Bradford & Bigelow Expands Book Printing Capabilities With Xeikon Technology

(Press Release) Itasca, IL, Jan. 18, 2011—Xeikon, an innovator in digital color printing technology, today announced that Bradford & Bigelow, Inc., a Newburyport, MA-based provider of supply chain solutions to the publishing industry, has seen tremendous improvements in the productivity and efficiency of its short-run book printing operations with the use of their Xeikon 8000 digital press.

Bradford & Bigelow specializes in producing books for the K-12 and college textbook market. The company has transformed its business model from a conventional book printer to a complete supply chain provider over the last several years. Its supply chain service platform includes a Digital Book Factory, full prepress capabilities, a highly automated bindery, custom publishing, warehousing and fulfillment for clients.

Peter Doyle, vice president of manufacturing at Bradford & Bigelow, said the Xeikon 8000 has provided them unique competitive advantages due to its web width of 20.2 inches and no restrictions on the length of the printed image, extremely high print speeds, 1200 dpi imaging quality and CPSIA-compliant toners. As a result, Bradford & Bigelow is meeting and exceeding its client expectations in terms of reducing their outdated and unsold book inventory, and still fulfilling back orders quickly.

"The trend in this industry is that publishers want to print in smaller, safer quantities," Doyle said. "The inventory level of books is kept much lower than past years, therefore re-orders are more frequent. Traditional offset presses cannot produce the low quantities cost effectively or produce the books in the turnaround time required by the publisher. The Xeikon 8000 offers us more efficiency in our print and bind platform for these lower quantity re-orders."

Michael V. Ring, president of Xeikon North America, said digital book printing is becoming a more attractive option for printers who want to offer their customers quick turnaround times and less obsolete inventory.