“Package Prototyping: When Mockery Is Acceptable”: Should you get involved in the package prototyping business, the short-run packaging business?

There’s a really excellent article, up this morning, on www.myprintresource.com – about package prototyping - and the opportunity to generate sales from companies that create packaging for their products and from companies who have short-run packaging needs.

The other day on Reprographics 101, we did a post about a software program that enables people with flat-bed cutters to manufacture boxes and other packaging for the finished-prints they produce. The article, below, gets into detail about the opportunities available to those who decide that “packaging” is a business they should be in.

I read Mark Vruno’s article (see below), and while I may not agree with him that the opportunity to generate sales from providing package-prototyping services is significant (wide-format ink-jet printing equipment is now so cheap that most packaging companies have, or can easily acquire, their own wide-format ink-jet printers), I do think there’s an opportunity for Reprographers in the “short-run” custom-packaging production space. Reprographers, you’ll need to have, in addition to wide-format printing equipment, a flat-bed cutting system to get involved in short-run customer-packaging production.

The other day on this blog, we mentioned flat-bed cutting equipment from Zund (www.zund.com). In Mark’s article he mentions flat-bed cutting systems from Esko (www.esko.com).

Below, I’ve reprinted the title and first three paragraphs of Mark’s article. Reprographers, I’d encourage you to read this article; it contains interesting food for thought.

“Package Prototyping: When Mockery Is Acceptable”

BY MARK VRUNO

Every print firm looking to increase sales in 2012 has his or her fingers on the pulses of two growing revenue streams: wide-format and packaging. Which is why using wide-format digital output devices to prototype, proof, and print packaging on demand may...

Since retailers cannot “digitize” packages on store shelves, industry watchers like to point out, the e-threat to package printers isn’t the same as converting printed pages into PDFs. Every print firm looking to increase sales in 2012 has his or her fingers on the pulses of two growing revenue streams: wide-format and packaging. Which is why using wide-format digital output devices to prototype, proof, and print packaging on demand may be the ideal specialty blend for profits this year.

Total output product value for packaging is in the range of $290 billion worldwide, according to I.T. Strategies. Affordable print technology and market need have combined to bring the promise of double digit growth to the digital packaging market. InfoTrends projected that digital packaging will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 15 percent between 2009 and 2014. While folding cartons and flexible packaging represent a relatively small base, revenues will show CAGRs of over 23 percent and nearly 20 percent, respectively.

Okay, here’s a link that will take you to the complete article that Mark wrote:

http://www.myprintresource.com/article/10453833/package-prototyping-when-mockery-is-acceptable

Software for producing custom boxes on flat-bed cutters

Do you have the need to ship large-format color print jobs, and, if so, how do you handle packaging your stuff?

Even though it happened many, many years ago when I was still very young in the reprographics business, I still remember a customer’s comment about how our “shipment” looked when it arrived at his office. It was the kind of “comment” that was a “lesson to be learned.” For that particular customer, we had shipped a bunch of plans and specs. Whereas the plans were neatly rolled and covered with kraft paper, the specs were another matter. We used a bunch of used Xerox boxes to pack the multitude of specs we had to deliver, and they were heavily (and “messily”) taped ….and not in great condition. The customer I’ve referred to was a “design” architect, one who was always concerned with appearance (the “appearance” of everything!) His complaint was simple. “Joel, your driver just delivered $15,000 worth of plans and specs and the boxes containing the specs are in our lobby, where clients come in to our office, and they look like a mess! (even though he did say that the spec job, inside the boxes, was nice and neat, well done.) From that day on, we tried our best to always “think twice” about the appearance of a shipment.

Do you have the requirement to custom-make boxes to fit and ship large-format color print jobs? And, if so, how does your packaging look? Good, fair, bad or ugly?

This morning, I received an e-mail from a guy who developed and offers a software program (by subscription) that calculates and provides instructions to flat-bed cutters. Make your own corrugated paper boxes, 1-2-3. (That’s provided you’re willing to invest in a flat-bed cutter!)

Which brings to mind this question: Is there money to be made in offering custom-box-making services in your market area? Use your system for your own needs, and use your system to earn profits from others who need custom boxes?

Here’s contact information for the software program I mentioned above:

Darrell E Deschler

www.sweetcutspro.com

Phone: 262-412-4191

Also, you can find information about flatbed cutters at Zund.com. I saw a couple of Zund flatbed cutters when I attended the Graphics of Americas show in Orlando last year. Cool systems.