Inkjet & Digital Printing

Educational Book Printers Mercury and Webcrafters Thrive with KODAK PROSPER Presses

Monday 10. November 2014 - Mercury achieves milestone of one billion printed pages on PROSPER Presses

Mercury and Webcrafters are using KODAK PROSPER Presses to optimize throughput and be more nimble to meet changes in the educational book printing industry. A shift in the education market toward using more personalized curricula and digital content has required printers to update print resources more frequently and support shorter print run requests. With customers now demanding greater flexibility and variety of applications from printers, KODAK PROSPER Presses are enabling its customers to meet this demand and help them continue growing year over year.
Mercury Print Productions, Inc. – Mercury, which just celebrated its billionth printed page on its PROSPER Presses, is a full-service commercial printer with a digital print book division that uses three PROSPER Presses to broaden its offerings of short-run, on-demand book production. The PROSPER Presses include a black-and-white KODAK PROSPER 1000 and two KODAK PROSPER 5000XLi Presses. With large publishers requiring quality, flexibility and competitive pricing from print service providers, the predictability of PROSPER Presses allows Mercury to offer efficiencies in their supply chain that make them an ideal partner for publishers.
“During the busy seasons, our KODAK PROSPER Presses are running at full capacity, resulting in growth year after year. This production platform enables us to digitally print books for our partners in the education industry,” said Christian Schamberger, Mercury’s President. “In many cases, a job will come in and it needs to be out the door the same week. Customers are asking us to take on more and more volume in a condensed timeframe, which wouldn’t be possible without our PROSPER Presses, as the shorter runs and on-demand requests of educational book publishers require an extremely high level of efficiency from us. “
Webcrafters Inc. – Webcrafters, a commercial printer serving the education and trade book market, is running two web-fed digital inkjet PROSPER 5000XLi Presses to print four-color books. With customers asking for more specialized jobs and shorter print runs, the PROSPER Presses are enabling Webcrafters to print on-demand as efficiently as possible, while still providing the variety of printed products its customers look for to succeed in a competitive educational book market. As a result, Webcrafters has been able to continue growing their business.
“The PROSPER Press has enabled us to take advantage of changes in the industry,” said Brad Koch, Webcrafters’ Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “Publishers are looking to us to provide printed materials that complement online learning content, which has required a new level of customization that’s only been possible with KODAK Technology.”
“It’s great to see our customers embrace KODAK Technology innovation in support of their business growth and expanding customer needs,” said John O’Grady, Managing Director, United States and Canada Region and Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. “KODAK PROSPER Presses provide printers with the flexibility in high speed inkjet digital printing systems necessary to keep up in an industry where the demand for and consumption of educational resources continues to quickly evolve.”