Sir Speedy Raleigh Expands Services and Improves Time to Market with EFI Wide Format Printer

Lloyd Newton has owned Sir Speedy Raleigh since December, 1990, along with an additional center in Richmond, Va. The 14-employee North Carolina business offers a wide array of print, signage, and marketing services to customers. Newton positions both of his Sir Speedy franchises as integrated marketing partners that can help customers fast-forward their businesses.

Challenge

Sir Speedy Raleigh had been producing wide-format work for some time on roll-fed printers but was looking for a more productive solution that could reduce turnaround times, add new services, and reduce the amount of outsourced work. The company, which is owned by Lloyd Newton, needed a hybrid flatbed or roll-to-roll printer that could accomplish all of these goals and more.

Solution

“In the spirit of continuous improvement,” says Newton, “we were looking to upscale our services. We wanted to be able to offer our customers a greater breadth of products and to give them a more unique product. And we wanted to speed time to market and improve our margins by reducing the amount of work we were outsourcing. The logical place to start was in our signage department.”

In 2014, Sir Speedy Raleigh chose to acquire an EFI H1625 LED hybrid wide-format printer. The versatile, 65-inch-wide printer offers stunning output, using grayscale printheads delivering near-photographic image quality with saturated colors and smooth gradations. The printer also offers EFI’s industry-leading white ink, a truly differentiating feature that expands the productivity, value, and quality users can offer on backlit signage, aluminum and aluminum composite signage, window clings, and other popular offerings printed on clear, metallic, or colored media.

EFI’s “cool cure” LED printer technology reduces energy consumption and costs compared with arc lamp UV and latex inkjet printers. It also gives users the ability to print on a broader range of substrates, including media that cannot withstand high-heat drying or curing methods.

Newton chose to install EFI Fiery software with the printer as well. Fiery was definitely a bonus in terms of consistency, ease of use, and quality because Sir Speedy Raleigh’s staff already knew how to operate Fiery systems to get the best results.

Results

“A number of things were attractive about our investment,” Newton says. “We had already been using Fiery digital front ends on our digital presses for some time, so having Fiery on the H1625 meant reduced training time was required for our staff.”

Newton found that the H1625 printer’s cool cure LED technology expanded the range of heat-sensitive materials he could use. “We also liked the white ink capability,” he adds. “We put that to work almost immediately for a doctor’s office that had just joined a larger group. We created glass panels with the new logo and a flood of white ink for a frosted glass look. They were beautiful pieces, and the client was very happy.”

Sales creativity at work

Newton gives his sales team a lot of credit for creativity in approaching clients with this new offering. “They have really embraced our new capabilities,” he says, “and they are quite creative in talking with clients about new applications we can produce.”

One example is a piece that was printed on brushed metal. “This is something we clearly could never have done in-house without the EFI H1625,” Newton states.

“We are also thrilled with the ability of this hybrid flatbed/roll-to-roll printer to print directly on rigid substrates. That eliminates several steps in the manufacturing process and the need to outsource work printed on vinyl for mounting. We simply print directly on the rigid substrate for a process that is exponentially faster and much more cost-effective.”

Newton also purchased a Summa cutting table to go with his new hybrid wide-format printer. “We do a fair amount of trade show signage,” he explains, “and if we can put shapes onto this signage for a more eye-catching display, we can separate ourselves — and our customers — from the pack.”

Newton and his team are excited about the new capabilities they can now offer but are not stopping here with their creative efforts. “We are continuing to explore other specialty substrates,” Newton says, “that will further help customers brand themselves with unique products. We’re having a lot of fun, making money, and endearing ourselves even more to our customers. That’s how a business should be run!”