For a smaller print and mail operation, the decision to invest in new bindery equipment can be a difficult one. Fortunately, it was an easy choice for Mail Processing Associates! This print and mail facility, located in Lakeland, Florida, and generating over $4 million in sales annually, recently upgraded its finishing operation with solutions from Standard Horizon. The acquisition includes a StitchLiner Mark III Saddlestitcher with two VAC-L600H Collators and a CRF-362Creaser/Folder, and Mail Processing Associates anticipates earning an ROI in less than two years.
“This investment was very much worth it,” says president Robbie Yelvington. “Not only is it a very fast payback, but we can now bring in well over $100,000 of work we previously had to outsource. And as a trade-friendly operation, our competitors in the area are also using our services. New revenue streams, less outsourcing, and the ability to produce more work with the same staff. Not only was the investment decision easy, but it was a smart move for our business.”
“We bought our first piece of Standard Horizon equipment 15 years ago through our local dealer, Graphics IV,” Yelvington continues. “The excellent service from both Standard Finishing and Graphics IV and the exceptional performance of the equipment is what kept us in the Standard Horizon family.”Mail Processing Associates was founded in 1989 by retired Postmaster Eddie Clarke. Yelvington and his wife, Tess, bought the company, which at the time had four part-time employees, in 1993. Today, the company has 29 full-time employees and generates over 20 million pieces of mail annually.
The company’s new bindery configuration processes jobs coming off its fleet of toner-based printers from Xerox, Konica Minolta, and Ricoh as well as its smaller AB Dick offset presses. Shortly after acquiring its StitchLiner Mark III, Mail Processing Associates added a fourth and a fifth knife unit and two additional stitch heads to the system.“This allows us to produce landscape booklets two-up at up to 12,000 books per hour,” explains Yelvington.