Yesterday Rod Rackley, President of the Out of Home Division of Circle Graphics, talked about the steps in printing and shipping a billboard vinyl. Insider asked Rackley some followup questions about printing.
How long does it take a job to pass through the Circle Graphics plant?
This answer depends on the product type. For example, we need a little more time for a complicated bus/train wrap or a large wall versus a standard poster or a bulletin.
For standard products, we average 2 business days from proof approval to ship date. This crazy year with factory furloughs and distancing and quarantine requirements has seen us slip to 2.5 days.
The world has an insatiable desire for velocity and precision, and we certainly see that in the printing world. In order to further reduce our turn times and start shipping the majority of our standard products the day after proof approval, we are adding significant print capacity across our several factories. This extra capacity will come on line by the end of Q1’21.
In terms of shipping, 70% of our packages ship Ground vs 30% by air (2DA or NDA). I think most people are aware that for obvious reasons the primary commercial carriers, UPS and FedEx, are experiencing record volumes which are negatively impacting service levels.
What safeguards prevent errors?
I could chew up some real estate with this one, Dave. People would be amazed at the complexity of our seemingly simple industry. We have invested millions in custom software throughout our functional areas and across our factories to give us the best chance of getting the right product to the right place.
Despite industry efforts at standardization, there are 5 different poster systems with unique finishing requirements. We make sure our agency customers don’t order the wrong poster and that our posting companies get the right product.
With our deep expertise in specialty transit and our ability to create and customize templates, we avoid many of the typical errors a less experienced shop might make. Finally, our acquisition of MMT back in January has provide us with unmatched expertise and experience in the production and finishing of wall graphics and sophisticated backlits.
We’re celebrating our 20th year in business this year. We bring these years of experience along with a mindset of constant, every day improvement. And when we do make an error, we make it right and we don’t haggle or point fingers.
The particular job you described yesterday was printed on 7 oz vinyl. What % of your jobs are printed on heavy vinyl and what % of your jobs are printed on lighter sustainable Eco-Flexx material?
The heavy vinyl, 13 oz, is a fairly modest part of our mix these days. It’s overkill for most applications and costs a fortune to ship something that heavy. Otherwise, our business is roughly 50/50 between lightweight (7oz) vinyl and our lightweight PE product, which we have branded Eco-Flexx.The lightweight vinyl is still a bit heavier and with the embedded polyester scrim will hold up a bit better, so it comes with a 2-year warranty versus a 1-year warranty for Eco-Flexx.
Dave, I’ll end with an early 2021 prediction. Circle is going to raise the bar again in OOH production – in service, speed and quality. We have an amazing team of talented people throughout the company, and we are going to add more customers to our already incredible roster.
We have some terrific competitors out there, but they are going to have step up their games. The beneficiaries will be OOH advertisers and the OOH industry in general as we all grab a larger share of the ad pie.
Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season to everyone!
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