Kathy Simpson, left, proudly looks on as husband Dan, center, President & CEO, and son Jon, Vice President, stand in their Rapid City, S.D. facility.
Craftsmanship. Accountability. Quality printing. Personal attention to customer relationships. A commercial printer since 1965, Simpsons Printing has served as one of the perfect examples of what a family-owned business must do to stay on the cutting edge in today’s ever-competitive marketplace.
For example, the Rapid City, S.D., printer recently worked with FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division to install the Acuity Select.
“With the Acuity Select, we have exceeded our customer’s expectations,” says Jon Simpson, VP Simpsons Printing. “It creates a whole new way of thinking about graphics; it’s no longer just CMYK on white paper; we are now so much broader in our capabilities. I don’t know of a more flexible press on the market in this category.”
The Acuity Select is the ultimate UV inkjet flatbed platform for printing on rigid, flexible and roll media, delivering near-photographic quality images across a diverse range of creative print applications. Featuring the latest in technology, the Acuity Advance Select delivers superb performance with an attractive price-point, allowing an affordable investment with many upgrade options.
Simpson visited the Fujifilm Technology Center in Kansas City, and valued the hands-on experience. With their previous equipment, Simpson said the ink sets and substrates didn’t work well for them, and the machines didn’t operate properly. Taking their business to the next level was a key priority.
“The Acuity Select six channel press and UV technology was the best fit for us, as we print a lot of rigid substrates, but also wanted other options too,” Simpson says. “The Acuity Select offered us the broadest range of materials to print on, and at the price point we wanted.”
Simpsons Printing invites customers inside their facility to see how large format works, and customers are very impressed with the capabilities on their new UV inkjet flatbed. This in-turn brings in new jobs, including a very noticeable increase in sales growth every month, as this is the only flatbed of its kind in their immediate area, according to Simpson.
The Esko Kongsberg Cutting Table has been a ‘tremendous’ asset to this third generation printer. “We also looked at cutting options, and I said to myself, how are we going to finish all these new jobs without a cutting table, it was a no-brainer to get the Kongsberg,” Simpson says. “Because so much we print is contour-cut, not just a rectangle or square; lots of die cutting. The table has opened all sorts of new doors for us.”
Simpson likes having the Kongsberg and the Acuity Select together because they go hand in hand and are so intertwined. “You can’t have one and not the other to be able to do the jobs we manage,” he says. “I can’t imagine not having my cutting table; I use both machines on literally every job.”
Prior to their install of the Acuity Select and Kongsberg Cutting Table, Simpsons Printing had no involvement in packaging, labels, adhesives or digital die cutting.
“We received a tremendous amount of experience in a short amount of time, including workflow and thinking outside the box,” Simpson says. “We’ve gained all sorts of new customers and new opportunities. Each day there are always new jobs coming in and customers asking new questions about potential new projects, including jobs that customers previously outsourced out of state, and now we can do it at our shop which is taking us in a whole new direction.”
Business has changed at Simpsons Printing, as they are now managing jobs that were not possible until they installed the Acuity Select. “All day every day we are now printing on clear substrates with white ink, and plastics and self-adhesives and others that we never dreamed of printing on,” Simpson says.
Simpson says the shop runs a lot of white ink, and the jobs where they utilize clear ink are “impactful and dramatic,” adding that the Uvijet KI ink color consistency and appearance is “incredible.”
Simpsons Printing boasts many long-term employees, has a history of community involvement, and the recipient of many awards, including “South Dakota Family Owned Business of the Year.”
“We have a great relationship with Fujifilm as our print supplier,” Simpson says. “They are well respected in inks, consumables, and have a great service team and network to keep us up and running and expanding.”
