Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Roll?
Big is scary. It’s why so many horror movies feature hulking bad guys and giant monsters. It’s why roughly two-thirds of the more than 11,000 attempts to summit Everest have failed. And it’s why, in the print industry, the thought of selling jumbo rolls can be enough to send distributors running for cover.
It’s not so much the size of the rolls, but the scope of the process. Pitching jumbo rolls to a new client often requires a significant investment of time and resources, and is far from a guaranteed sale. If you’re not careful, you could spend a month courting a potential buyer only to be told, “Nah, we’ll stick with our continuous forms.” But it’s not as scary as it sounds. If you know what you’re up against, selling jumbo rolls gets a whole lot easier—and it can yield King Kong-size profits for your business. Here are four key things to know before you get started.
1. THE ADVANTAGES
To understand the advantages of jumbo rolls, it helps to first understand why they were developed. “Jumbo rolls are a natural evolution or progression of high-volume, preprinted documents,” said Allen Simon, president of Datatel Resources Corp., Monaca, Pa. “Not too many years ago, and still today, customers would order large runs of continuous forms, and over time it became advantageous to move away from continuous, as far as printers and processing were concerned, and go to cut sheets.”
Cut sheets proved faster and more efficient than continuous forms, but they weren’t without drawbacks. A new box or ream of forms had to be loaded every 2,500 documents or so, requiring users to closely monitor their print operations and have staff at the ready to reload the machines. This put something of a cap on print speed, keeping even the fastest printers from reaching maximum efficiency.
Jumbo rolls were developed as the answer. At up to 80,000 documents per roll, they could run for hours without reloading, increasing processing speed and reducing the need for constant maintenance. “In concept, the processing company only needs to mount the roll and push the button,” noted Simon. “They don’t need to do anything to change the paper for 80,000 documents, as opposed to maybe 2,500 documents if it’s a cut sheet or continuous product. The advantage of jumbo rolls is high-speed, high-volume processing. The processing company can load up that roll and get many, many more documents.”
2. THE FEATURES
Speed may be the defining feature of jumbo rolls, but it’s far from the only feature. If the finished forms aren’t up to spec, it doesn’t matter how quickly they were printed, and suppliers know that, offering everything from UV-curing to laser-guaranteed paper to ensure roll quality. “Many of our presses we run jumbo rolls on are equipped with inter-stage UV, and the advantage of that capability is it ensures inks are cured,” mentioned Simon. “As you run into a jumbo roll, with the pressure that’s involved in the roll—and the pressure must be maintained—you need to make sure the ink is cured. You cannot afford to have ink offsetting as the roll is wound on the rewind of the press.” Simon explained that this is crucial for accuracy, as corporate logos and other items must match exactly in color. “They can’t be a shade or even a half a shade off, or they may be rejected,” he said. UV curing guards against this ink discoloration.
Simon also noted that some of the biggest users of jumbo rolls—data-processing centers, direct-mailing agencies—use laser printers, making it critical to provide paper that works with their machines. “We use laser-guaranteed paper at all times,” he stressed. “Our competitors will sometimes attempt to use offset grades. They may work, but they’re not guaranteed. So we prefer to work very closely with a few mills that we partner with, and use nothing but laser-guaranteed sheets that are guaranteed to run through not only the printers, but also the post-print processes of these installations.”
Many suppliers have rigorous quality-control measures in place as well. In addition to in-line cameras installed on its presses to monitor document runs in real time, Datatel can guarantee 100-percent clean rolls. “Many times if something happens on the press, suppliers will maybe try to splice the roll or they’ll flag a roll, and sometimes that’s fine with a customer,” Simon stated. “But we will offer the option of 100-percent clean rolls, which is something not all suppliers offer. So when a customer takes that big 50" roll with its 80,000 documents, we guarantee there is nothing on that roll that will stop those 80,000 documents from being processed.”
3. WHAT BUYERS WANT
Beyond the features listed above, there are several other aspects buyers look for in a jumbo roll purchase. Gary St. Onge, CFC, vice president of sales and marketing for AmeriPrint Corp., Harvard, Ill., listed print-orientation, unwind-direction and roll-diameter options, as well as packaging services like palletizing, wrapping and labeling, as common customer preferences that are sometimes overlooked. He also pointed to price. “As is the case in most current markets, the buying decision is based on cost,” he said.
Simon agreed that cost plays a major role, but cited reliability as a buyer’s top concern. “Really as an end-buyer, or a processing company, you’re looking for reliability and flexibility,” he advised. “So you’ve got to be dealing with a company that has enough of this equipment and enough of these capabilities so that they can be responsive to quick requirements and occasional emergency rush orders, and at the same time be a low-cost provider and one that’s grounded in its quality procedures.”
4. WHERE TO SELL
St. Onge mentioned financial institutions, utility companies, letter shops and billing services as some of the major markets for jumbo rolls, noting any business that uses statements, invoices, letters, self-mailers or shipping documents could be a potential target. Simon suggested many of the same markets, adding, “Anyone who’s mailing out any high-volume statements, on any basis, will have most likely moved to a jumbo roll.”
But what about new markets? If most businesses that could benefit from jumbo rolls have already begun using them, do opportunities exist for new sales? Simon believes so. “I think the starting point to justify jumbo roll installation with customers is getting lower, so I think there are new opportunities,” he said. “And there’s plenty of existing opportunities—whether it be large financial, service bureaus, retail, insurance, local municipalities or utilities—with the major directs continuing to consolidate. The distributor marketplace will benefit as end-user customers will look elsewhere to fill their needs.
“Especially in an environment of rising material costs, these customers who have a requirement for jumbo rolls are looking for new suppliers—suppliers who are low-cost, reliable and quality-driven,” he continued. “And that fits the mode for the distributor segment.”
The approach might vary based on the market you’re selling into, but all jumbo roll sales share one common element critical for success: patience. “There are always new sales opportunities,” St. Onge stated. “However, converting to roll form production is an expensive undertaking. Distributors must be in a position to perform thorough cost analyses to determine the return on investment.” But for Simon, the payoff is well worth the wait. “The sales process is not a short one—it’s a long process,” he said. “But the advantages are wonderful. If you get the business, it’s business that repeats every two months, three months, six months, and if you’re doing your job it really goes on autopilot at that point.”