us more efficient and helping us to improve our margins as well as our print volumes,” says Jake Creps, a partner at Creps United Publications. “With all three presses now in production, we have a total print capacity of more than 4 million pages per hour.

“We’re especially pleased that we can match the output of double-circumference presses without the need for double plating. The Sunday 3000i can handle page widths up to 11 inches (27.9cm), while the Sunday 2000i presses will run the new, narrower formats very efficiently.”

All three new presses feature gapless blankets, automated closed-loop controls andGoss QPL semi-automatic plate loading technology. In addition, individual servo motor drives mean that Creps operators can change all the plates simultaneously, rather than one at a time, further increasing efficiency. 

Plans for 2014 include duplexing one of the Sunday 2000i presses with the Sunday3000i for increased product flexibility and pagination.

According to Jake Creps, pressroom acceptance of the Goss Sunday technology has been unanimous: “The new presses have been received with great enthusiasm, without exception. All our operators have been raving about the high quality, repeatability and efficiency and how much easier it is for them to achieve these targets,” he said. “We’ve been very well supported by Goss throughout this process.”

Typical long runs for Creps United are in the 3-5 million copies range, printing at speeds up to 85,000 impressions per hour. The new makeready efficiencies introduced with the Sunday technology now also allow Creps to achieve more cost-effective production of shorter, targeted runs.

“Recently, it’s been hard for insert printers to invest in new technology because the margins have been so tight, but the Sunday technology makes a compelling investment argument,” according to Creps

As for the future of advertising inserts themselves, Jake Creps is very positive. “Retailers have a hard time pulling customers in with e-mail and on-line marketing alone, and inserts continue to offer a proven, cost-effective way to push advertising to the customers,” he explains. “In the future, there may be some more personalization or targeting of each ad, but in general, large-scale distribution of printed inserts will remain a very cost-effective media option, and I’m confident about the future of our market.”